Novel Food Regulations
In today’s hyper-scientific and overprotective society, it is easy to forget that there are still unknown and potentially harmful ingredients that can make their way into our food. For this reason, we have the Novel Food and Novel Food Ingredients Regulations 1997 to protect us from food and ingredients that the FSA hasn’t deemed safe to consume. Just yesterday, Asphalia Food Products Ltd was found guilty of being in breach of the aforementioned regulations, by introducing a “novel food” into the European market.
For those that don’t know, a novel food or ingredient is one that does not have a “significant history of consumption” in the EU before 15/01/1997. In order to be legally marketed in the EU, all novel foods and ingredients must first undergo a safety evaluation before being deemed safe enough to go on the market. In this case, the food sold by Asphalia contained a type of meadow grass called Festuca that had not undergone this safety evaluation. For this reason the ingredient was deemed a “novel ingredient” and Asphalia Food Products Ltd has been forced to withdraw their supplements from the market, despite the fact that the FSA has not identified any possible harmful side effects to Festuca.
The supplements can be found in over 400 stores across the UK and are called: Asphalia for Natural Sleep, Asphalia for Natural Radiance, Asphalia for Natural Protection and Asphalia for Weight Control. They are also sold outside the EU as Asphalia: Don’t Disturb Me. As mentioned before, there have been no harmful side effects documented, but this novel meadow grass ingredient has yet to be fully safety tested.
