Novel food - assessment of new food and ingredients

Novel food is food or food ingredients that have not been eaten within the EU to any significant extent before May 15, 1997. According to the rules these products must be safety assessed and approved by EFSA (the European Food and Safety Authority) before they can be used or put on the market in the EU.   

There is good reason to constantly think “novel food”
The increased focus on sustainable food production and green transition generates a need for better utilization of side streams and residual products, as well as the development of new and more efficient purification and processing processes. In addition, the result of the global market is that it has become more common to import food from third countries. These factors mean that these foods and ingredients are potentially manufactured, or imported and are “novel food”, and thus must be assessed for safety before they can be used or put on the market within the EU. 

There are rules and guidelines in this area, but it can be time consuming and extensive work to document that a food or an ingredient is not a food novel – and even more work if it is a novel food, and a novel food application must be prepared. At Danish Technological Institute, we can help you with the initial clarification phase of whether the food or ingredient is a novel food or not, and we can advise you on how to get started with a novel food application.

How can Danish Technological Institute help you?

• Clarify whether a food or food ingredient has been eaten to a significant extent in the EU before May 15, 1997
• Clarify whether a food or food ingredient is a traditional food in third countries and can therefore be assessed for safety with a faster process
• Assess the scope of the application process if it is a novel food
• Advice on the analysis part for many ingredients
• Microbial risk assessment of novel food
• Application test, where the level of the new food/ingredient gets tested
• Durability and stability studies
• Literature studies (EFSA applications, peer reviewed articles, etc.)
• Search relevant databases