Petition

No toxic mineral oil in our food!

  • Mineral oil in foods
19 products have been found to contain the particularly dangerous aromatic mineral oils (MOAH).

Laboratory tests by foodwatch have, for the third time, found food products contaminated with harmful mineral oil. foodwatch has tested products on sale in France, the Netherlands and Germany, and for a first time also included products from Austria and Belgium. 19 products have been found to contain the particularly dangerous aromatic mineral oils (MOAH). According to the European Food Safety Authority, MOAH is suspected to be carcinogenic and genotoxic. Those hazardous substances have no place in our food! foodwatch calls on the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the decision makers of all the EU Member States to protect all consumers from those invisible contaminants in food products by immediately recalling all products tested positive and adopting a zero-tolerance rule for MOAH contamination in ALL food categories across the EU! Support this call by signing our email action!

Petition

No toxic mineral oil in our food!

  • Mineral oil in foods
19 products have been found to contain the particularly dangerous aromatic mineral oils (MOAH).

Laboratory tests by foodwatch have, for the third time, found food products contaminated with harmful mineral oil. foodwatch has tested products on sale in France, the Netherlands and Germany, and for a first time also included products from Austria and Belgium. 19 products have been found to contain the particularly dangerous aromatic mineral oils (MOAH). According to the European Food Safety Authority, MOAH is suspected to be carcinogenic and genotoxic. Those hazardous substances have no place in our food! foodwatch calls on the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the decision makers of all the EU Member States to protect all consumers from those invisible contaminants in food products by immediately recalling all products tested positive and adopting a zero-tolerance rule for MOAH contamination in ALL food categories across the EU! Support this call by signing our email action!

Dear President Ursula von der Leyen,
Dear Heads of State,
Dear Ministers,

Many food products on our supermarket shelves are contaminated by aromatic hydrocarbons of mineral oils (MOAH). According to the European Food Safety Authority, these mineral oil compounds “may be both mutagenic and carcinogenic” and some of them are identified as endocrine disruptors. 

For the third time, foodwatch has proven, through laboratory tests, that products contaminated with MOAH are still on the shelves in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium.  The products which tested positively for MOAH in November 2021 include products from Unilever, Zentis, Ferrero and Lindt. 

Those hazardous substances have no place on our plates. The only way to protect all consumers from those invisible contaminants in food products is a mandatory EU regulation for zero tolerance to MOAH for all food categories. This is essential in order to respect the General Food Law (EC178/2002) and its article 14 on food safety requirements, which states that “food shall not be placed on the market if it is unsafe.” 

foodwatch has been raising the alarm on this issue since 2015 and this is the third set of laboratory tests that we are carrying out. In 2019 we revealed that half of the infant milk formulas tested were contaminated with MOAH. As a result, you, representatives of the European Commission and the Member States, decided for the first time to establish a threshold at 1 mg/kg of MOAH presence in baby milk powders, in a technical meeting in June 2020. 

This decision was an encouraging first step, but is far from enough, as demonstrated once more by the results of a new series of tests carried out by foodwatch on a broad range of food products. 
The companies have to withdraw the contaminated products from the shelves, but it is your responsibility to ensure the protection of “the health of citizens and the safety of the food they eat,” as declared as a priority by Commissioner Kyriakides.  


We therefore urge you to take the following urgent actions:
1.    Products tested with positive MOAH contamination have to be recalled immediately

2.    Adopt a Zero MOAH tolerance rule across the EU in ALL food categories, by prohibiting any detectable presence of MOAH with the most refined analytical methodology


Looking forward to your response and urgent action,
Yours sincerely,

Your first name & surname, place and comment, if given (will be completed automatically)

  • Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
  • Sandra Gallina, Director General of DG Health

 

  • Austria, Johannes Rauch, Federal Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection
  • Belgium, Frank Vandenbroucke, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health
  • Bulgaria, Georgi Tahov, Minister of agriculture and food
  • Croatia, Josip Dabro, Minister of Agriculture
  • Cyprus, Dr Maria Panayiotou, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment
  • Czech Republic, Zdeněk Nekula, Minister of agriculture
  • Denmark, Jacob Jensen, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries
  • Estonia, Piret Hartman, Minister for Regional affairs and Agriculture
  • Finland, Sari Essayah, Minister for food and agriculture
  • France, Annie Genevard, Ministre for Agriculture and Health
  • Germany, Cem Özdemir, Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection
  • Greece, Konstantinos Tsiaras, Minister for rural development and food
  • Hungary, István Nagy, Minister of food
  • Ireland, Charlie McConalogue, Minister for agriculture, food and marine
  • Italy, Orazio Schillaci, Health Minister
  • Latvia, Armands Krauze, Minister of agriculture
  • Lithuania, Kazys Starkevičius,Minister of agriculture
  • Luxembourg, Martine Hansen, Minister for food, agriculture and viticulture
  • Malta, Anton Refalo, Minister for Agriculture
  • Netherlands, Fleur Agema, Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport
  • Poland, Czesław Siekierski, Minister of agriculture and rural development
  • Portugal, Maria do Céu Antunes, Minister for food and agriculture
  • Romania, Florin - Ionuț Barbu, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development
  • Slovakia, Richard Takáč, Minister for agriculture and Rural development
  • Slovenia, Mateja Čalušić, Minister for agriculture, forestry and food
  • Spain, Luis Planas Puchades, Minister of Agriculture and Food
  • Sweden, Peter Kullgren, Minister for rural affairs

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foodwatch started the petition on 09.12.2021.

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