Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006, consolidated text of 21 May 2015

This page records the metal maximum levels in the 21 May 2015 consolidated text of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 (CELEX 02006R1881-20150521). EUR-Lex marks the consolidation as a documentation tool. It is not itself the legal act. Section 3 of the annex is the metals section. The column heading is maximum levels in mg/kg wet weight. A European comma in a printed level is the decimal mark. The parsed number in the evidence register is that notation, not a unit conversion.

This consolidation has no arsenic section. The amendment list in the file ends at Regulation (EU) 2015/704. Inorganic arsenic maximum levels for rice were set later and are not in this text. The mercury heading is “Mercury”. Those levels are read here as total mercury. The recitals discuss methylmercury, but the annex rows are not labeled as methylmercury. The tin heading is “Tin (inorganic)“.

A later consolidation, 28 September 2020, is a different text and is filed separately.

Key numbers

Section 3, consolidated pages 26 to 30.

Entry	Foodstuff	Maximum level (mg/kg wet weight, as printed)	Basis note
3.1.1	Raw milk, heat-treated milk and milk for the manufacture of milk-based products	0,020	Footnote (6). Annex column is mg/kg wet weight.
3.1.2	Infant formulae and follow-on formulae	0,020	Footnotes (4) and (8). (4): ready to use, marketed as such or after reconstitution. No powder versus liquid split in this row.
3.1.3	Meat (excluding offal) of bovine animals, sheep, pig and poultry	0,10	Footnote (6).
3.1.4	Offal of bovine animals, sheep, pig and poultry	0,50	Footnote (6).
3.1.5	Muscle meat of fish	0,30	Footnotes (24) and (25).
3.1.6	Crustaceans: muscle meat from appendages and abdomen; crabs and crab-like crustaceans, appendages only	0,50	Footnotes (26) and (44). Cephalothorax excluded.
3.1.7	Bivalve molluscs	1,5	Footnote (26).
3.1.8	Cephalopods (without viscera)	1,0	Footnote (26).
3.1.9	Legume vegetables, cereals and pulses	0,20	Footnote (27): after washing and separating the edible part.
3.1.10	Vegetables excluding brassica, leaf vegetables, fresh herbs, fungi and seaweed; potatoes peeled	0,10	Footnote (27).
3.1.11	Brassica vegetables, leaf vegetables, and Agaricus bisporus, Pleurotus ostreatus, Lentinula edodes	0,30	Footnotes (27) and (43). Leaf-vegetable level does not apply to fresh herbs.
3.1.12	Fruit, excluding berries and small fruit	0,10	Footnote (27). Tree nuts are not covered by the fruit level.
3.1.13	Berries and small fruit	0,20	Footnote (27).
3.1.14	Fats and oils, including milk fat	0,10
3.1.15	Fruit juices, concentrated fruit juices as reconstituted, and fruit nectars	0,050	Footnote (14). Concentrates are as reconstituted.
3.1.16	Wine (including sparkling wine, excluding liqueur wine), cider, perry and fruit wine	0,20	Footnote (28): products from the 2001 fruit harvest onwards.
3.1.17	Aromatized wine, aromatized wine-based drinks and aromatized wine-product cocktails	0,20	Footnote (28).
3.1.18	Food supplements	3,0	Footnote (39): as sold.
3.2.1	Vegetables and fruit, excluding root and tuber vegetables, leaf vegetables, fresh herbs, leafy brassica, stem vegetables, fungi and seaweed	0,050	Footnote (27).
3.2.2	Root and tuber vegetables excluding celeriac, parsnips, salsify and horseradish; stem vegetables excluding celery; potatoes peeled	0,10	Footnote (27).
3.2.3	Leaf vegetables, fresh herbs, leafy brassica, celery, celeriac, parsnips, salsify, horseradish, and Agaricus bisporus, Pleurotus ostreatus, Lentinula edodes	0,20	Footnote (27).
3.2.4	Fungi, excluding those listed in point 3.2.3	1,0	Footnote (27).
3.2.5	Cereal grains excluding wheat and rice	0,10
3.2.6	Wheat grains, rice grains, wheat bran and wheat germ for direct consumption, and soy beans	0,20	One level covers all three indents.
3.2.7a	Milk chocolate with less than 30 percent total dry cocoa solids	0,10	Applies as from 1 January 2019. Footnote (49).
3.2.7b	Chocolate with less than 50 percent total dry cocoa solids, and milk chocolate with at least 30 percent total dry cocoa solids	0,30	Applies as from 1 January 2019. Footnote (49).
