novel food

What a confusing world we live in where milk isn’t milk anymore and we have become doubtful about what exactly is in a sausage.  Well, we always were doubtful about how much meat was in it but now we can expect that there is no meat at all.

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand has had to weigh in on this, first of all to establish exactly what a novel food is and then to make the rules that govern them.  According to them a novel food is a non-traditional food that has to be checked by them to make sure it is safe to eat.

Non-traditional food sounds vague to me but the government body set up to establish whether a food is non-traditional or not defines it very simply as a food that does not have a history of consumption in Australia or New Zealand. This could be food from a foreign country, or a new food ingredient, or food from a new production method.

To establish a pattern of consumption in Australia it needs to be shown that the food has been there for fifty years rather than five, that it has been consumed all over the country (not just in some tiny corner of it) and that it has been in day-today use (not just produced for ceremonial occasions). This is rather like establishing currency for a word.

Once it is decided that a food is non-traditional it goes back to the Food Standards people for a decision on whether it is safe to eat or not.  Given that we now have meat that has never been part of an animal that trod the earth and concoctions that are assorted chemicals mixed into a foam, advice on novel foods is much needed.