{"id":544558,"date":"2026-08-27T02:04:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T00:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/uncategorized\/summary-of-the-european-commission-meeting-on-ethylene-oxide\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T02:04:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T00:04:45","slug":"summary-of-the-european-commission-meeting-on-ethylene-oxide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/summary-of-the-european-commission-meeting-on-ethylene-oxide\/","title":{"rendered":"Summary of the European Commission meeting on ethylene oxide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 4 October, an <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/food\/system\/files\/2021-12\/rasff_ethylene-oxide-incident_e410_crisis-coord_20211004_sum.pdf\">ethylene oxide meeting<\/a> was held, covering regulatory and technical aspects.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Experts from EU member states, Switzerland, Norway, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission (DG Health and Food Safety) and the EU reference laboratories (EURL) took part.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MRLs for food additives (including gums).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regulation 231\/2012 on additive specifications currently sets limits for ethylene oxide alone (not for the sum with 2-chloroethanol) in certain additives and prohibits the illegal use of ETO for sterilisation purposes.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An update to this regulation is planned, introducing a specific LOQ for ETO applicable to assessing compliance with the non-use of ETO for sterilisation purposes. The specific criteria set for certain additives will take precedence over this limit.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The European Commission has specified that the level of <strong>0.1 mg\/kg<\/strong> should be adopted as the MRL for ETO in food additives intended for human and animal consumption.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where conflicting levels exist, as with guar gum for example, the level of 0.1 mg\/kg should be used to manage this incident. The raw material used to manufacture this additive must comply with the MRLs set in Regulation 396\/2005.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MRLs for animal feed (FEED)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The use of an additive contaminated with ETO above the LOQ of 0.1 mg\/kg, as well as of a raw material whose MRLs do not comply with Regulation 396\/2005, is prohibited.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Compound feed for which there is evidence that it was produced using a contaminated additive or raw material must be withdrawn from the market if ETO is found above 0.02 mg\/kg.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MRLs for composite products and food supplements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regarding composite foods such as noodles, in the absence of information on the use of a non-compliant ingredient, the default MRL that applies is <strong>0.02 mg\/kg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regarding food supplements, including capsules used to produce food supplements, the applicable LOQ is <strong>0.1 mg\/kg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MRLs for infant food (BBF)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Directive 2006\/125\/EC states that pesticide levels in the final BBF product must not exceed 0.01 mg\/kg (except for certain specific pesticides for which MRLs have been set below this threshold).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When an additive is used to manufacture a BBF food:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If the ETO level is above 0.1 mg\/kg: the final product must be withdrawn from the market regardless of the ETO level present.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If the ETO level is less than or equal to 0.1 mg\/kg but leaves measurable residues in the final product above 0.01 mg\/kg: the final product must be withdrawn from the market\/recalled from consumers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Import controls<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/transparency\/comitology-register\/screen\/documents\/076876\/2\/consult?lang=en\">update to Regulation 1793\/2019<\/a> is planned to include ETO controls for imported food and feed. Controls will relate to ETO (sum of ETO and 2CE expressed as ETO) only and will not include analysis for other pesticides suited to multi-residue methods. This update should be applicable from January 2022.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please note that your Phytocontrol laboratory offers analysis of ethylene oxide and its metabolite 2-chloroethanol by GC-MS\/MS, under COFRAC accreditation.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Need technical, regulatory or pricing information? Our customer service is available from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, at <a href=\"tel:+33800900775\">+33 800 900 775<\/a> or <a href=\"mailto:service-clients@phytocontrol.com\">service-clients@phytocontrol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And to keep up to date with Phytocontrol news, join us on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/phytocontrol-waters\/\">LinkedIn<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/laboratoirePHYTOCONTROL\">Facebook<\/a> pages!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 4 October, an ethylene oxide meeting was held, covering regulatory and technical aspects. Experts&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":24477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulatory-watch"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Summary of the European Commission meeting on ethylene oxide - Phytocontrol<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summary of the European Commission meeting on ethylene oxide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On 4 October, an ethylene oxide meeting was held, covering regulatory and technical aspects. 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