NOSB to Remove Five Nonorganic Substances from List of Allowed Substances

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Standards Board
(NOSB) has removed five non-organic nonagricultural substances—egg
white lysozyme, cyclohexylamine, diethylaminoethanol, octadecylamine,
and tetrasodium pyrophosphate—from the National List of Allowed and
Prohibited Substances governing the use of synthetic and non-synthetic
substances in organic food production and handling. After determining
that these substances “are no longer necessary or essential for organic
handling” based on public comments and supporting documents, NOSB
decided to let their use exemptions expire on September 12, 2016.

According to NOSB, suitable alternatives or new processing and handling
practices have eliminated the need for (i) egg white lysozyme as a
“processing aid/preservative for controlling bacteria that survived the
pasteurization process of milk that is used for cheese manufacture”; (ii)
cyclohexylamine, diethylaminoethanol and octadecylamine “for use only
as a boiler water additive for packaging sterilization”; and (iii) tetrasodium
pyrophosphate “for use only in meat analog products.” See Federal
Register, August 3, 2016.

Issue 613