3.2.7c	Chocolate with at least 50 percent total dry cocoa solids	0,80	Applies as from 1 January 2019. Footnote (49).
3.2.7d	Cocoa powder sold to the final consumer or as an ingredient in sweetened cocoa powder sold to the final consumer	0,60	Applies as from 1 January 2019. Footnote (49).
3.2.8	Meat (excluding offal) of bovine animals, sheep, pig and poultry	0,050	Footnote (6).
3.2.9	Horsemeat, excluding offal	0,20	Footnote (6).
3.2.10	Liver of bovine animals, sheep, pig, poultry and horse	0,50	Footnote (6).
3.2.11	Kidney of bovine animals, sheep, pig, poultry and horse	1,0	Footnote (6).
3.2.12	Muscle meat of fish, excluding species in 3.2.13, 3.2.14 and 3.2.15	0,050	Footnotes (24) and (25).
3.2.13	Muscle meat of mackerel (Scomber), tuna (Thunnus, Katsuwonus pelamis, Euthynnus), and bichique (Sicyopterus lagocephalus)	0,10	Footnotes (24) and (25).
3.2.14	Muscle meat of bullet tuna (Auxis)	0,15	Footnotes (24) and (25).
3.2.15	Muscle meat of anchovy (Engraulis), swordfish (Xiphias gladius), and sardine (Sardina pilchardus)	0,25	Footnotes (24) and (25).
3.2.16	Crustaceans: muscle meat from appendages and abdomen; crabs and crab-like crustaceans, appendages only	0,50	Footnotes (26) and (44).
3.2.17	Bivalve molluscs	1,0	Footnote (26).
3.2.18	Cephalopods (without viscera)	1,0	Footnote (26).
3.2.19a	Powdered infant formulae and follow-on formulae manufactured from cows’ milk proteins or protein hydrolysates	0,010	Footnotes (8) and (29). As sold. Applies as from 1 January 2015. Cows’ milk proteins only, not a soya mixture.
3.2.19b	Liquid infant formulae and follow-on formulae manufactured from cows’ milk proteins or protein hydrolysates	0,005	Footnotes (8) and (29). As sold. Applies as from 1 January 2015.
3.2.19c	Powdered infant formulae and follow-on formulae manufactured from soya protein isolates, alone or in a mixture with cows’ milk proteins	0,020	Footnotes (8) and (29). As sold. Applies as from 1 January 2015. The row covers soya alone and soya mixed with cows’ milk. It is not a soya-only row.
3.2.19d	Liquid infant formulae and follow-on formulae manufactured from soya protein isolates, alone or in a mixture with cows’ milk proteins	0,010	Footnotes (8) and (29). As sold. Applies as from 1 January 2015. The row covers soya alone and soya mixed with cows’ milk.
3.2.20	Processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children	0,040	Footnotes (3) and (29). As sold. Applies as from 1 January 2015.
3.2.21	Food supplements, excluding those in 3.2.22	1,0	Footnote (39): as sold.
3.2.22	Food supplements consisting exclusively or mainly of dried seaweed, products derived from seaweed, or dried bivalve molluscs	3,0	Footnote (39): as sold.
3.3.1	Fishery products and muscle meat of fish, excluding species listed in 3.3.2; crustaceans as in the appendages rule	0,50	Section heading is Mercury, not methylmercury. Footnotes (24), (25), (26), (44).
3.3.2	Muscle meat of the listed higher-mercury fish species	1,0	Section heading is Mercury. Species list is in the annex entry, including anglerfish, eel, halibut, marlin, pike, rays, shark, swordfish, tuna (Thunnus, Euthynnus, Katsuwonus pelamis), and the other named species. The printed binomial for poor cod is Tricopterus minutes.
3.3.3	Food supplements	0,10	Section heading is Mercury. Footnote (39): as sold.
3.4.1	Canned foods other than beverages	200	Section heading is Tin (inorganic).
3.4.2	Canned beverages, including fruit juices and vegetable juices	100	Tin (inorganic).
3.4.3	Canned baby foods and processed cereal-based foods for infants and young children, excluding dried and powdered products	50	Tin (inorganic). Footnotes (3) and (29). As sold. Dried and powdered products excluded.
3.4.4	Canned infant formulae and follow-on formulae, including infant milk and follow-on milk, excluding dried and powdered products	50	Tin (inorganic). Footnotes (8) and (29). As sold.
3.4.5	Canned dietary foods for special medical purposes intended specifically for infants, excluding dried and powdered products	50	Tin (inorganic). Footnotes (9) and (29). As sold.

