Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2158Show full title

VIII. BABY BISCUITS AND INFANT CEREALS(1) U.K.

In case of contract farming, where agricultural products are supplied to FBOs directly by their producers, FBOs shall ensure that the following requirements to prevent elevated asparagine levels in cereals are applied:

• to follow Good Agricultural Practices on fertilisation, in particular with regard to maintaining balanced sulphur levels in the soil and to ensure a correct nitrogen application;

• to follow Good Phytosanitary Practices in order to ensure the application of good practices on crop protection measures to prevent fungal infection.

FBOs shall carry out controls to verify the effective application of the aforesaid requirements.

Product Design, Processing and Heating U.K.

1. FBOs shall use asparaginase to reduce the levels of asparagine in the flour raw material insofar possible. FBOs that cannot use asparaginase due to, for example the processing requirements or product design, shall use flour raw material low in acrylamide precursors, such as fructose and glucose and asparagine. U.K.

2. FBOs shall make an assessment during recipe development that provides information on reducing sugars and asparagine, and includes options on achieving low reducing sugars in the final recipe. This need for this assessment will be dependent on use of asparaginase in the recipe. U.K.

3. FBOs shall ensure that heat treated ingredients which are susceptible to acrylamide formation are obtained from suppliers that are able to demonstrate that they have taken the appropriate mitigation measures to reduce the presence of acrylamide in those ingredients. U.K.

4. FBOs shall have a change control procedure in place to ensure that they do not make any supplier changes that increase acrylamide. U.K.

5. If the use of heat-treated raw materials and ingredients results in that in the final product the acrylamide benchmark level specified in Annex IV is exceeded, FBOs shall review the use of those products in view of achieving levels of acrylamide as low as reasonably achievable below the benchmark level set out in Annex IV. U.K.

Recipe U.K.

1. Given that products based on maize and rice tend have less acrylamide than those made with wheat, rye, oats and barley, FBOs shall consider using maize and rice in new product development where applicable taking into consideration that any change will have an impact on the manufacturing process and organoleptic properties of the product. U.K.

2. FBOs shall take into account, in particular in their risk assessment, that products based on wholegrain cereals and/or with high levels of cereal bran have higher levels of acrylamide. U.K.

3. FBOs shall control the addition rates at the point of addition of reducing sugars (e.g. fructose and glucose) and ingredients containing reducing sugars (e.g. honey) taking into consideration the impact on organoleptic properties and process functionalities (binding clusters) and which can act as precursors to acrylamide formation when added prior to heat-treatment stages. U.K.

4. FBO shall determine the acrylamide contribution from heat-treated and dry ingredients, such as roasted and toasted nuts and oven dried fruits, and use alternative ingredients if the use of those ingredients brings the finished product above the benchmark level specified in Annex IV. U.K.

Processing U.K.

1. FBOs shall identify, by means of risk assessment, the critical heat-treatment step(s) in the manufacturing process that generate(s) acrylamide. U.K.

2. FBOs shall measure the moisture content and express acrylamide concentration in a dry mass to eliminate the confounding effect of moisture changes. U.K.

3. FBOs shall identify and apply an effective combination of temperature and heating times to minimise acrylamide formation without compromising the taste, texture, colour, safety and shelf-life of the product. U.K.

4. FBOs shall control heating temperatures, times and feed-rates. Feed-rate and temperature control measurement systems should be calibrated regularly and these operating conditions controlled within set limits. These tasks shall be incorporated into the HACCP procedures. U.K.

5. Monitoring and controlling product moisture content after the critical heat-treatment steps has proved to be effective in controlling acrylamide levels in some processes and therefore, in these circumstances, this process can be an adequate alternative to controlling heating temperatures and times, hence shall be employed. U.K.

(1)

As defined in Regulation (EU) No 609/2013.