Novel food

Bioeconomy Knowledge Centre

Means any food that was not used for human consumption to a significant degree within the Union before 15 May 1997, irrespective of the dates of accession of Member States to the Union, and that falls under at least one of the following categories:

(i) food with a new or intentionally modified molecular structure, where that structure was not used as, or in, a food within the Union before 15 May 1997;

(ii) food consisting of, isolated from or produced from microorganisms, fungi or algae;

(iii) food consisting of, isolated from or produced from material of mineral origin;

(iv) food consisting of, isolated from or produced from plants or their parts, except when the food has a history of safe food use within the Union and is consisting of, isolated from or produced from a plant or a variety of the same species obtained by:

traditional propagating practices which have been used for food production within the Union before 15 May 1997; or
non-traditional propagating practices which have not been used for food production within the Union before 15 May 1997, where those practices do not give rise to significant changes in the composition or structure of the food affecting its nutritional value, metabolism or level of undesirable substances;

(v) food consisting of, isolated from or produced from animals or their parts, except for animals obtained by traditional breeding practices which have been used for food production within the Union before 15 May 1997 and the food from those animals has a history of safe food use within the Union;

(vi) food consisting of, isolated from or produced from cell culture or tissue culture derived from animals, plants, micro-organisms, fungi or algae;

(vii) food resulting from a production process not used for food production within the Union before 15 May 1997, which gives rise to significant changes in the composition or structure of a food, affecting its nutritional value, metabolism or level of undesirable substances;

(viii) food consisting of engineered nanomaterials as defined in point (f) of this paragraph;

(ix) vitamins, minerals and other substances used in accordance with Directive 2002/46/EC, Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006 or Regulation (EU) No 609/2013, where:

a production process not used for food production within the Union before 15 May 1997 has been applied as referred to in point (a) (vii) of this paragraph; or
they contain or consist of engineered nanomaterials as defined in point (f) of this paragraph;

(x) food used exclusively in food supplements within the Union before 15 May 1997, where it is intended to be used in foods other than food supplements as defined in point (a) of Article 2 of Directive 2002/46/EC.

Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on novel foods, amending Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Regulation (EC) No 258/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1852/2001 (Text with EEA relevance)

Source category: EU Legislation

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Reference description	EU, 2015
Originally Published	19 Mar 2025
Knowledge service \| Metadata	Bioeconomy Knowledge Centre
Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET)	novel food Food

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