Kemin Industries has received novel food authorization from the European Commission for its BetaVia Pure postbiotic ingredient, a proprietary strain of the algae Euglena gracilis, with five-year exclusivity in the European market.
UK food authorities have launched a consultation to collect views on policy change proposals that aim to streamline the authorization process for regulated products such as novel foods.
The food supplements sector in Europe has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years, fuelled by increasing consumer awareness about health, nutrition and wellness, but the complex regulatory framework is a minefield for many players.
By Andrea Almagro & Luis Gosálbez, Sandwalk Bioventures
A recent EFSA update to its Practical Arrangements guide will surely help food innovators struggling with the Transparency Regulation to access the European market, write Andrea Almagro & Luis Gosálbez from Sandwalk Bioventures in this guest article....
The founder of the CBD consortium, the ACI (the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry), is putting the pressure on the UK Home Office in a bid to bring some legal clarity and ultimately closure to the seemingly halted CBD Novel Foods process.
Mibelle Biochemistry’s PhytoCellTec apple-derived beauty ingredient ‘Malus Domestica’ (Md Nu) has gained EFSA approval as a novel food ingredient, enabling its distribution across Europe for use within food supplements.
In this guest article, David Hardstaff and John Binns, Partners at BCL Solicitors, discuss a high-profile investigation into banned muscle-building drugs which highlights issues with the novel foods regime impacting the CBD industry.
As the FSA struggles to keep up with the rising number of Novel Foods applications in the UK, a regulatory framework review has concluded with five potential options for a system overhaul.
By Andrea Almagro & Luis Gosálbez, Sandwalk BioVentures
A big wave of EFSA terminations of new Novel Food applications has happened over the last months, and all rejections have a common denominator – non-compliance with the Transparency Regulation.
With more than 400 products recently being removed from the FSA’s public list of CBD novel food applications, the retail market should be in the midst of major change, but what should be happening and what is happening are two different discussions in...
The number of sports and active nutrition companies investing in CBD has grown significantly in Europe over the last few years despite regulatory uncertainty, so what does this market hold for these brands? In this article, ESSNA’s Chair Dr Adam Carey,...
An elite-athlete turned CBD supplement brand founder has described the ‘rocky’ road travelled in this fast-evolving market but says he ultimately looks forward to an ‘extremely exciting’ future.
Arla Foods Ingredients has received final authorisation from the European Commission (EC) for its Lacprodan beta-lactoglobulin (BLG)-100, making this its first product to receive approval under the new Novel Food Regulations.
Health claims, novel foods, labelling, GMOs… the recently introduced Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill could have far reaching implications for the food and nutrition industries in the UK.
CBD industry specialists have voiced their concerns over the direction of the market as they reveal consumer research indicating the most popular products in the category are likely to be outlawed by novel foods regulations.
Food law experts have voiced their concerns over the novel foods process for CBD products as the FSA publishes its long-awaited, but somewhat short, list of products allowed to remain on the market.
The FSA’s recent change to its CBD Novel Foods deadline will lead to a lot of hasty half-hearted applications from companies unaware of how much more difficult the process is about to become, an expert has warned.
With the UK deadline for novel food applications looming on 31 March, it has come to light that UK regulations will not apply to CBD products in Northern Ireland post-Brexit meaning this market may ‘disappear’ for many companies.
The Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI) has received clarification from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) regarding updated deadlines set for Cannabinoid (CBD) firms to apply for Novel Foods status.
US-based Kemin Industries has received a positive safety assessment from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for its algae-sourced beta glucan ingredient, BetaVia. This unlocks the opportunity for ‘innovative product developers to be the first to...
Many people working in the nutrition industry feel positive about the EU’s new novel foods process, which came in to force on January 1st 2018, finds research by the organisers of Vitafoods Europe.
FoodNavigator talks insect innovation and EU regulation with the founder of UK insect start-up, Mophagy, that has just landed official European distribution rights for Entomo Farms.
By Shane Starling at the European Parliament in Brussels
Unless there is a shock shift, a full sitting of the 751-seat European Parliament (EP) will soon pass significant reforms to the EU’s now ‘not fit for purpose’ novel foods regulation – but widespread concerns remain.
