Federation ofEuropean SpecialtyFood IngredientsIndustries

“SHARING SPECIAL EXPERIENCE” – INTERVIEW WITH FRANCK MONMONT, ELC PRESIDENT

Could you summarise your priorities for your Presidency? Raising the profile of the specialty food ingredients industry to EU stakeholders. Indeed the previous Board, under the leadership of H.-C. Ambjerg worked hard to recruit more companies and associations to join the ELC. This has been very successful to the effect that ELC now can leverage its

broad membership base to represent the interests of the specialty food ingredients sector in Europe with even more impact. Although, membership recruitment will continue to be on the agenda of the Board, I will aim to contribute to raising the profile of the specialty food ingredients industry to EU stakeholders.

In your view, what are the ELC’s most prominent achievements over the recent years?Let me focus on three dossiers where the impact of ELC’s work has been very significant. First, the leadership role that ELC took to clarify the nanotechnology regulatory framework. Based on a very fruitful and cooperative relationship with our food and drinks customers represented by FoodDrink Europe, ELC stood up and led the advocacy efforts for the whole food chain. The second dossier, which could have seriously hampered the innovation capacity of the industry but again was safeguarded by an effective cooperation between ELC and FoodDrink Europe, was the new Novel Foods regulation where the initial European Commission proposal raised many questions, particularly in terms of the scope of the

regulation. Finally, through these and many other dossiers, ELC has developed a strong relationship with key officers at DG Santé and with EFSA. Our federation is seen as credible partner by European policy makers and risk assessors, which is crucial in times where there are many developments in the areas of food additives & enzymes.

What are the main challenges facing the European specialty food ingredients sector nowadays? And how the ELC could help address them?Clearly, on a day to day basis we all read and hear media stories about the link between processed food, food ingredients and health. Our industry needs to do more to offer the transparency that society demands and better tell our story about the role and value that specialty food ingredients play in the current food system.Also, in order to meet the ever evolving societal challenges, we need to continue to innovate, yet we continue to be confronted with regulatory obstacles, like the use of risk assessment tools which are too conservative and not risk based. ELC’s continued contribution to communicate out on the industry’s needs for innovation will be core to lift the regulatory barriers.

What are your wishes for the ELC in 2016? I wish that we all, all members of ELC, can continue to benefit from the expertise and professionalism of the ELC secretariat; adding this knowledge base to the constructive exchanges with and between members, in the working groups and at Board level, will set us up for an impactful 2016. I count on all of you to make this happen & I will, together with the Board, do my utmost to provide the strategic guidance to the work of the complete ELC system.

LATEST INSIGHTS FROM THE ELC

ELC Quarterly Newsletter • Issue No. 2 • October-December 2015 1

CONTACTING ELCELC Secretariat

Avenue de Tervueren 13A – Bte 7B-1040 Brussels

T: +32 2 736 53 54 F: +32 2 732 34 27

E: elc@ecco-eu.comW: www.elc-eu.org

COMING UP NEXT

• 13th January: EFSA Stakeholder Consultative Platform • 26-28th January: EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS)

• 4th February: SCOPAFF meeting Toxicological Safety of the Food Chain• 29th February: SCOPAFF meeting General Food Law

2 ELC Quarterly Newsletter • Issue No. 2 • October-December 2015

• 8-10th March: EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS)• 14 -18th March : Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) • 23rd March: ELC Board meeting in Brussels

MARKET ACCESS: HOW SPS AND TBT AGREEMENTS CAN HELP HARMONISE FOOD LEGISLATION AND PREVENT TRADE BARRIERS

Since 1995 the WTO sets the global rule governing trade between its 162 members with decisions taken on a consensus basis. Although its role has weakened by the failure of the Doha negotiation round on world trade liberalisation in 2006, a couple of instruments remain of paramount importance to global food regulation:• The Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary measures (SPS)

agreement, which requires WTO members to base food safety measures on risk assessment, and excludes the application of measures for protectionist purposes. It also encourages WTO members to align measures with international standards;

• The Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreement, which aims to ensure that technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures are non-discriminatory and do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade.

Both agreements require WTO members to notify the WTO Secretariat whenever they intend to impose any new or changed requirements that may affect trade. These notifications give trading partners the opportunity to comment at an early stage on the planned regulations before they are adopted and allow producers to adapt to the new requirements.

Thanks to a weekly monitoring of SPS & TBT

notifications, ELC members provide input to an increasing number of notifications related to specialty food ingredients, as submitted by key trade partners such as China, India, Indonesia, Gulf Cooperation Countries, South Africa etc., in order to seek an alignment with the Codex Alimentarius and/or the EU. The European Commission may endorse ELC comments in their own position and ask their local delegations in the WTO countries to support it “on the field”: a close relationship has been progressively developed between ELC and DG Trade & DG GROW for this purpose, e.g. ELC has joined the SPS Market Access WG set up by DG Trade.

ELC is the long established and united voice of Europe’s leading specialty food ingredients manufacturers. ELC offers its members a concrete platform to debate key regulatory issues and draws on their exceptional knowledge to provide science-based information and contribute to the development of EU food policies. We bring expertise on a wide range of topics such as food safety and technology, both at European and international level, nutrition and health, trade, sustainability and innovation. For more information about the ELC and its activities, please visit us on www.elc-eu.org.

The EU is the world’s largest exporter of food and drink products and its second largest importer. The trade

balance reached almost €31 billion in 2013.

The four largest EU exporters of Processed Agricultural Products in 2013 were France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany. The sum of their exports was more

than 60% of total EU exports.

With 17% of all EU exports, the USA is the number one export country for the European food and drink

industries.1

1 Source: DG Grow: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/food/processed-agricultural-products/trade-overview/index_en.htm

Want to know how specialty food ingredients contribute to the competitiveness of the European food and drink

industry? Look at the ELC position in the food value chain by clicking here on Youtube (select the HD quality).