Overview
The EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens assessed a dried Wolffia globosa powder grown under controlled conditions in sealed basins. The opinion prints the applicant’s analyses of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury in nine batches and 23 other elements in seven batches, plus trace elements in six batches made after the fertiliser was changed.
Key numbers
- Lead: 0.05 to 0.92 mg/kg in batches 1-7, and 0.112 and 0.222 mg/kg in batches 8-9 (Table 2 and footnote c).
- Arsenic: below 0.1 to 0.3 mg/kg; cadmium below 0.01 to 0.06 mg/kg (Table 2).
- Mercury below the reporting limit in eight of nine batches; 0.014 mg/kg in batch 6 (Table 2).
- Manganese fell from 197-292 mg/kg to 59.6-116.4 mg/kg after the fertiliser change (Tables 2 and 3).
Methods (brief)
Heavy metals were measured by ICP-MS (EN 15763:2009 and modified AOAC methods) at a contract laboratory; other elements by ICP-OES or ICP-MS. Detection limits are shown only as ”<” values, and no reference-material data are printed.
Evidence Fitness
Manufacturer-supplied data on one producer’s batches, reported by a regulator, with single values per batch and no growing country stated. It measures Wolffia (a water lentil) powder directly, so it supports the water-lentils page as industry batch data rather than market occurrence.
Related evidence
- Water lentils
- Safety of water lentil powder from Lemnaceae as a Novel Food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283
- Technical Report on the notification of fresh plants of Wolffia arrhiza and Wolffia globosa as a traditional food from a third country pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2283
- Cultivation of Wolffia globosa and its application in functional food development
- Lead
- Arsenic
- Cadmium
- Manganese