Carmine E 120 Specifications
Revised Carmine specifications have been published on 3 October as an amendment to Regulation 1333/2008.
In this review process, NATCOL shared its proposals with DG SANTE and the Member States.
Most significantly the NATCOL proposal to limit the presence of 4-aminocarminic acid in products labelled as E 120 to 3% relative to the carminic acid content was accepted.
In addition, to support its proposal regarding the level of heavy metals, NATCOL carried out sample testing which were used to set the new limits.
The proposed title of the specifications for E 120 will be ‘Carminic Acid, Carmine’ to reflect actual marketed products, as requested by NATCOL.