Goodbye goji

It might be the Viagra of all superfruits, but time is rapidly running out for the humble goji berry - at least in the EU - unless somebody, somewhere, provides regulators with compelling evidence that that it was consumed here in significant quantities before May 1997.

Yes, Regulation EC258/97(Novel Food) has reared its ugly head once again, reminding anyone who has not had the pleasure of dealing with it just how ripe it is for reform (FIHN, Jan/Feb p9).

To cut a long story short, if no evidence is found to satisfy the authorities that someone was happily munching on gojis somewhere in Europe before May 1997, they will be considered 'novel' and banned from sale in the EU until they have been formally authorised under the Novel Food Regulation.

With no goji berry association in existence - at least not yet - it's not clear whether an individual firm or a consortium of interested parties will consider making an application under the Regulation. What is clear, though, is that under the current system, there is no such thing as a generic authorisation, and even if the applicant or group of applicants are successful, anyone else wishing to sell this particular superfruit will have to make a fresh application under the Regulation to prove their goji berries or juice are "substantially equivalent" to the original applicant's.

In the case of the humble goji berry, this all seems rather silly, point out legal experts, many of whom claim that the current inability to provide generic authorisations is effectively an illegal barrier to trade given that no natural substance is meant to be granted intellectual property protection.

But there is also confusion on the ground as to how a potential 'ban' would be enforced in the meantime, say traders. While large companies like Tesco will no doubt stop stocking berries if the berries are deemed novel, smaller firms say they are confused by the UK Food Standards Agency's vague guidance on this matter: "There are no immediate safety concerns over goji berries, and local authorities will take this into account when deciding on appropriate enforcement action."

Meanwhile, leading dried fruit suppliers such as Whitworths have suspended all goji development plans, leaving the market in limbo, says Merlin Edwards, a trader at UK Goji importer Freeworld Trading. "Everything is on ice as we wait to see what happens. It's really frustrating."

David Vines, a director at health food company Rude Health Foods, says the situation is "completely farcical". He adds: "This is going to kill the market. Small companies like ours can't afford to conduct expensive toxicity tests. This legislation was clearly not designed to assess simple fruits that have been safely consumed outside the EU for thousands of years. We at Rude Health are bemused and still eating gojis."

Going, goji, gone?

With celebrity backers spanning both sides of the Atlantic, the goji, or Chinese wolfberry, is the superfruit of choice, packed with more vitamin C than oranges, more beta-carotene than carrots and more iron than steak, weight for weight.

It's also a great source of B vitamins and antioxidants, with many importers and overenthusiastic nutritionists making a bewildering series of (largely unsubstantiated) claims about its powers to boost the immune system, improve hearing and eyesight, boost liver function, maintain healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, strengthen bones and tendons, burn fat, build muscle, increase libido and enhance fertility.

A deep-red, dried fruit about the same size as a raisin, the goji tastes something like a cross between a cranberry and a cherry, and is now lurking in breakfast cereals, cereal bars, smoothies, juices and energy drinks as manufacturers have rushed to cash in on its newfound superfruit status.

The fruit of the Lycium Barbarum vine - native to China, Tibet and Mongolia - the goji has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years.