Better enforcement is good, and an absolutely necessity, if we're going to have a centralized system run the "regulatory approval agency." The problem is, however, that companies are not going to Europe to identify "for thousands of years," but are looking to their pocketbooks.
NOTE: I wrote out this example while I still thought gellan gum was GRAS. But I learned, through researching and writing this comment, that gellan gum is FDA approved through the Code of Federal Regulations. (4) Still, I think this example of gellan gum could be in lieu of the types of materials that could be classified as GRAS before they're used.
An example is gellan gum within Oat Milk. What is it? It's an artificial thickener that has the benefit of not being broken down in your stomach. (1, 2) Gellan gum is derived from soy beans. (1) Gellan gum may be used to deliver medications into your digestive tract by preventing degradation in your stomach's HCl. Gellan gum was FDA approved in 1996 (3, 4), but I am not aware of any studies to see if it impacts your microvilli and their ability to absorb nutrients.
Why not use rice flour or potato starch? Why immediately jump to gellan gum? Because it's cheaper.
Progress and opportunities in Gellan gum-based materials: A review of preparation, characterization and emerging applications, D. Gomes et al., Carbohydrate Polymers, Elsevier Publishing, Volume 311, 1 July 2023, 120782, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144861723002461
Better enforcement is good, and an absolutely necessity, if we're going to have a centralized system run the "regulatory approval agency." The problem is, however, that companies are not going to Europe to identify "for thousands of years," but are looking to their pocketbooks.
NOTE: I wrote out this example while I still thought gellan gum was GRAS. But I learned, through researching and writing this comment, that gellan gum is FDA approved through the Code of Federal Regulations. (4) Still, I think this example of gellan gum could be in lieu of the types of materials that could be classified as GRAS before they're used.
An example is gellan gum within Oat Milk. What is it? It's an artificial thickener that has the benefit of not being broken down in your stomach. (1, 2) Gellan gum is derived from soy beans. (1) Gellan gum may be used to deliver medications into your digestive tract by preventing degradation in your stomach's HCl. Gellan gum was FDA approved in 1996 (3, 4), but I am not aware of any studies to see if it impacts your microvilli and their ability to absorb nutrients.
Why not use rice flour or potato starch? Why immediately jump to gellan gum? Because it's cheaper.
Progress and opportunities in Gellan gum-based materials: A review of preparation, characterization and emerging applications, D. Gomes et al., Carbohydrate Polymers, Elsevier Publishing, Volume 311, 1 July 2023, 120782, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144861723002461
Gellan gum in drug delivery applications, M. Milivojevic et al., Natural Polysaccharides in Drug Delivery and Biomedical Applications, Academic Presss, Elsevier Publishing, 2019, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amit-Verma-46/publication/334698942_Locust_bean_gum_in_drug_delivery_application/links/5ed010dc92851c9c5e65d5f1/Locust-bean-gum-in-drug-delivery-application.pdf#page=172
https://www.hfpappexternal.fda.gov/scripts/fdcc/index.cfm?set=FoodSubstances&id=GELLANGUM
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-172/subpart-G/section-172.665
Edit: Fixed grammar in the first paragraph.