Aloe vera wins legal battle in Europe; ban on its use in food overturned

Published 2024년 11월 15일

Tridge summary

The General Court of the European Union has reversed a ban on the use of Aloe Vera preparations in food inputs, a restriction imposed by the European Commission in 2021 due to health concerns raised by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2017. The court found no evidence of consumer risk and criticized the Commission for overstepping its boundaries by banning botanical preparations. The decision, which has significant implications for the nutrition and nutricosmetic industries, highlights the importance of scientific rigor in such measures and is expected to influence the Commission's risk management decisions and EFSA's hazard versus risk approach in the future.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

After three and a half years of litigation, the General Court of the European Union finally annulled the ban on the use of Aloe Vera preparations as a food input. This ban had been imposed by the European Commission in March 2021 and was based on a scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued in 2017, which stated that the use of aloe vera extracts was harmful to health. This stigma was now dismissed by the court as it found no evidence of risks to the consumer in the files. In this sense, the legal authorities understood that it was an excess, due to the Commission limiting the production of all those botanical species that contained hydroxyanthracene derivatives (HAD), among which were aloe vera extracts. The decision had a great impact on the nutrition and nutricosmetic industries. “The Commission has no power to ban botanical preparations under this regulation and the court agreed that the Commission had overstepped its bounds,” said Brian Kelly, a ...

Source: Bichos de campo