Table 1: Summary of issues Issue Raised by FSANZ response FSANZ to develop a proposal to amend the Code to Australian Food & Grocery Noted. However, extension of current permissions to add amend the permissions to add plant sterols to all Council (AFGC) plant sterols to all current food categories is out of scope in current food categories, not just breakfast cereals, Lion Dairy & Drinks (Lion) terms of this Application. Industry groups or food companies i.e. milk, cheese and processed cheese, yoghurt Raisio Nutrition Limited (for can apply at any time to increase the maximum permitted and edible oil spreads, at the higher levels yoghurt) levels for other food categories. proposed for this Application. That is up to 2.2 g of Dairy Australia plant sterol equivalents per serve. The reason for this is to ensure consistent levels in the different food categories so providing benefits to consumers. A number of the current permissions for other food categories have maximum permissions per serve which are below those proposed for breakfast cereals, putting these industries at a disadvantage. FSANZ should be more circumspect in future and AFGC Noted. As described in section 2.2, FSANZ used two methods restrict the use of for in the dietary exposure assessment. In the first approach it ‘worst case’ scenarios Dietary Exposure Assessments to the plausible was assumed 2.2 g from a single serve of plant but improbable, rather than the implausible and breakfast cereal was added to the plant sterol impossible. exposure estimated from food consumption data reported in 2011-13 Australian Health Survey (AHS). This was in line with the Application. The second approach was a more conservative one as estimated exposures from a broader permission to add plant sterols at the maximum amount proposed for all breakfast cereals that meet the specified nutrient criteria were added to current estimated dietary exposures. In line with a tiered approach to risk assessment, it was not considered necessary to further refine the dietary exposure estimate as there were no safety concerns identified using the conservative approach.
Table 1: Summary of issues Issue Raised by FSANZ response FSANZ to develop a proposal to amend the Code to amend the permissions to add plant sterols to all current food categories, not just breakfast cereals, i.e. milk, cheese and processed cheese, yoghurt and edible oil spreads, at the higher levels proposed for this Application. That is up to 2.2 g of plant sterol equivalents per serve. The reason for this is to ensure consistent levels in the different food categories so providing benefits to consumers. A number of the current permissions for other food categories have maximum permissions per serve which are below those proposed for breakfast cereals, putting these industries at a disadvantage. Australian Food & Grocery Council (AFGC) Lion Dairy & Drinks (Lion) Raisio Nutrition Limited (for yoghurt) Dairy Australia Noted. However, extension of current permissions to add plant sterols to all current food categories is out of scope in terms of this Application. Industry groups or food companies can apply at any time to increase the maximum permitted levels for other food categories. FSANZ should be more circumspect in future and restrict the use of ‘worst case’ scenarios for Dietary Exposure Assessments to the plausible but improbable, rather than the implausible and impossible. AFGC Noted. As described in section 2.2, FSANZ used two methods in the dietary exposure assessment. In the first approach it was assumed 2.2 g from a single serve of plant breakfast cereal was added to the plant sterol exposure estimated from food consumption data reported in 2011-13 Australian Health Survey (AHS). This was in line with the Application. The second approach was a more conservative one as estimated exposures from a broader permission to add plant sterols at the maximum amount proposed for all breakfast cereals that meet the specified nutrient criteria were added to current estimated dietary exposures. In line with a tiered approach to risk assessment, it was not considered necessary to further refine the dietary exposure estimate as there were no safety concerns identified using the conservative approach.