Food Standards Agency
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Views wanted on modified starch ingredient
An American company has applied to the Food Standards Agency for approval to market phosphated distarch phosphate as a novel food ingredient. A novel food is a food or food ingredient that does not have a significant history of consumption within the European Union before 15 May 1997.
Phosphated distarch phosphate is a modified resistant starch. In the European Union, it is currently used as a food additive (E1413) to stabilise the consistency of products, such as soups, sauces, gravies and pie fillings, when they are frozen and thawed.
The company, MGP Ingredients Inc., proposes to market its phosphated distarch phosphate as an added source of dietary fibre for use in a range of foods, including white bread, processed breakfast cereals, pasta, cakes, biscuits and crackers and starch-based snack foods.
Before any new food product can be introduced on the European market it must be rigorously assessed for safety. In the UK, the assessment of novel foods is carried out by an independent committee of scientists appointed by the Food Standards Agency, the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP).
Deadline for comments
Any comments on this application should be emailed to the ACNFP secretariat at acnfp@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk by Sunday 13 December 2009. The comments will be passed to the committee before it finalises its opinion on this novel food ingredient.
