Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) was asked to deliver an opinion on UV-treated milk as a novel food submitted pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 258/97, taking into account the comments and objections of a scientific nature raised by Member States. The novel food is cow’s milk (whole, semi-skimmed or skimmed) to which a treatment with ultraviolet (UV) radiation is applied after pasteurisation in order to extend the shelf life of the milk. This treatment results in an increase in the vitamin D3 concentrations. The Panel considers that the provided compositional data, the specifications and the data from batch testing do not give rise to safety concerns. The data provided on the production process are sufficient and do not give rise to safety concerns. The target group is the general population with the exclusion of infants (up to 1 year of age).
You need to be a member of safefood Knowledge Network to add comments!
Comments
Interesting to read that the proposal here is to use UV treatment in addition to pasteurisation for liquid milk. The focus of the EFSA opinion is on its use to boost vitamin D levels of milk, but there would also be some microbial inactivation by UV treatment. I did some research on impact of UV treatment of milk on Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis inactivation some years ago. The dose mentioned in the EFSA Opinion (1000 J/L) caused a 0.5-1 log reduction in numbers of viable MAP suspended in milk. HTST pasteurisation alone doesn't necessarily guarantee the inactivation of all viable MAP in milk, maybe the combined effect of heat and UV might do the trick. Link to our published research: Altic et al. 2007 UV effects on MAP