The Novel Food Regulation is a story full of twists and turns. It originated in the year 1997 as Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 (hereinafter: the “Novel Food Regulation”). The primary objective of the Regulation was to regulate genetically modified foods in order to take equal account of both the reservations regarding safety and ethical considerations in parts of the population. However, after only 6 years genetically modified foods were removed from the Novel Food Regulation in order to take up a new position in European law.1 Since then the novel foods remaining in the Novel Food Regulation have stood on their own regulatory feet and developed their own inherent dynamics. Contrary to other legal acts2 adopted and intensely disputed recently, the question “novel or not novel” is crucial to the marketability and hence increasingly to the final fate of products. At the same time the Novel Food Regulation is openly unable to conceal certain inherent deficits. It is possible that the European legislators recognized this when, upon the adoption of the Regulation, a report on experience from the European Commission was provided for no later than 5 years after its provisions took effect. The report on experience was to mark the commencement of reform efforts which initially appeared premature in view of what at the time was quite recent material. Over the years, however, the still valid realization took hold that the field of “novel food” itself requires revision. The following article will first outline the history of the legislative process (I.), which is followed by a brief presentation of the core points of the current draft Regulation (II.), closing with a summary and outlook for the future (III.).