Busying themselves with essence of coxcomb and cockroach innards, Novel Foods Units across Europe have the task of deciding which bizarre ingredients are fit for human consumption They say that the comb on the top of the head of a cockerel has a chewy, rubbery texture. “It also smells bad,” says Josep Escaich, boss of Spanish pharmaceutical firm Bioiberica. It’s not,cockerel yogurt given EU go-ahead then, the first thing you’d think of adding to yoghurt. However, his company is in talks with leading yoghurt manufacturers to do just that.
It turns out that coxcombs are rich in an acid called sodium hyaluronate which, it is claimed, can help alleviate osteoarthritis. Under the product’s more user-friendly trade name, Mobilee, Bioiberica envisages people at risk from the condition consuming concentrated sodium hyaluronate on a daily basis — not just in yoghurt but in other food staples, too.
However, it’s not quite as simple as coming up with a catchy marketing slogan and putting it on the shelves. Mobilee is what’s known in the jargon of EU food safety legislation as a “novel food”. This means, according to the official definition, that it hasn’t been used for human consumption “to a significant degree” in the EU before 1997, and therefore can’t be brought to market without government approval.
Who gives the approval?
In the UK, the assessment is made by a department of the Food Standards Authority called the Novel Foods Unit, in central London. All EU states have similar organisations but Bioiberica decided to apply in the UK rather than Spain. “Foreign companies often come to us, either because of the English language, or because we’re extremely helpful,” says Novel Foods Unit adviser Manisha Upadhyay. They spent millions of pounds on scientific trials before the unit’s specialist committee of independent advisers assessed the findings and gave a view on whether that particular novelty is indeed fit for human consumption. They approved Mobilee in 2011, but their decision then had to be voted on by the rest of the EU’s member states, who said yes in December last year.
What’s consumable, what’s not?
Recent interest in eating insects has caused problems, too. The majority of insects haven’t been “widely consumed” in the EU so it should be illegal to sell fried cockroach, mealworm and the like. However, while it turns out that selling cockroach innards would be against the law, a whole cockroach is absolutely fine. Few people are aware of how many products Europe’s Novel Foods Units have kept off our shelves.
Among other delicacies, honey laced with bee venom was rejected (on the grounds that it could trigger allergies), as was powdered deer antler — said to help athletes recover more quickly from injury. Delectable cockerel yoghurt, however, should be on sale sometime later this year.
