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Why is the recommended usage rate for fruit extracts so low?
Hi Everyone,
I don’t like to ask questions without making an effort to find the answer first, and I haven’t been able to find answers anywhere.
I see this message in the documentation for every powdered fruit extract:
The maximum quantity of powdered fruit extract should not exceed 0.5% of the total product, while in tincture form the maximum amount of fruit extract must not exceed 5%.
Why is the recommended usage rate for fruit powder extracts so low?
There are a couple reasons I can think of off the top of my head. The first being that they are possibly irritating, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
I’ve used a homemade moisturizer with a high percentage of watermelon fruit powder extract with no irritation. I’ve also seen straight banana fruit powder extract recommended as a face mask.
I understand that papaya and pineapple extract contain enzymes which may make them irritating at high percentages. But why would watermelon, banana, strawberry or mango powder be recommended at such low rates?
The other reason I can think of is sugar content – do fruit powder extracts contain enough sugar to encourage microbial growth? If this is the case, can the effects be mitigated by preservatives or by simply keeping the product in the fridge?
Or alternatively, by keeping powder and liquid components separate, and mixing them right before use?
The most important question to ask here is – is using fruit powders over their usage rate safe? Is it okay to exceed this recommended rate? Of course I would never ask this question about actives like vitamin A, but fruit powders don’t seem as potent.
I imagine they are safe, otherwise banana powder would not be recommended as a face mask?
Thanks so much in advance for your time and help – I really appreciate any insight!
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2 Replies
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I’ll start by saying I do not specifically know. Suppliers give advice about their raw materials for a variety of reasons. But here is my guess.
1. They haven’t tested all of their powders for safety. Here is a list of all the fruit powders that the CIR has reviewed. Notice banana fruit powder isn’t there? So recommending a lower level reduces the chances of some safety issue. Since they don’t know the safety limit of all the fruit powders, they set some default level for all of them. Higher levels may (or may not) be safe.
2. The fruit powders are made of pretty much all the same ingredient. There is no specific standard for making a fruit powder. So, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the manufacturer starts with a standard base powder (made up of water soluble, innocuous ingredients and then they add some amount of fruit powder to differentiate the different products. Since the specifications on fruit powders are not very chemically specific, this would not be difficult to do. That % then become the known safety level for the base powder.
Using fruit powders over their recommended safety level is not a good idea. If you do that and one of your consumers has a reaction to the ingredient, you can’t go back to the supplier and blame them for that. You’re not using the ingredient as recommended.
Whether it is safe or not, who knows? It’s probably safe for some people (as you have experienced) but it may not be safe for other people. Allergic reactions to natural ingredients is not uncommon (maybe 5% of the population). If safety testing hasn’t been done, you should assume that it is not safe. You shouldn’t base product safety on what we might imagine is safe.
The reality is that it probably doesn’t matter at all how much fruit powder you use. It is unlikely to have any noticeable effect (except possibly a negative allergic reaction). These ingredients are generally claims ingredients put in at tiny levels so consumers have something to believe that makes the product special.
Hope that helps. 🙂
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It’s unpreservable and have no benefit.
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