Colloides Naturels Inc. (CNI), a major supplier of gum Arabic, also known as gum acacia, reports that tests indicating there was peanut in the ingredient were a false positive.
The issue first came up about a month ago after one of CNI’s customers filed a report to the Reportable Food Registry after finding peanut in flavors in a batch of gum acacia Senegal.
Since then, the Somerville, N.J.-based company has worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to determine whether its product in fact contained peanuts.
The company claims it hired specialists, worked with different institutions and conducted several studies to investigate the root cause of the results.
“Our investigations... led us to believe that these results were false positive,” the company says.
The FDA has since released a decision saying that there are no food safety issues with gum Arabic, meaning all gum Arabic or ingredients or foods made with gum Arabic that had been put on hold can now be released.
The FDA also will not take any action on gum Arabic. CNI plans to continue to work with the FDA to determine an appropriate method to test gum Arabic for peanut.
“As a world leader in gum Arabic, our commitment to the industry is always to provide high quality products that are safe,” the company says. CNI manufactures gum acacia, which is primarily sourced from the northern regions of Sub-Saharan Africa known as the “Gum Belt” and used in the food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries.
For more information, visit www.cniworld.com.
