Novel Foods: Regulation, Health and Safety Considerations

Under the Novel Food Regulation (258/97/EC), a novel food is defined as a food or food ingredientthat does not have a significant history of consumption within the European Union prior to 15May 1997. Novel foods are required to undergo a pre-market safety assessment and must beauthorised before they can legally be marketed in the EU. A proposal to revise and update the EUNovel Food Regulation was published in 2008. This proposed a definition for nanomaterials, acentralised and faster authorisation procedure and specific measures for traditional foods fromthird countries. As a result of disagreement on the inclusion of foods from cloned animals, theEuropean Parliament and Council were unable to reach agreement on the new regulation beforethe deadline of 30 March 2011. New discussions on the updated Regulation are expected to takeplace in 2012. So far 66 novel foods and food ingredients have been authorised for use in the EU.The most popular products are Noni juice (juice of the fruits of Morinda citrifolia) and phytosterolsin a number of foodstuff