Earthlight® Receives ANVISA Approval for the Brazilian Market

08 February 2022 — PLT Health Solutions, Inc. today announced that Earthlight^® Whole Food Vitamin D has received approval from the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária: ANVISA), paving the way for this unique dietary ingredient to be used in food, beverages, and supplements produced and sold in Brazil. In Brazil, ANVISA is responsible for coordinating, supervising, and controlling the activities of registration, inspection, and risk control of all new raw materials. The approval process employed by ANVISA is one of the most rigorous in the world. ANVISA’s primary goal is to protect and promote public health by surveillance over products and services, including processes, ingredients, and technologies that pose any health risks. This brings to three the number of international regulatory agencies that have approved Earthlight for use. In 2020, Earthlight received Novel Foods Approval in Europe and allowance in a broad range of food and beverage categories in the United States via Food Additive Petition (FAP).

According to Jay Martin, Managing Director, Global Sales at PLT Health Solutions, ANVISA’s approval of Earthlight is timely considering the rapidly growing interest in Vitamin D supplementation. “Earthlight is the right ingredient at the right time for food and beverage producers and over-the-counter supplement formulators in Brazil, as well as multinationals seeking to create global formulations. Interest in Vitamin D and its role in supporting immunity, bone health, healthy aging, and overall good health has increased dramatically in the last three years. As a whole-food, plant-based, non-GMO and organic ingredient, Earthlight supports virtually every major food, beverage and supplement market trend and will give product formulators the cleanest label option on the market,” he said.

Plant-based, Whole Food Vitamin D
Earthlight is produced from mushrooms via a patented process by exposing these mushrooms to light. Much like the human body, mushrooms produce Vitamin D when exposed to UV light. Earthlight is a whole food ingredient that is minimally processed without any extract solvents. It offers consumer-friendly labeling. This non-GMO ingredient delivers 1,000 micrograms (40,000 IU) of Vitamin D per gram of ingredient. Earthlight’s high concentration of Vitamin D allows low use levels and excellent economics. Low use levels mean that it won’t affect the organoleptics of a food or beverage product. Earthlight is available in both conventional and organic grades.

An International Collaborative Effort
To secure approval for Earthlight, PLT Health Solutions consulted with Brazilian regulatory specialist Visanco Assistencia Tecnica e Administrativa Eireli (Brasilia), who assembled the dossier that addressed the myriad requirements of ANVISA on dietary ingredients. PLT worked with Earthlight innovator Oakshire Naturals and PLT’s exclusive Brazilian distributor for retail products, Tovani Benzaquen Ingredientes (Sao Paulo), to compile the information for the dossier and respond to comments and questions from ANVISA. The approval process for Earthlight took nearly two years.

According to Moses Benzaquen, Director Presidente of Tovani Benzaquen, Earthlight is the Vitamin D ingredient that the Brazilian market is looking for. “Vitamin D has been a subject of intense interest in Brazil over the last two years. Earthlight is a perfect way to introduce a high quality Vitamin D into products for health conscious people. Made from high quality mushrooms, it is organic, non-GMO, minimally processed and sustainable. We look forward to working with PLT in bringing these benefits to the Brazilian market,” he said.

Jay Martin said: “The type of international collaboration that was a part of the ANVISA Earthlight approval process is representative of PLT’s regulatory expertise that now stretches around the world. We have invested significantly in this area in the last few years. This approval truly makes Earthlight a global ingredient,” he said. “We look forward to providing what we call ‘nature’s gift from the sun’ – or Earthlight – to consumers in Brazil and beyond in the future,” he added.

To learn more about Earthlight, please visit our Earthlight Product Page

About Tovani Benzaquen Ingredients 

With headquarters in São Paulo, Tovani Benzaquen Ingredients has been a major distributor of food ingredients in South America since 1992 and today offers a portfolio of over 700 ingredients. Tovani is active in all segments of the Brazilian life sciences industries: food and nutrition, pharmaceuticals, animal nutrition and personal care. In 2018, Tovani entered a joint venture with Dutch-based ingredient distributor Barentz International N.V. (Hoofddorp, The Netherlands). Barentz is a leading global provider of ingredients for the life sciences industries.