Novel food legislation and consumer acceptance-Importance for the food industry

Novel foods are defined as foods and food ingredients that have not yet been used to any significant extent in a given country. This paper provides a brief overview of current novel food legislation in European Union, USA, Australia and New Zealand, Canada and China. Prior to sale, food business operators (manufacturers or importers) are required, by different regulations and procedures, to submit information about the product in question for a safety assessment to Food Safety Authority. The approaches and specific information for evaluating the safety of novel foods are described in the national guidelines. In general, for the safety assessment and marketing authorisation of a novel food, the applicant should provide a detailed description of the novel food (identity of the novel food, manufacturing process, compositional data, proposed uses and use levels and anticipated intake of the novel food, history of use of the novel food and/or its source, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, nutritional information, toxicological information and allergenicity).