Vireo recently published, “A 90-day dietary study with fibrillated cellulose in Sprague-Dawley rats”, demonstrating the safety of fibrillated cellulose as a food ingredient. Rats were fed a 4% diet of fibrillated cellulose for 90-days, with no signs of toxicity. This is the first time fibrillated cellulose has been evaluated using a standardized subchronic dietary test (OECD Test Guideline 408) to demonstrate safety according to current regulatory standards. Survival, clinical observations, body weight, food consumption, ophthalmologic evaluations, hematology, serum chemistry, urinalysis, post-mortem anatomic pathology, and histopathology were monitored, with no signs of toxicity related to consuming fibrillated cellulose. Based on the testing, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for fibrillated cellulose was 2194.2 mg/kg/day (males) and 2666.6 mg/kg/day (females), corresponding to the highest dose tested (4%) for male and female Sprague Dawley rats. These results demonstrate that fibrillated cellulose behaves similarly to conventional cellulose and raises no safety concerns when used as a food ingredient at these concentrations. We also assessed the safety of Cellulose Nanocrystals and demonstrated their safety at similar concentrations following 90-day dietary exposure.

These novel forms of cellulose have improved rheological characteristics and are useful as non-caloric stabilizers, gelling agents, thickeners, and flavor carriers in food. They have demonstrated potential to improve strength and light-weighting of paper and board food packaging, as a protective and edible fruit coating, as a barrier coating on packaging, and as a plastic packaging replacement. As these applications of fibrillated cellulose are developed, research that characterizes their dietary safety is needed to facilitate responsible use and commercialization.

This study was part of the Food Safety Study collaboration, supported by P3Nano, a public private partnership of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, in collaboration with Borregaard AS, Evergreen Packaging LLC, Fiberlean Technologies Limited, Sappi North America Inc., Stora Enso Oyj, and Weidmann Fiber Technology by Weidmann Electrical Technology AG, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc., and Alberta Innovates, as well as academic partner Dr. Christie Sayes (Baylor University).

Vireo has started a new project to assess the safety of surface-modified forms of cellulose nanomaterials in food, and in occupational settings, as well as in other consumer products.

If you would like more information about this work or our future projects assessing the safety of modified and unmodified forms of cellulose nanomaterials, please contact us.