Minutes of the AEJEG 1st June 2023 meeting

Meeting of the Committee at 10:00 on Tuesday 1st June 2023 via Microsoft Teams.

Contents 

Announcements

1. The chair welcomes Members and other attendees. 

Interests 

2. No conflicts of interest were declared. 

Item 1: Apologies for absence 

3. Apologies were received from Olwenn Martin, as well as Claude Lambré who joined at 12:30 and Qasim Chaudhry who left at 12:30. 

Item 2: Minutes from the last meeting  

4. Members were presented with the minutes of the AEJEG meeting held on 25th April 2023. 

5. The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as accurate record. 

Item 3: Application for the authorisation of soy legume haemoglobin (shortened to soy leghemoglobin) derived from Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) (RP733) as a flavouring precursor for plant-based meat alternatives in the United Kingdom (UK) (RP733) – Update Paper 

6. The AEJEG was presented with and asked to evaluate the applicant’s response to a request for further information (RFI) for application RP733 received on 6th April. This is an application for the authorisation of soy legume haemoglobin (shortened to soy leghemoglobin) derived from Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) for use as a flavouring precursor for plant-based meat alternatives in the United Kingdom (UK). The RFI was sent following the meeting of the AEJEG on the 13th of February. 

7. The answers to the RFI questions provided by the applicant were reviewed by the members. Whilst one answer was agreed to be satisfactory, members agreed that the answer to the second question needed further discussion at a later stage.  

Application for the authorisation of soy legume haemoglobin (shortened to soy leghemoglobin) derived from Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) (RP733) as a flavouring precursor for plant-based meat alternatives in the United Kingdom (UK) (RP733) – Cover Paper.  

8. Members were presented with the cover paper for the application for the authorisation of soy legume haemoglobin (shortened to soy leghemoglobin) derived from Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) as a flavouring precursor for plant-based meat alternatives in the United Kingdom.  Members were previously presented with this application during the AEJEG meeting on the 13th of February, however time limitations meant they were unable to discuss the full dossier, discussion for this application was resumed during this meeting. 

9. Overall, the AEJEG was not satisfied with the information provided in terms of allergenicity, thermal degradation and characterization. 

10. Members stated that the information submitted by the applicant was not sufficient to allow for the evaluation of the proposal for the approval of soy leghemoglobin for use as a flavouring precursor. Based on the above information, it was agreed that the Secretariat would prepare questions which would be circulated to the AEJEG, prior to being included in an RFI letter to be sent to the Applicant. This item would be revisited upon receipt of the requested additional information. 

Item 4: RP1112 Advice of the AEJEG on the safety of the Application for the approval of steviol glycosides (E 960) from stevia leaf extract from Fermentation  

11. The AEJEG were to be presented with a draft Committee Advice Paper for the modification of the existing specifications for E 960 Steviol Glycosides to allow for the inclusion of the production of Rebaudioside M (Reb M) by fermentation with a genetically modified production strain of S. cerevisiae.   

12. Due to time constraints the AEJEG were unable to review the draft Committee Advice Paper within the June AEJEG meeting.   

13. In summary, the AEJEG agreed that an RFI may potentially be required, and this would be decided via correspondence. In addition, the AEJEG agreed they would review the document offline with the initial aim to finalise the Advice document, only revisiting the document in a later meeting if required.  

Item 9: Any Other Business 

14. Following the last meeting of the AEJEG, Members requested via correspondence if a discussion could be held to determine a consistent approach in assessing impurities, and questioned if either some guidance or a flow chart could be developed for this scope. A Member noted the question of finding an acceptable level of impurities would be complex as it includes substances which may not be identified or quantified which could still have toxic effects at extremely low concentrations. A Member continued that this would lead to questions on the sensitivity of analytical methods and toxicity studies, including genotoxicity. 

15. This discussion was continued during the meeting, with Members questioning if it was possible to produce guidance for the levels of impurities which would be deemed acceptable, in addition to guidance regarding how current a literature search used in an application should be.  

16. Members noted the AEJEG had previously discussed impurity levels and it was stated impurities should be treated on a case by case basis as impurities vary with regards to their toxicological profiles, members agreed the levels of impurity should be kept as low as possible.  

17. Members highlighted that the type of application and level of use would also need to be assessed when considering if the level of impurities is satisfactory, noting flavourings typically have very low use levels where in contrast nutritional sources have significantly higher, resulting in a higher level of concern. As such, Members stated there cannot be a set guidance level for impurities as this would not consider these outcomes, so a case by case approach should be utilized for each application. 

18. Members were reminded to bring ID to the in-person meeting in Clive House, London for the next smoke flavouring AEJEG meeting on 12th June.  

Date of next meeting 

19. Members were reminded the next standard AEJEG meeting would be on Thursday 20th July.