Lawmakers in the European Parliament's Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) have rejected on Wednesday (12 February) a proposed regulation which included a definition of "engineered nanomaterials" in food.

The Parliament members said that the definition could lead to existing nanomaterials not being labelled due to an exemption provided for food additives approved on an EU list.

In the European Commission proposal, food additives already on sale and potentially containing nanoparticles would be exempted from nano-labelling. The MEPs said that the Commission's plans would deny consumers their right to be informed.

They also said that a 50% nano-particles threshold for an ingredient to qualify as `nano' is much too high. This disregards the European Food Safety Agency's (EFSA) advice to the Commission of a 10% threshold in light of ongoing uncertainty of nano safety.