April 24 - Following a request from the European Commission to the European Food Safety Authority, the Scientific Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food was asked to provide a scientific opinion on the safety of calcium phosphinate added for nutritional purposes as a source of calcium in food supplements and on the bioavailability of calcium from this source.
The present opinion deals only with the safety of calcium phosphinate as a source of calcium and the bioavailability of calcium from this source. The safety of calcium itself, in terms of amounts that may be consumed, is outside the remit of this Panel.
Calcium phosphinate should be used according to the petitioner as a mineral supplement in a liquid and a solid form for oral administration.
The petitioner mentioned reports in the literature on the elimination of phosphinate, according to which there is no metabolism of the anion (phosphinate).
The bioavailability of calcium from calcium phosphinate is likely to be similar to that of calcium from other soluble sources.
Based on the proposed daily supplementation of up to 2500 mg/day for the use of calcium phosphinate in liquid and solid form, the Panel calculated an exposure to 589 mg calcium/day and 1911 mg phosphinate/day, the latter corresponding to 32 mg phosphinate/kg bw/day for a 60 kg person.
To evaluate the toxicity of the anion (phosphinate), the petitioner selected sodium phosphinate as reference substance, but only reported data on the acute toxicity in rats and mice. Further toxicity data on phosphinate were not provided.
The Panel concludes that due to the lack of toxicological data on phosphinate, the safety of calcium phosphinate as a source of calcium cannot be assessed.