The tropically-sourced Morinda citrifolia, or noni plant, has already been approved for use in juice products under the bloc’s Novel Foods regulation, despite conflicting research into its safety, in its relatively short time of availability.
However, EFSA has allowed for an extension of the plants use in EU drink formulations at specific intake levels after a manufacturer submitted an application for using dried and roasted noni leaves in tea infusions.
Novel foods
Europe's novel foods regulation (EC No 258/97) was introduced in 1997 and requires any food not commonly consumed in the EU prior to May 1997 to undergo rigorous safety assessment before it can be brought to market.
Proposed amendments to this rule were put out last month by EFSA in a bid to simplify and centralise the novel foods authorisation process to encourage greater product innovation.
Infusion study
As part of scientific testing of the leaves for novel foods approval, EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies said that researchers had looked at tea consumption figures according to UK national diet and nutrition surveys and the compositional qualities of the leaves.
The noni leaf infusions are produced by steeping the 1 gram of the prepared leaves in 240 ml of hot water at about 100 degrees Celsius for ten minutes, according to the applicant.
By assessing average UK tea consumption levels, EFSA said it had looked to determine the potential intake limits of the ingredient.
Researchers then subjected the leaves to standard drying and roasting procedures, which is said did not give rise to safety concerns for the product.
Supplied compositional data on different batches of dried and roasted M. citrifolia leaves sourced from French Polynesia also did not point to detrimental nutritional impacts from consumption in a dried and roasted state.
The panel ruled therefore that the highest recommended intake of the product was a daily dose at 18.4 mg/kg bodyweight (bw) for a 70 kg adult. The same BW figure for males between 15 and 18 years of age was 11.5 mg/kg at a body weight of 60kg, EFSA said.
The panel did stress some concerns at current limitations of using data acquired from animal tests to predict similar allergenicity of human subjects though.
Fruit appeal
The approval of noni leaves in infusions follows on from similar approvals of the plant’s fruit to be used in juice production.
The noni plant is one of a number of antioxidant fruits, including pomegranate, guarana, mangosteen, goji berries and blueberries, which are increasingly seen by food and beverage makers as up and coming ingredients.
Leatherhead Foods predicts that sales of such heart health foods will rise nearly 60 per cent over the 2004-2009 period to reach nearly $5.7bn by 2009. Although it said in its recent "Heart Benefit Foods" report that, until now, juice drinks have tended to have a general health positioning due to their antioxidant content, there are signs that this may be about to change.
Noni juice concerns
Some case reports have surfaced since the decision was made, which link adverse health affects with consumption of the juice.
However, in a review of genotoxicity data on the juice from the Tahitian Noni International in collaboration with the University Medical School of Hamburgs Department of Toxicology, researchers claimed that consuming the product had negligible risk.
The review suggested that reports of potential adverse effects of the juice were "disparate" due to confounding factors such as other ingredients in the juice, and people also taking Chinese herbs or prescription drugs.
"This review has drawn together, for the first time, documented food usages and formal safety studies. It appears that noni juice is as safe as other common fruit juices," wrote lead author Brett West in the Institute of Food Technologists' Journal of Food Science (Vol. 71, pp. R100-R105).