WRITTEN QUESTION E-2114/01

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 July 2001)

Subject: Right to Know and chemicals

Could the Commission please confirm whether the Product Safety Directive, or any other EU Directive, currently provides consumers with a legal right to know the chemical constituents of products they buy, for example whether a food can has a lining containing bisphenol A or whether a perfume contains artificial musks?

If so, how can a consumer exercise such a right?

If not, does the Commission have any plans to institute such a right so that consumers are free to make their own decisions about what they and their family are exposed to?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(18 September 2001)

In the case of food contact materials Community legislation does not call for the disclosure of specific ingredients, as it has been regarded that this could infringe on industrial trade secrets. Instead, a safety-based approach is taken to authorise only those materials that have been deemed to be safe on the basis of independent scientific advice. A similar approach is also taken for perfumes where commercial confidentiality reasons in some cases can be even stronger.

In other instances, e.g. for dangerous substances and preparations, the legislation calls for the disclosure on the label and in a safety data sheet of those substances which are responsible for a given hazard classification. A safety data sheet need not be supplied where dangerous substances or preparations offered or sold to the general public are furnished with sufficient information to enable users to take the necessary measures as regards the protection of health and safety.

The Commission is aware of the need for a more coherent and transparent approach on ingredient disclosure, safety information and consumers' right to know. Therefore the proposal for an amending Directive on General Product Safety(1), which is likely to be adopted in September this year, contains a general obligation for public authorities of the Member States and the Commission to disclose information available to them relating to risks to consumer health and safety posed by products, the only exception being information covered by professional secrecy in duly justified cases.

The importance of these aspects has in addition been explicitly recognised in the Commission White Paper on a strategy for a future chemical policy, which proposes that the public should have access to non-confidential information on chemicals and chemical products, including details of their hazardous properties, labelling requirements, authorised uses and risk management measures.

As one part of the foodstuff labelling review, the Commission will shortly present a new Directive on labelling for which it will seek the agreement of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. This draft law will, upon adoption, make it compulsory to list all ingredients of foodstuffs and to label allergens. This piece of legislation is particularly important for consumers, who are entitled to basic information. Indeed, this entitlement to information was elevated to a right by virtue of the provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty.

(1) COM(2000) 139 final.