Views wanted on D-ribose application
Tuesday 8 April 2008
A company has applied to the Food Standards Agency to approve D-ribose, a type of sugar, as a novel food ingredient.
Novel foods are a food or food ingredient that does not have a significant history of consumption within the European Union before 15 May 1997.
Bioenergy, Inc., the company, hopes to use D-ribose produced from the bacterium Bacillus subtilis as a nutritional novel food ingredient in conventional foods, such as sports and energy drinks, foods for particular nutritional uses (PARNUTs) and food supplements.
What is D-ribose?
D-ribose is a naturally occurring 5-carbon sugar that is present in all living cells. In the body, ribose is produced via the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). The company states that when D-ribose produced from Bacillus subtilis is used as a supplement, it allows the cell to avoid the limit on the amount of ribose produced in the PPP. This process helps provide the body with more energy.
Assessing safety
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 views
Any comments on this application should be sent to the ACNFP Secretariat by 28 April 2008 and will be passed to the committee before it finalises its opinion on this novel food ingredient.
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