Selling novelty
Germany stopped a whole host of novel food ingredients coming from Luxembourg.
The border block caught a shipment of supplements containing Evodia rutaecarpa, raspberry ketone and Sophora japonica.
The evodia fruit (Evodia rutaecarpa), also known as wu zhu yu, is used in Chinese herbal medicine to reduce pain, gastrointestinal problems and as an ‘anti-cancer’ agent.
It has also been explored as a weight management ingredient.
The dried flowers and buds of Sophora japonica, also known as the Japanese pagoda tree, is also used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Both however are novel food ingredients in the EU and must therefore apply for novel food approval to confirm safety.
Meanwhile raspberry ketones - the phenolic compounds found in raspberries – are something of a slippery subject in the EU since one form (4-(p-hydroxyphenyl)butan-2-one) is approved as a flavouring.
However they have also been marketed at much higher levels as a weight loss ingredient.
The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) warned firms in 2013 raspberry ketones were a novel food under EU law since there was no evidence of consumption in the EU before 15th May 1997.
However after member state consultation it gave exception to specific extracts prepared using water or 20% ethanol (1:4 ethanol to water).
Last summer Danish researchers revealed raspberrry ketones were being sold widely online despite being an unauthorised novel food. They warned dosages in these slimming pills were potentially toxic.