Recital (44), consolidated page 10, cites the Scientific Committee on Food opinion of 12 December 2001: inorganic tin of 150 mg/kg in canned beverages and 250 mg/kg in other canned foods may cause gastric irritation in some individuals. Those figures are the cited opinion. They are not the annex maximum levels. The annex levels for inorganic tin are 200 mg/kg for canned foods other than beverages, 100 mg/kg for canned beverages, and 50 mg/kg for the three canned infant foods in entries 3.4.3, 3.4.4, and 3.4.5.

Footnote (4) says the maximum level refers to the products ready to use, marketed as such or after reconstitution as instructed by the manufacturer. Lead entry 3.1.2 carries footnotes (4) and (8). It does not split powder from liquid. Footnote (29) says the maximum level refers to the product as sold. Cadmium entry 3.2.19 and the infant tin entries carry footnote (29), and 3.2.19 does split powdered from liquid and cows’ milk protein from soya protein isolates alone or mixed with cows’ milk proteins. The soya rows are not soya-only rows. Footnote (39) applies the supplement levels to the supplements as sold. Footnote (28) applies the wine levels to products from the 2001 fruit harvest onwards.

Entry 3.3.2 lists the fish at 1,0 mg/kg mercury: anglerfish (Lophius), Atlantic catfish (Anarhichas lupus), bonito (Sarda sarda), eel (Anguilla), emperor, orange roughy, and rosy soldierfish (Hoplostethus), grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris), halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), kingklip (Genypterus capensis), marlin (Makaira), megrim (Lepidorhombus), mullet (Mullus), pink cusk eel (Genypterus blacodes), pike (Esox lucius), plain bonito (Orcynopsis unicolor), poor cod (printed as Tricopterus minutes), Portuguese dogfish (Centroscymnus coelolepis), rays (Raja), redfish (Sebastes marinus, S. mentella, S. viviparus), sail fish (Istiophorus platypterus), scabbard fish (Lepidopus caudatus, Aphanopus carbo), seabream and pandora (Pagellus), shark (all species), snake mackerel or butterfish (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, Ruvettus pretiosus, Gempylus serpens), sturgeon (Acipenser), swordfish (Xiphias gladius), and tuna (Thunnus, Euthynnus, Katsuwonus pelamis).

Methods (brief)

The levels are copied from the annex of this consolidation. Dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mycotoxins, 3-MCPD, melamine, and erucic acid are outside the metal extraction. No level was converted to another unit.

Evidence fitness

These rows support a statement of what this consolidation printed as a maximum level, with the footnote that sets the basis. They do not support an occurrence distribution, a speciation claim that the annex does not make, or a reading of a later amending regulation back into this date.

Limitations

The file is the 21 May 2015 documentation text. A level that an amendment adopted after that date is not in force on the face of this file. The poor-cod binomial is transcribed as printed. Entry 3.2.6 is one level of 0,20 covering three indents, not three different levels.

Update history

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