A European Council committee has rejected a proposal that would have allowed the European Parliament the right to veto novel foods approvals – saying this would contradict the law’s purpose to simplify authorisation.
The long running process to develop a new centralised legislative procedure for novel food approvals has hit the rocks again – meaning major delays and backlogs are now on the cards, warn industry insiders.
"As a member of Parliament, I need facts. And I think you, the food industry, have the resources to find those."
By Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn from the European Parliament in Brussels
The food industry should provide facts if it expects EU decision makers to consider dismantling the controversial novel foods regulation it has long-argued discourages innovation, a UK member of the European Parliament (MEP) said at a workshop in Brussels...
Exotic and functional fruits and vegetables like cashew nut fruit, chu chu and their extracts are set for an easier passage into European Union markets if mooted simplifications to EU Novel Foods laws come to fruition, according to a UK-based expert.
Plant sterol leader Unilever will soon be able to expand its plant sterol-fortified, cholesterol-lowering Pro.activ range into home cooking and baking oils, if a positive opinion is mandated across the EU.
Trading Standards (TS) don’t have the resources to check for the potentially dangerous unapproved novel foods illegally on sale on the UK market, it has emerged.
Unilever has applied to UK authorities for EU novel foods approval for its cholesterol-lowering phytosterol esters in liquid vegetable fats used in home cooking and baking.
The EU’s long-winded novel foods rules have long been viewed as an innovation-crimping legal structure, but a stream-lining of the process means companies should not fear it, a consultant says.
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is calling for views on an application from Japan’s Miyarisan Pharmaceutical for European Union Novel Foods status for a probiotic strain.
Research and development (R&D) champion Unilever has voiced deep disappointment and frustration over the collapse of talks reviewing the 1997 EU Novel Foods Regulation, claiming it will hamper food and drink manufacturers' innovation plans.
The collapse of talks on the novel foods amendment will have a detrimental effect on innovation and competitiveness in Europe, says the CIAA and an economist, while Commissioner Dalli is still figuring out what to do next.
An inability by the European Parliament and Council to reach an agreement on the novel foods update due to disagreement over cloned animals and their offspring would send the message that no-one really cares about innovation, says consultant.
The CIAA is confident that the incoming Hungarian presidency of the EU will finalise the long-awaited amended novel foods regulation in the next six months, but points out a number of outstanding issues.
Big oops. Meat and milk from the offspring of cloned animals has entered the UK food chain. Cue scary headlines and scared consumers. But the leviathan of EU-lawmaking means no-one actually knows if it’s legal or not. And that’s an even bigger oops.
A local district court has ruled that Norwegian krill supplier, Aker Biomarine, misrepresented its European Union novel foods status at the Food Ingredients Europe (FIE) trade show in Frankfurt in mid-November.
The ongoing feud between the world’s biggest krill oil suppliers, Neptune Technologies and Bioresources and Aker Biomarine, has intensified after Aker products and materials were cleared from its stand by a German bailiff at the Food Ingredients Europe...
Novel food regulation functions as an unintentional trade barrier to heritage foods and affects supply chain development and poverty alleviation in developing countries, according to a new report.
The amended novel foods approval must reinforce the principle of mutual recognition between member states if the fast-track process for traditional foods eaten outside the EU is to work, says an expert.
A Welsh food supplements company is calling on the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) to release documents that may shed light on why a herb’s novel status was changed shortly before a court case it lost over illegal use of that same herb – Festuca arundinacea.
Regulatory consultant Cantox is planning a seminar on key changes to regulations on food ingredients and additives in the EU, including the update on novel foods regulation.
Welsh supplements company, Asphalia Food Products Ltd, has been found guilty of using an unauthorised herbal ingredient in products marketed to assist sleep because it did not have novel foods approval.
European Union novel foods applications will be processed more quickly and the definition of what constitutes a novel food broadened, if a proposal for a new novel foods regulation is accepted by the European Parliament (EP).
Alberta, Canada-based Bioneutra has applied to the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) for European Union Novel Foods approval for a prebiotic, isomalto-oligosaccharide sweetener.
