On December 13, 2018, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) issued a safety statement on d-ribose.

In 2018, the NDA team of the European Food Safety Agency issued scientific opinions on the safety of d-ribose as a new type of food for multiple foods in accordance with Regulation No. 2015/2283. It concluded that d-ribose is safe for the general population at a daily intake level up to 36 mg/kg body weight (bw), but safe for the intended use and use level proposed by the applicant. No definite. At the request of the European Commission, the NDA team of the European Food Safety Agency conducted a supplementary safety assessment of d-ribose by considering the new proposed uses and levels of using submitted by the applicants. After evaluation, the expert group concluded that the new food d-ribose was safe under the new proposed conditions of use.

 Some of the original reports are as follows:

In 2018, the EFSA NDA Panel adopted the Scientific Opinion on the safety of d‐ribose as a novel food pursuant to Regulation （EU） 2015/2283 when used in a variety of food, concluding that d‐ribose is safe for the general population at intake levels up to 36 mg/kg body weight （bw） per day, but that its safety at the intended uses and use levels as proposed by the applicant could not be established. Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA NDA Panel was asked to carry out a supplementary safety assessment for d‐ribose by considering the new proposed uses and use levels submitted by the applicant. In order to address the present mandate, an intake assessment was carried out based on individual data from the EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database. Intakes were estimated for all age groups of the general population. The resulting ranges for the mean and high‐level estimated intakes of d‐ribose for all the population groups, including the target population groups, did not exceed the acceptable level of intake for the general population previously defined, i.e. 36 mg/kg bw per day, except for one survey on adolescents wher the mean and 95th percentile of the intake estimates were 8.6 and 39.4 mg/kg bw per day, respectively. The Panel concludes that the novel food, d‐ribose, is safe under the new proposed conditions of use.