Call for input data for the Exposure Assessment of Food Enzymes - 23rd Call

23rd Call: Input data for the Exposure Assessment of Food Enzymes

Food manufacturing process

• Production of plant extracts

Different from an earlier call-for-data focusing on aqueous extracts from plant materials^[1], this call considers plant extracts that are obtained with enzymatic treatments of plant materials and selectively extracted with solvents in order to obtain ingredients such as vanillin, carotenoids, etc. These extracts are used for a variety of purposes in food and beverage applications, including but not limited to colouring agents, flavouring enhancement.

Food products containing plant extracts as an ingredient could not be easily identified in the EFSA Raw Primary Commodity (RPC) model^[2]. The selection of food categories was aided by information available in databases such as Mintel’s Global New Products Database (http://www.mintel.com/global-new-products-database). Feedback is sought, therefore, particularly on (i) which foods contain such type of plant extracts as an ingredient?; (ii) whether the proposed f1 values are representative for different plant source materials?; (iii) whether plant essence used in food applications can be regarded always free of any food enzyme TOS residues? What are the evidence?

Instruction for completing the attached MS Excel ® file

Sheet 1 contains a legend for the information given in Sheet 2.

EFSA is seeking your feedback on the information listed in the Excel file concerning the FoodEx categories(column B), and the associated technical factors for the production of plant extracts (columns D; F-G).

1. For FoodEx categories (column B), should any food group be excluded? Or are there any food groups missing from the list?

In column I, please indicate ‘Remove’ for food groups to be excluded, and list any additionally proposed food groups with the corresponding FoodEx category at the end of this column.

The FoodEx categories are available in the FoodEx list (Sheet 3).

2. In columns D;F-G, the average technical conversion factor (f1) and the average recipe fractions (f2) and the percentage of FoodEx category containing plant extracts (f3) mainly derived from the EFSA RPC Model and open information sources are listed.

The average technical conversion factor (f1) for plant extracts was calculated as an average of the yield factors of different type of extracts, on the basis of the information provided in food enzyme applications.

Paprika and rosemary are mentioned as food additives in Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 for several food products, but this does not exclude that other plants extracts could be used as ingredient in the same foods. This is the reason why an average value for all the type of plant extracts is proposed. Feedback is sought whether this assumption is correct and if the proposed value is truthful. Failing that, information concerning the technical conversion factors (f1) for each type of extract is requested, together with the list of food products that could contain each specific extract.

The average technical conversion factor (f1) for vanilla extract can be retrieved from a patent^[3] publicly available on the web. Feedback is sought whether the proposed value is still valid and representative.

If you do not agree with any one of the listed technical factors, keeping in mind that there can be some variation between foods in each category, please propose an alternative average factor for the respective FoodEx category in columns J-L.

For transparency purposes, please provide a short text using columns K-M to justify any feedback given. Any references should be provided in the last column.

Submission of data

Data should be submitted directly to EFSA using the dedicated e-mail address for this service: RAL [at] efsa.europa.eu (RAL[at]efsa[dot]europa[dot]eu). This mailbox is also the contact point for any technical support/advice you need for the reporting of this data.

Please, be informed that data should be submitted only via internet-based platforms (i.e. we-transfer). EFSA will no longer accept attachments.