• What is Novel Food ?

Novel Food is defined as food that has no traditional eating habits in China:

(1) Animals, plants and microorganisms;

(2) Components separated from animals, plants and microorganisms;

(3) Food ingredients whose original structure has changed;

(4) Other newly developed food ingredients.

Among them, "traditional eating habits" refers to the fact that a certain food has been produced and distributed as a stereotyped or non-stereotyped packaged food in the provincial jurisdiction for more than 30 years, and it has not been included in "People's Republic of China Pharmacopoeia".

Novel Food should have the characteristics of food ingredients, meet the nutritional requirements, be non-toxic and harmless, and do not cause any acute, subacute, chronic or other potential harm to human health.

• Request for a Novel Food authorisation

Food business operators can place a Novel Food on the China market only after the State Health Administrative Department has approved an application for the authorisation of a Novel Food. Substances that have been listed in the "National Standard for Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" and "National Standard for Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Nutrition Enhancers" are not within the scope of application.

The State Health Administrative Department shall, according to the conclusion of the safety review of Novel Food, grant permission and make an announcement to those who meet the food safety requirements. 

• The use of Novel Food

The announcements of Novel Food include their conditions of use, labelling requirements, and their specifications.

Before using Novel Food, food business operators should carefully consult the original announcement of Novel Food, and fully understand the contents of the announcement, including edible parts, eating methods, consumption, production technology, quality specifications, scope of use, unsuitable people, etc., to avoid misuse of Novel Food.

For example, "Panax Ginseng C.A.Meyer" is clearly stated in the basic information column of the announcement of Novel Food: "Source: Ginseng planted artificially for 5 years or less", indicating that ginseng planted artificially for more than 5 years is not in the approved category of Novel Food. Another example, the announcement of "Lithocarpus litseifolius folium" clearly states that the edible part is tender leaves (buds) and the edible method is brewing, so other parts that are not within the scope of the announcement, or the edible method is different from the announcement, are also not within the scope of the announcement of Novel Food.

• Retrieval of Novel Food

As a convenient query tool, the Novel Food database of Foodmate.net summarizes the information of Novel Food that has been approved over the years, and provides the original text of the announcement of Novel Food and related replies. Query link: http://db.foodmate.net/xinshipin/.