Spain notified to the TRIS service (Directive 98/34/EC) of the EU Commission the following draft decree. It intends to establish basic quality standards for the preparation and sale of flours, meals and other products of cereal milling intended for human consumption.
Existing technical sanitary regulations for the preparation, movement and sale of wheat meals and flours and other milling products thereof, for human consumption, date from 1984. Given the changes undergone by the sector for the manufacture and sale of cereal meals and flours since then, and the hygiene and sanitary changes that have had to be made to adapt the content of said regulations to horizontal Community provisions relating to foodstuffs, said standard needs to be reviewed and updated, primarily to expand the scope to cover all cereals, not just wheat, include new product names and amend the terms used in certain existing names.
End of the standstill period: 28th December 2015.
Regarding mandatory information it states that (art. 5 par. 2):
a) The legal description of the products covered by Article 2(5) to (17) shall be as indicated in each section and by a combination of same where appropriate. They may include usage instructions or recommendations.
b) The instruction “Keep in a cool dry place off the floor” shall be included on the label.
c) The best-before date shall be accompanied where necessary by a reference to the storage conditions to be observed to ensure conservation until that date.
Regarding voluntary food information, the label may include information on the following:
a) The bread-making quality of the wheat flour, using the descriptions for different types (very strong, strong, medium strength and bread-making) included in the annex, as a function of the characteristics of the flour. This information must be included in the same visual field as the product description.
b) The quality of the fine hard-wheat meals, indicating “superior-quality meal for making pasta” or “meal for other industrial uses”, as provided for in Article 4(2)(c).
c) Any other specific technical or product-quality characteristics, pursuant to the regulations on the labelling of foodstuffs, that can be demonstrated using internationally recognised analytical methods, in order to guide users.
In products intended for industrial use, the mandatory information provided for in this standard and in the applicable regulations on foodstuff labelling may be included exclusively in the commercial documents accompanying the product at the time it is delivered, or before this time, provided that the following is indicated on the packaging or container: “Not intended for retail sale” or “Product intended for industrial use”. In the case of bulk sale for industrial use, the information required pursuant to this article must be included in the related shipping documentation.
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