Seven Customs Union technical regulations in effect on 1 July

Starting from 1 July 2013 valid will be the technical regulations on food safety, foodstuffs and marking, fruit and vegetable juice products, fat-and-oil products, safety of certain types of specialized food, including dietary nutrition, requirements to the safety of food additives, flavoring agents and technological supplements, grain safety.

The forthcoming introduction of technical regulations in the food industry was preceded by the relevant seminar in Lida, Grodno Oblast. As Minister for Technical Regulations of the Eurasian Economic Commission Valery Koreshkov said at the seminar, the decision on the abovementioned technical regulations envisages a transition period to the use of compulsory requirements. "For instance, the period for the nutritive group of products makes up over a year and a half. During this period producers have time to study the mandatory requirements of the technical regulations, train the personnel, bring their test base in compliance with the requirements, etc.," he said, BelTA reports.
The minister also stressed that the enactment of the technical regulations would not require a dramatic change in food marking.

"Keeping in mind the fact that the requirements of the technical regulations in the food industry means a transition to more efficient forms of conformity assessment, when the responsibility for food safety tilts to the producer (importer), the participants of the seminar expressed necessity to prompt the harmonization of the legislations of the Customs Union member states in part of defining administrative violations and establishing the relevant measures of responsibility for the breach of the technical regulation, application of sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary measures," the EEC press service said.