This volume contains specifications of identity and purity prepared at the 65th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), held in Geneva, 7 - 16 June 2005. These specifications should be considered only in conjunction with the report of the above meeting which will be printed in the WHO Technical Report Series. Toxicological monographs of the substances considered at the 65th meeting of JECFA will be published in the WHO Food Additives Series.
The general principles applied in the elaboration of specifications established at the earlier JECFA sessions have been published in the Principles for the Safety Assessment of Food Additives and Contaminants in Food, WHO Environmental Health Criteria, No. 70, 1987. The specifications of identity and purity of food additives established by JECFA are meant to identify the substance that has been subject to biological testing, to ensure that the substance is of adequate degree of purity for safe use in food, and to reflect and encourage good manufacturing practices. These principles were last reaffirmed by the 59th session of JECFA in 2002.
The specifications are mainly established for the use of toxicologists and others concerned with the identity and purity of the substance. As agreed by JECFA at its 26th meeting, specifications may also be established prior to the eventual completion of toxicological evaluation, in certain cases, when the available toxicological data are inadequate or incomplete, and do not permit the establishment of full or temporary acceptable daily intakes (ADIs). References are made in individual specifications to some of the criteria that may be of interest in commerce, but they do not necessarily include all the requirements of interest to the commercial user. These specifications are not more stringent than is necessary to accomplish their purpose and should easily be attainable by the producing industries. The report of the 23rd meeting gives the reasons why certain specifications are designated as "tentative".
There were a total of 149 specifications (ten food additives, uses other than flavouring agent; 138 flavouring agents; one nutritional supplement) considered at the 65th meeting: Specifications for 132 compounds were newly adopted, of which three remained tentative. 18 specifications were revised of which seven remained tentative. Specifications for Quillaia Extracts (Type 1) were not reviewed but maintained.
NOTE: Use of (FNP 5) in specifications refers to General Methods (Guide to JECFA Specifications), FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 5/Rev. 2 (1991).
