Nano rerun: EFSA examines silver hydrosol in food supplements
Back in 2008, EFSA’s panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS) said it was “unable to assess the safety of silver hydrosols for nutritional purposes as a source of silver in food supplements and the bioavailability of silver from this source”.
At the time it said the applicant, US-based silver hydrosol supplier Natural Immunogenics Corporation, had not provided sufficient data to “adequately characterise” the ingredient for a risk assessment.
The company responded by saying it would conduct human clinical trials to fill data gaps and allow access to the EU market for its products Sovereign Silver and Argentyn23, which are already available in the US.
Silver hydrosol, also known as colloidal silver, is liquid containing silver particles. Proponents say it has anti-microbial properties and can help support the immune system.
The fresh request for an evaluation came from the same company via the European Commission, according to EFSA’s register of questions.
The company did not respond to our request for comment in time for the publication of this article.
However on its website it states: “We are committed to also defending silver and its use in medicine, supplementation and other efforts to achieve well-being. This means engaging in regulatory and compliance-related discussion, whether in the consideration of new or proposed to changes to policy, or even the regulation of certain substances, especially nano-particles as part of the nanotechnology debate (colloidal silver is not nanotechnology, even though it contains particles in the nano-size range).”
Post publication addition:
Dr Robert MacCuspie, director of laboratories and senior scientist for Natural Immunogenics Corp, told us the re-evaluation of the dossier had been spurred by its submission of a literature review of new data.
