Malaysia Flavouring Regulations: Food Regulations 1985

In these Regulations, “food additive” means any substance that is intentionally introduced into or on a food in small quantities in order to affect the food’s keeping quality, texture, consistency, appearance, odour, taste, alkalinity, or acidity, or to serve any other technological function in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport, or storage of the food, and that results or may be reasonably expected to result directly or indirectly in the substance or any of its by-products becoming a component of, or otherwise affecting the characteristics of, the food, and includes any preservative, colouring substance, flavouring substance, flavour enhancer, antioxidant and food conditioner, but shall not include nutrient supplement, incidental constituent or salt.

No person shall import, manufacture, advertise for sale or sell or introduce into or on any food- (a) any food additive other than a permitted food additive;

Notwithstanding subregulation (2), the addition of food additive to food is prohibited except as otherwise permitted by these Regulations, permitted under the Codex Alimentarius or with prior written approval of the Director.

In these Regulations, “flavouring substance” means any chemically-defined substance with flavouring properties either formed by chemical synthesis or obtained from materials of plant or animal origin.

For the purposes of these Regulations, “natural flavouring substance” means any flavouring substance obtained by physical processes that may result in unavoidable but unintentional changes in the chemical structure of the components of the flavouring, or by enzymatic or microbiological processes from material of plant or animal origin, and is not synthetic flavouring substance or any flavouring substance formed by chemical synthesis.

Permitted flavouring substances are as follows – (a) Substances which are listed in at least one of the following publications: (i) Generally Recognised As Safe (GRAS) Flavoring Substances published by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers’ Association of the United States (FEMA) contained in the Food Technology, a publication of the Institute of food Technologists; or (ii) Flavourings, List of Codex Specifications for Food Additives (CAC/MISC 6); or (b) Natural flavouring substance either in its raw state or after processing by traditional preparation process including drying, roasting, and fermentation.

Notwithstanding subregulation (3), the addition of flavouring substance into food is prohibited except as otherwise permitted by these Regulations.

Notwithstanding subregulation (3), the addition of flavouring substance specified in Table I of Eighth Schedule into food is prohibited.

The maximum permitted proportion of certain natural toxicants resulted from the addition of natural flavouring substances into food is specified in Table II of Eighth Schedule: Provided that where more than one of such natural toxicants are present, the amount of each shall be, such that when expressed as a percentage of the amount permitted singly, the sum of the several percentages which does not exceed one hundred.

Preparation of permitted flavouring substance may contain permitted preservative, permitted antioxidant and permitted food conditioner.

There shall be written in the label on a package containing food additive imported, manufactured, advertised for sale or sold- (a) the words “(state the chemical name of the food additive or the International Numbering system (INS) for food additive number) as permitted (state the type of food additive); provided that in the case of flavouring substances it shall be sufficient to state the common name or the appropriate designation of that food additive in place of the chemical name.”; ... (b) a statement giving direction for its use; and ... (c) the words ‘For Food Use’ or any other words of the same significance in close proximity with the name of food additive or International Numbering System (INS) for food additive number.

Every package containing food for sale shall, unless otherwise provided in these Regulations, bear on it a label containing the following particulars, namely -

where the food contains food additive - (i) with the International Numbering System (INS) for Food Additive number, a statement of the functional class of the relevant food additive allowed by the name of the food additive or INS number in brackets; or (ii) without the International Numbering System (INS) for Food Additive number, only a statement of the functional class and the name of food additive;

Notwithstanding paragraph (1)(g), where the food additive is a flavouring substance, only the functional class shall be stated.

For the purpose of paragraphs (1)(e) and (g), where the ingredients of the food, or the food additives added to such food, are derived from animal, the common name of such animal shall also be stated on the label of that food: ... Provided that it shall not be necessary to indicate the name of the animal from which the ingredient or food additive is derived if it can be inferred from the appropriate designation of such ingredient or food additive.

a statement of the percentage of an ingredient by weight or volume as a percentage in adjacent to each appropriate ingredient at the time of manufacture for food sold as a mixture or combination where the ingredient – ... (i) is emphasized on the label through words, pictures or graphics; or (ii) is not within the name of the food, but is essential to characterize the food;

For the purpose of paragraph (1)(eb) - (a) the statement is not required- ... (iii) if the ingredient is used in small quantities as flavour.

Except as otherwise provided in these Regulations, any word, statement, information or direction that is required by these Regulations to appear on the label of any package of food shall – (a) in the case of food produced, prepared or packaged in Malaysia, be in Bahasa Malaysia; or (b) in the case of imported food, be in Bahasa Malaysia or English, and in either case may include translation thereof in any other language.

in the case of imported food, the name and business address of manufacturer or packer or the owner of the rights of manufacture, or the agent of any of them, and the name and business address of the importer in Malaysia and the name of the country of origin of the food;

For the purposes of paragraph (1)(j), “country of origin of the food” means the country in which the manufactured food last underwent a treatment or process resulting in a substantial change in its nature.