Regulatory Issues

Summary

Food ingredients derived from plant cell and tissue culture can be characterized as food additives (e.g. colouring agents and enzymes), ingredients (flavours and essential oils) or potentially as novel food ingredients Canadian Regulations define a food additive as any substance that becomes part of, or affects the characteristics of a food. The use of an additive in a particular food is subject to a pre-market approval process and results in an amendment to the Regulations. Novel foods include those foods that have not previously been used as food or those foods that have been produced by a new process. New regulations have been proposed for novel foods that require pre-market notification for sale in Canada. Canadian Regulations specify standards for some food ingredients that do not require pre-market notification or approval, including flavours and essential oils. This chapter will provide an overview of the Canadian regulatory processes and will also provide an overview of the approach to the safety assessment of food ingredients considered to be novel.