Is Cascara ACTUALLY Banned? Mixed Messages in The EU

News has struck that cascara, tea made from the dried fruit of coffee cherries, is “banned”. The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has reportedly even raided coffee shops to confiscate it, claiming EU law as the problem. But is it really? We decided to do a little research into this.

Why Are People Saying That Cascara Is Banned?

James Hoffmann summarises the situation in this five-minute video. Watch it – and then read on find out what we discovered when we investigated further.

SEE ALSO: Cascara: How to Brew Coffee Cherry Tea in 2 VIDEOS

But Is Cascara ACTUALLY Banned?

Selling any food or beverage requires meeting certain legal standards – one that define what “food” is, how it’s labelled, and determine acceptable standards. Since cascara tea is a relatively new addition to coffee shops in the EU, the regulation that applies here is novel foods. The EU defines this as “food that has not been consumed to a significant degree by humans in the EU prior to 1997”.

Screenshot from The European Commission Food Standards website.

This means cascara needs to be evaluated by the European Commission before it can be sold as a food product – and there are reports that Danish shop The Coffee Collective have already submitted an application for cascara. But when we went to the list of Applications for Authorisation and their Status, it wasn’t listed.

Confused? So were we. Until we checked the Novel Food Catalogue and found this:

Screenshot from The European Commission Food Standards website.

Yes, that’s right – that’s cascara. With a green tick. Which according to the website, means…

Screenshot from The European Commission Food Standards website.

So is cascara banned in the UK? Well, if it is, it’s not because of this particular EU law. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not banned because of other laws. Equally, this could be a recent status update that only came into effect after the UK raids. It’s a murky situation, with the experts being the same Food Standards Agency that has reportedly been confiscating cascara.

Should I Stop Selling Cascara?

As the European Commission’s website says, “it is recommended to check with the national competent authorities”. But if they do claim that Novel Food Regulations are the issue, feel free to show them this and ask for further clarification.

Feature photo credit: Migle Seikyte via Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Please note: Perfect Daily Grind does not own the rights to these videos and cannot be held accountable for their content.

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