JECFA concludes evaluations of several food additives

Today the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) published its summary report of the 97th meeting.

Held in Rome from October 31 to November 9, the Committee focused on assessing the safety of titanium dioxide (INS 171) and several flavouring agents when used as food additives.

For all substances, JECFA performed a comprehensive risk assessment, which is a four-step scientific process that includes hazard identification, hazard characterization, dietary exposure assessment and risk characterization.

The Committee re-evaluated titanium dioxide and considering the very low oral absorption of INS 171, and the absence of any identifiable hazard associated with INS 171 in the diet, reaffirmed the ADI “not specified” established at the Thirteenth meeting. Furthermore, revisions were made to the specifications monograph. Notably, specifications concerning the content of alumina and silica were removed, as TiO₂ coated with alumina or silica is not used as a food additive. The specification for the level of Pb soluble in 0.5 N HCl was reduced from 10 mg/kg to 5 mg/kg and the level of Cd soluble in 0.5 N HCl was reduced from 1 mg/kg to 0.5 mg/kg.

Regarding the flavouring substances, the Committee concluded that there is no safety concern and established their specifications for 21 flavouring substances. However, the Committee could not finalise the assessment of some other flavouring agents as further information is required. The Committee highlighted the importance of receiving complete data submissions from the sponsors for conducting the safety evaluation.

JECFA is an international scientific expert committee administered jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO. JECFA serves as an independent scientific expert committee that provides scientific advice based on six core principles: soundness, responsibility, objectivity, fairness, transparency, and inclusiveness. Scientific experts are selected on the basis of their competence and independence, taking into account geographical representation. Selected experts work in their personal capacity and not as representatives of their country/institution. More information on the JECFA experts is available here. As per its usual process, the JECFA Secretariat had invited all stakeholders prior to its meeting to provide any relevant data pertaining to those substances via a dedicated call for data (available for reference: here here.).  

Read the summary report here http://www.fao.org/3/cc8825en/cc8825en.pdf