Published by SIPA
FRUCOM is collecting information and data on mineral oil hydrocarbons to send to the European Commission in response to its call for evidence. Please see the FRUCOM circular below and send any information either to the FRUCOM secretariat (ksaari@frucom.eu) or to me (i.bartolo@seafoodalliance.org) by 20 February 2024.
FRUCOM participated in the Commission’s forum on Mineral Oil Hydrocarbons (MOHs) in Food on 18 January 2024. Stakeholders and Members States were asked to present their issues with mineral oil hydrocarbons. Additionally, the Commission gave a presentation on their work. Across the different industries and countries mineral oil can be detected as a contaminant. The route of contamination tends to be machinery (lubricant) or usage of jute bags (especially for the products coming from certain third countries).
During the past decade food industry together with the agri-food supply chain has already made good progress to mitigate the presence of mineral oil hydrocarbons. Data from multiple sectors show that the levels of mineral oil hydrocarbons have decreased over time. According to industry data in the latest data used for the updated EFSA risk assessment, the daily intake of mineral oil components in all population groups has roughly halved since 2012. However, improvement is still needed.
All the presentations are available here: Presentations: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Following the Stakeholder forum on mineral oil hydrocarbons, the Commission will be receiving supporting data and evidence by the 27 February 2024. Please send your data to the secretariat by 20 February. For this call, the Commission is only interested in evidence backed by data.
Supporting data and evidence should include:
1. Reasons why the ML/IL cannot be achieved yet? Why is the case for a part of the production, while the majority of the production complies?
2. What are the sources of the contamination?
3. Which mitigation measures are already/ will be implemented?
4. A proposed timeline for complying with the proposed MLs
5. Raw occurrence data on samples on which good practices were used:
– Analytical concentration of each sample
– The LOQ of each sample
– Information on the applied mitigation measures for the concerned batch
– Sampling year
Contact: ksaari@frucom.eu
