Goji berries are saved!

Those nice people at the Food Standards Agency have decreed that we can carry on selling you goji berries.

It was on the cards that they could be banned under the Novel Foods Act.

What on earth is the Novel Foods act I hear you ask, well listen up:

"In the European Union (EU), a food is judged to be novel if it was not eaten in a significant quantity in Europe before May 1997. According to the EU Novel Foods Regulation (EC) 258/97, new foods must be shown to meet three criteria before they can be authorised for sale: they must not be unsafe, their labelling must not be misleading and their nutritional quality must not be inferior to other similar foods that they could replace".

The Food Standards Agency justify this restriction by claiming that:

"This regulation provides important safeguards for consumers by checking whether new foods are suitable for the whole population, including people with food allergies"

The fact that Goji berries have been consumed by the Chinese and Tibetans for thousands of years without any problem cuts no ice with the FSA, we are British after all.

Enjoy your Gojis