India Advocates for Updated Probiotic Guidelines and Nutrient Standards
India
Oct 07, 2024
India participated in the 44th session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) held in Dresden, Germany from October 2 to October 6, 2024. As a key contributor, India made pivotal interventions on significant agenda items. It provided valuable insights on nutrient reference values for persons aged 6 to 36 months and extended its support to frame harmonized probiotic guidelines for foods and food supplements. Countries like Canada, Chile, New Zealand, and several others backed India's views.
Playing a pivotal part in creating harmonized guidelines for probiotics, India highlighted that the current Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/ World Health Organization (WHO) documents on probiotics are two decades old and need revision in light of scientific advancements. Additionally, India emphasized the lack of international harmonization in probiotic regulation guidelines, which may impede global trade practices. The Committee agreed to revisit these guidelines and requested FAO and WHO to conduct a review of the documents ‘Health & Nutrition Properties of Probiotics in Food including powder milk with Live Lactic Acid Bacteria’ (2001) & ‘Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food’ (2002), incorporating a literature review of scientific evidence on probiotics and come up with a new work proposal for reconsideration of CCNFSDU.
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