Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade - Notification - Peru - Gluten-free foods

NOTIFICATION

The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.

 

1.

Notifying Member: PERU

If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):

2.

Agency responsible:

Dirección General de Salud Ambiental e Inocuidad Alimentaria, DIGESA (Directorate-General of Environmental Health and Food Safety)

Las Amapolas # 350 Urb. San Eugenio, Lince, Lima

Tel.: (+51 1) 631 4430

Email: evillanueva@minsa.gob.pe

Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:

Ministerio de Comercio Exterior y Turismo, MINCETUR (Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism)

Calle Uno Oeste Nº 50 - Urb. Corpac - Lima 27 - Peru

Tel.: (+51 1) 513 6100, Ext. 1223 or 1239

Email: otc@mincetur.gob.pe

3.

Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [ ], 5.6.2 [ ], 5.7.1 [ ], 3.2 [ ], 7.2 [ ], other:

4.

Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable): 10.01 Wheat and meslin.

1101.00.00.00 Wheat or meslin flour.

11.04 Cereal grains otherwise worked (for example, hulled, rolled, flaked, pearled, sliced or kibbled), except rice of heading 10.06; germ of cereals, whole, rolled, flaked or ground.

19.01 Malt extract; food preparations of flour, groats, meal, starch or malt extract, not containing cocoa or containing less than 40% by weight of cocoa calculated on a totally defatted basis, not elsewhere specified or included; food preparations of goods of headings 04.01 to 04.04, not containing cocoa or containing less than 5% by weight of cocoa calculated on a totally defatted basis, not elsewhere specified or included.

19.02 Pasta, whether or not cooked or stuffed (with meat or other substances) or otherwise prepared, such as spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, lasagne, gnocchi, ravioli, cannelloni; couscous, whether or not prepared.

19.04 Prepared foods obtained by the swelling or roasting of cereals or cereal products (for example, corn flakes); cereals (other than maize (corn)) in grain form or in the form of flakes or other worked grains (except flour, groats and meal), pre-cooked, or otherwise prepared, not elsewhere specified or included.

19.05 Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits and other bakers' wares, whether or not containing cocoa; communion wafers, empty cachets of a kind suitable for pharmaceutical use, sealing wafers, rice paper and similar products.

21.06 Food preparations not elsewhere specified or included.

5.

Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document: Proyecto de Reglamento de La Ley N° 31881, Ley que Promueve brindar información de los alimentos que no contienen Gluten (Draft Regulation implementing Law No. 31881 promoting the provision of information on gluten-free foods); (9 pages, in Spanish)

6.

Description of content: The notified draft Regulation seeks to establish provisions for the proper application of Law No. 31881 promoting the provision of information on gluten-free foods. The aim is to provide information on gluten-free foods so that consumers, particularly people with coeliac disease or a gluten intolerance or allergy, make informed consumption choices with respect to following a gluten-free diet.

7.

Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable: Protection of the health of people with coeliac disease or a gluten intolerance or allergy. The lack of information available on processed foods, and the absence of mandatory good manufacturing practices to reduce the risk of cross-contamination with products that contain gluten, means that this vulnerable population is at risk of developing coeliac disease, which is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as chronic and debilitating.

The only effective treatment for this disease is a gluten-free diet that allows the intestinal villi to regenerate. It is therefore right that the competent authorities introduce regulations and controls, so that manufacturers and importers report, under clear rules, on the gluten-free foods they manufacture and import, and inspections are carried out to ensure compliance with the conditions laid down for declaring foods to be truly gluten free.

8.

Relevant documents:

1._    Ley N° 26842, Ley General de Salud y sus modificatorias.

2._    Ley N° 31881, Ley que promueve brindar información de los alimentos que no contienen gluten.

3._    Decreto Legislativo N° 1062, Ley de Inocuidad de los alimentos.

4._    Texto Único Ordenado de la Ley N° 27444, Ley del Procedimiento Administrativo General, aprobado por Decreto Supremo N° 004-2019-JUS- Principio de razonabilidad.

5._    CODEX STAN 118-1979, as amended in 2015, Standard for Foods for Special Dietary Use for Persons Intolerant to Gluten.

9.

Proposed date of adoption: To be determined

Proposed date of entry into force: Six months after publication in the Official Journal, El Peruano

10.

Final date for comments: 60 days from notification

11.

Texts available from: National enquiry point [X] or address, telephone and fax numbers and email and website addresses, if available, of other body:

Ministerio de Comercio Exterior y Turismo (MINCETUR)

Calle Uno Oeste Nº 50 - Urb. Corpac - Lima 27 - Peru

Tel.: (+51 1) 513 6100, Ext. 1223 or 1239

Email: otc@mincetur.gob.pe

Dirección General de Salud Ambiental e Inocuidad Alimentaria (DIGESA)

Las Amapolas # 350 Urb. San Eugenio, Lince, Lima, Peru

Tel.: (+51 1) 631 4430

Email: evillanueva@minsa.gob.pe

https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2024/TBT/PER/24_03593_00_s.pdf