Moringa was refused approval as a food in Australia, and drumsticks are part of it

Drumsticks are the immature green pods of the moringa tree, and they are not permitted as a food or food ingredient for retail sale in Australia. Since 2 April 2026, a consignment of them referred to the Imported Food Inspection Scheme is to be failed at the border, with the importer directed to destroy it or export it at their own expense.

The decision that produced this was taken in November 2025, and it was not a response to anything going wrong on an Australian table.

What the regulator decided

Food Standards Australia New Zealand rejected application A1294, which sought to have Moringa oleifera permitted as a novel food. The FSANZ application page records the decision date as 12 November 2025. The application covered leaves both fresh and dried, immature green seed pods, and oil pressed from the seeds. The pods are the drumsticks sold by the bundle in Indian and Sri Lankan groceries; the leaves are murungai keerai.

The regulator’s stated reason runs to a single sentence. “Our assessment identified a potential safety concern and the available evidence was not sufficient to confirm Moringa oleifera would be safe for consumers as a food or food ingredient.”

Two things are asserted in it. FSANZ identified a potential safety concern, and it found the available evidence insufficient to confirm the food would be safe. The rejection report puts the same point a second way: FSANZ was unable to establish that Moringa oleifera would not pose a safety concern if permitted for sale. The border notice states the underlying rule, that a novel food must be assessed and approved by FSANZ before it is permitted to be sold as a food or a food ingredient. On its own record of the decision the regulator states the consequence plainly: “This decision means Moringa oleifera is not permitted as a food or food ingredient for retail sale.”

What the moringa safety review found

The rejection report, dated 11 December 2025, sets out findings that run in both directions. A dietary study of moringa leaf in mice, at up to 8 per cent w/w, was associated with slightly increased litter sizes and improved pup survival. At a far higher dose, “Powdered Moringa oleifera leaf at 30% w/w in the diet of pregnant rats resulted in the total loss of all litters.” On organ damage, a 28-day oral toxicity study in which leaf powder was given daily to mice in the feed “was associated with elevated markers of liver damage and microscopic changes in kidneys at 1000 mg/kg bw/day”.

On genotoxicity the evidence refused to settle. A micronucleus assay in rats returned a positive result at doses of 1000 mg/kg bodyweight and above of an aqueous extract, while a second in vivo micronucleus assay and a Comet assay, both run at 2000 mg/kg bodyweight, came back negative. FSANZ concluded there was “insufficient information to draw conclusions on the genotoxicity of Moringa oleifera”.

These are animal studies, and the report does not translate them into a human dietary exposure, which is part of what FSANZ said it could not complete.

What changed at the border

The border position was set out on 2 April 2026, when the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry published Imported Food Notice 05-26.

The notice tells importers that “Moringa oleifera is not permitted as food or as a food ingredient, for retail sale”, that “Imports referred to the Imported Food Inspection Scheme will be failed at the border”, and that importers will be “directed to destroy or export the food at their own expense”.

It is a short document, and there are things it does not address. It does not mention leaf powder, capsules or tablets. It does not say what a shop or a wholesaler already holding stock should do. It gives no date for the border position beyond the day of publication.

The growers caught by it

Joel Molloy had been in the industry a decade before he moved to establish a farm of his own, and he bought the property, ABC Rural reported in July, just before FSANZ handed down its decision. “I invested everything I had into this farm, and it’s 10 years of work, and then just overnight it’s gone,” he said. “It’s a kick in the guts,” he told the broadcaster, and separately: “We were never consulted; we were never warned.”

Gary Duffy grows moringa in the Somerset region. “Our livelihood relies on the application being successful,” he said. He also told the ABC that fresh product going into the Melbourne and Sydney markets was all imported from overseas, and that Australian growers want to try to bridge that gap.

The applicant named in the rejection report is Noosa Organica Pty Ltd, described there as a primary producer based in Australia. A1294 was its application, and the outcome applies to the food rather than to the applicant, which is why other growers are now pursuing a new application of their own.

Duffy has written to federal, state and territory health ministers seeking a stay on the determination while FSANZ considers a new application he is leading, and ABC Rural reported that a decision on it could take up to two years. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Health, Disability and Ageing told the broadcaster that the rejection was not open to FSANZ or the minister to review or suspend, and advised Duffy that a new application would be welcomed. The department’s wording is narrow: it addresses review or suspension by FSANZ or the minister, and it points to a fresh application as the available course.

Courtney Stewart, a food industry consultant quoted in the same report, put the case for the decision. “There might be ingredients that people wish were on the market, but FSANZ is just looking out for consumers to make sure everything is safe for consumption,” she said.

The capsules are a separate question

Moringa capsules and powders sold as therapeutic goods sit under a different regulator from moringa sold as food, the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

FSANZ’s page on the decision notes that “Therapeutic products containing Moringa oleifera are regulated separately by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.” The ABC reported that such products will remain available for purchase only if they are registered with the TGA. A bundle of drumsticks sold as food answers to the food rules, and those rules now exclude it.

What the documents do not say

Whether dried moringa leaf powder sold as a food falls inside the prohibition is not addressed in the border notice, which mentions neither powder nor capsules nor tablets. Neither the FSANZ record nor the notice says what becomes of stock already sitting in Australian shops, or which agency would act on it. Those questions belong to FSANZ, to the Department of Agriculture and to the state and territory food regulators, and the public documents leave them open.

What is on the record is a sequence. The application was published in March 2024, the decision came in November 2025 and the border notice followed in April 2026. Molloy’s account of it is that he was never consulted and never warned.