Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes. Draft Minutes of the 149th meeting held on 15th September 2021

These minutes are subject to confirmation by the Committee.

Members are required to declare any personal interest in matters under discussion. Where Members have a particularly close association with any item, the Chairman will limit their involvement in the discussion. In cases where an item is to be discussed in their absence, a Member may make a statement before leaving.

This meeting took place online using Microsoft Teams.

Attendance

Committee Chair

Dr Camilla Alexander-White

Committee Members

Dr Anton Alldrick

Ms Alison Austin

Dr Mark Berry

Professor Susan Duthie

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait

Professor Paul Fraser

Dr Hamid Ghoddusi

Professor Wendy Harwood

Professor Huw Jones

Ms Nichola Lund

Dr Rohini Manuel

Mrs Rebecca McKenzie

Professor Clare Mills

Dr Lesley Stanley

Prof Hans Verhagen

Dr Maureen Wakefield

Dr Elizabeth Lund

Apologies

Professor Harry McArdle

Assessors

Mr Paul Tossell - Head of Radiological, GM, Novel Foods & Radiological Protection

Observers FSA

Dr Sabrina Roberts - FSA Senior GM Policy Advisor

Mr Hoa Chang - FSA GM Policy Advisor

Mr Shaun Jacobs - FSA Senior Policy Advisor

Ms Gemma Jones - FSA Novel Food Policy Advisor

Ms Natasha Gladstone - FSA Evidence Coordination

Ms Lisa Nelson - FSA Communications team

Mr Donal Griffin - Head of Regulated Products Risk Assessment (Feed and GM)

Dr Karin Heurlier - Regulated Products Risk Assessment

Team (RPRA)

Mrs Priscilla Wanjiru - RPRA

Mr Matt Hall - RPRA

Mr Will Smith - RPRA

Mrs Afielia Choudhry - RPRA

Dr Annalisa Leone - RPRA

Dr Andrew Hudson - RPRA

Dr Johann Trotter - RPRA

Ms Emma French - Exposure Assessment Team

Dr Rhoda Aminu - Exposure Assessment Team

Observers Devolved administration

Ms Alexia Sully Karlis - FSA Wales Policy Officer

Ms Sharon Gilmore - FSA NI Policy Officer

Ms Georgina Finch - Food Standards Scotland

Dr Marianne James - Food Standards Scotland

Dr Karen Pearson - Food Standards Scotland

Ms Krystle Boss - Food Standards Scotland

Ms Siobhan Watt - Food Standards Scotland

Observers (External)

Ms Claire Nicholson - Science Council

Prof George Gaskell - Advisory Committee on Social Sciences

Mr Steve Morgan - Department for Environment & Rural Affairs

Ms Ivy Wellman - Department for Environment & Rural Affairs

Secretariat

Mrs Ruth Willis - Technical Secretary

Mrs Erin Oliver - Lead Secretariat

Dr Francisco Matilla-Garcia - Senior Secretariat

 Dr Rachael J Oakenfull - Senior Secretariat

Dr Tahmina Khan - Senior Secretariat

Ms Hetty Gbormittah - Administrative Secretariat

Members are required to declare any personal interest in matters under discussion.

Where Members have a particularly close association with any item, the Chairman will limit their involvement in the discussion. In cases where an item is to be discussed in their absence, a Member may make a statement before leaving.

1. Apologies and announcements

Apologies were received from Professor Harry McArdle.

The Committee thanked Dr David Mela for his contribution to the Committee. Dr Mela has stepped down as the SACN representative for the ACNFP. Professor Sue Fairweather-Tait has taken on the role in addition to being a member of the ACNFP in her own right. She is also acting as a coordination point with UKNHCC in her role as the Chair of that Committee.

The ACNFP welcomed Dr Elizabeth Lund as a new member.

The Regulated Products team welcomed eight new colleagues who will also be involved with Secretariat work as needed: Mrs Priscilla Wanjiru, Dr Karin Heurlier, Mr Will Smith, Mrs Afielia Choudhry, Dr Andrew Hudson, Mr Matt Hall, Dr Johann Trotter and Dr Annalisa Leone.

Also, in attendance as observers and welcomed to the proceedings were Dr Rhoda Aminu and Ms Emma French, two new members of the Exposure Assessment team.

The Committee thanked Mr Richard Uchotski-Smith and Ms Hetty Gbormittah who are leaving the Secretariat and wished Mrs Erin Oliver and Dr Rachael Oakenfull well for their upcoming maternity leave.

2 . Meeting Minutes for 148th meeting

ACNFP/148/MINS

The Committee were content with the minutes of the 148th meeting of the ACNFP held on 9th June 2021. These were uploaded to the website on 9th September 2021.

