In its recent opinion concerning the re-evaluation of the additive guar gum (E 412) for infants below 16 weeks of age the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that the submitted data are not sufficient to support the safe use of guar gum (E 412) in food for infants (below and above 16 weeks of age) and young children under the food categories (FC) 13.1.1, 13.1.5.1 and 13.1.5.2 according to Regulation 1333/2008 (EFSA Journal. 2024;22:e8748).

Guar gum (E 412) was already re-evaluated as food additive by EFSA in 2017. However, EFSA recommended that additional data should be generated to assess the potential health effects of guar gum (E 412) when used in “dietary foods for infants for special medical purposes and special formulae for infant” (food category (FC) 13.1.5.1 according to Regulation 1333/2008) and in “dietary foods for babies and young children for special medical purposes as defined in Directive 1999/21/EC” (FC 13.1.5.2) (EFSA Journal 2017; 15(2):4669)

For this reason, EFSA was commissioned by EU Commission with a follow-up. In addition to the safety assessment of guar gum (E 412) for the specific group of infants below 16 weeks of age (including infant formula (FC 13.1.1), FC 13.1.5.1 and 13.1.5.2), the issues already identified in 2017 during the re-evaluation of the food additive when used in food for the general population should be clarified.

EFSA concluded that the submitted technical data support further amendments of the specifications for guar gum (E 412) laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012, including a lowering of the maximum levels for heavy metals.

With the publication of the current EFSA assessment, the re-evaluation of E 412 is now completed.