
European Commission proposes a moratorium on E171
The European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, has announced that the European Commission would propose a moratorium on E171; this announcement was made just hours after the publication of the notice of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) concluding that this additive can no longer be considered “safe”, due to potential genotoxic effects (DNA damage).
This is a clear shift in EFSA’s position, which until now has been adamant that E171 was safe – despite the numerous scientific publications showing adverse effects that have been accumulating for several years. This turnaround confirms the relevance of the warnings that have been raised for more than ten years now by scientists and associations and taken seriously by the French authorities, who suspended E171 in 2020.
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