3. Matters Arising from the last meeting.

ACNFP/149/MA

• At the previous meeting, the Committee discussed an application for Calcidiol as a novel nutrient source in food supplements. Further information had been requested from the applicant.
• The application for Go Wolffia as a traditional food from third countries had been discussed. The Secretariat drafted a summary of the Committee’s comments which were put out for a 10-day consultation to gather public comments so as to inform the assessment. No comments were received, and a finalised statement was provided to risk management colleagues in each of the nations  of the UK. 
• The cannabidiol (CBD) feedback statement discussed at the last meeting was sent to the applicant and the response of this was considered under item 6.
• The minor suggestions made to the Terms of Reference and Code of Practice were updated to the ACNFP website. 

4. Mung Bean Protein (Dossier Number RP 32)

ACNFP/149/01

The Committee reviewed the applicant’s response to the FSA’s request for further information following the consideration of the dossier at the April 2021 meeting. The members considered the quality and any remaining gaps in the evidence provided by the applicant on specification, quality assurance process, proposed use and intake, nutrition and toxicology. 

Members welcomed additional evidence provided. However, evidence gaps remained with regards to the details of the quality assurance process and in particular how pesticide residues are controlled.

 The Committee noted that a very limited dataset for toxicology had been provided based on the literature for mung beans. The Committee advised that further information on the protein isolate would be useful to provide more robust assurance for the safety of the novel food protein. 

Members reiterated their point of clarification as to how the novel food would be consumed in the proposed food categories and at what levels of intake in order to adequately inform both the safety and nutritional assessments.

Members advised that mung bean protein could in principle be allergenic in some consumers and that further information could in practice be generated on the potential for cross-reactivity in those with food allergies to legumes. It was advised that the next tier of allergy testing be considered to understand the nature of the risk of cross reactivity to mung bean protein in legume allergic consumers. 

Action: The Secretariat to request further information from the applicant. 

5. Barley Rice Protein (Dossier Number RP 19)

ACNFP/149/02 

Dr Anton Alldrick declared a historical conflict of interest with regards to Barley Rice Protein and did not contribute any comments to the discussion but was present as an observer. 

The Committee reviewed this application previously in the April 2021 meeting and identified several areas where further information would be useful to inform the safety evaluation. Consideration was made of the responses from the applicant on then Identity/Composition, Production Process, Proposed Use, Nutritional Information and Allergenicity aspects of the dossier. 

The Committee commented on the response from the applicant on how the relative proportions of starting materials (barley compared to rice) were managed. Evidence gaps were still identified in this regard. 

It was noted that a proportion of the product could contain proteins up to 30kDa. The applicant had been asked to provide further information on the consistency and reproducibility of the process, and whether any allergy issues could arise from the presence of proteins. Whilst some useful information was provided by the applicant, evidence gaps remained. 

The Committee evaluated the applicant’s response on the role that Barley Rice Protein would have in the diet. Evidence gaps remained on the likely intake of the product and what protein sources in the diet could be replaced. It would be useful for the applicant to provide some example scenarios to better evaluate any potential for use of the product to result in a nutritional disadvantage for consumers. The Committee reiterated their request for information on the potential presence of any antinutritional factors. Further information was sought on these points. 

Action: The Secretariat to request further information from the applicant. 

6. Cannabidiol (CBD) (Dossier Number RP 07)

ACNFP/149/03 

Dr Alldrick declared a potential conflict of interest relating to his previous employment and was not present during this item.

The Committee reviewed the response to the request for further information following consideration of this application (a synthetic form of CBD to be used in food supplements) for the first time in January 2021. 

The Committee reviewed the applicant’s response. 

Action: The Secretariat to request for further information from the applicant. 

Action: The Secretariat to feedback to the COT Secretariat the developments for this dossier for consideration on how this may influence wider thinking on CBD and the current advice to consumers. 

7. Update on Regulated Products

ACNFP/149/04 

The paper presented to the Committee provided an update on the FSA website for regulated products and the work to support these processes around Other Legitimate Factors (OLF’s). These were noted by the Committee and a few points of clarification raised. 

Members were updated on developments in this area and on the Government response to the information supplied by stakeholders during the Defra consultation on gene editing. Members had an initial discussion on the data needs for any assessment of a gene edited food or feed product. 

Action: Secretariat to summarise the initial thoughts of Members and prepare an output for further input by Members

9.1 Novel Food Policy Update - Oral 

The Committee was provided with an oral update on the issues under consideration regarding novel foods. 

9.2 GM Policy Update - Oral 

The Committee was provided with an oral update on the issues under consideration regarding GM. 

9.3 SACS Update - Written 

The Committee was provided with a written update on the activities of the different  SACs. 

10. Any Other Business

• The next SACS meeting will be on 11th November 2021. 
• The Secretariat to be in touch with the Chair in the coming days to discuss potential meetings dates for 2022 which will be circulated ASAP. 

11. Date of next meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for 24th November 2021. Possibility of a face-to-face meeting is being considered.