New EU Food Contaminants Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915

After numerous amendments to Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 on contaminants, the European Commission has deemed it appropriate to replace the standard with Regulation (EU) 2023/915 to improve readability, restructure the content, introduce new amendments, and reduce the number of footnotes.

Although the standard has been replaced, the maximum levels of contaminants established in the old standard are maintained in Regulation (EU) 2023/915. Also, the general requirement of not marketing or using as raw materials or ingredients a product that exceeds the maximum limit of a contaminant established in Annex I (except for certain exceptions included in Article 7) remains unchanged.

What are the Main Changes of this New Regulation 2023/915?

These are the updates:

• New definitions were added, such as “food,” “food business operator,” “marketing,” “final consumer,” “processing,” “unprocessed products,” and “processed products” (Art. 1).
• Some food categories that are subject to the contaminants regulated in the standard have been modified based on Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 on maximum residue levels of pesticides, to facilitate the classification of plant-based products.
• A prohibition on detoxification (Art. 4) through chemical treatments is established, generally applicable to all foods. In Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006, this prohibition only applied to mycotoxins.
• The maximum limit for cadmium in cereals does not apply to cereals used for the production of beer or spirits, provided that the remaining cereal residues are not marketed as food (Annex I, 3.2.12). In Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006, this exemption only applied to malt (Annex I, 3.2.12).
• Instant or soluble coffee is excluded from the maximum limit for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) applicable to powdered plant-based food for beverage preparation (Annex I, 5.1.2).
• About the contaminant melamine, following the publication by the Codex Alimentarius of a maximum limit for liquid preparations for infants, this limit has been incorporated into the new provision (Annex I, 6.2.2.2).
• For contaminants that include multiple compounds, the maximum limits will refer to the concentrations of the lower limit (values below the quantification limit are considered equal to zero), except for dioxins and PCBs, where the maximum limit of the sum of concentrations refers to the concentrations of the upper limit (values below the quantification limit are considered equal to the quantification limit).

Regulation (EU) 2023/195 comes into effect on May 25, 2023, at which point Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 and all subsequent amendments are repealed.