Food Additives and Contaminants

The Additive and Food Contaminants (AFC) Panel of the European Food Safety Authority has evaluated the new long-term study on the carcinogenicity of aspartame conducted by the European Ramazzini Foundation (European Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences) in Bologna, Italy. In its opinion, the Panel concluded, on the basis of aU the evidence currently available, that there is neither need to further review the safety of aspartame nor to revise the previously established Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame (40mg/kg body weight). 

FAO/WHO. 1981. Carob (Locust) bean gum. International Programme on Chemical Safety. Toxicological evaluation of certain food additives and food contaminants. In WHO Food Additives Series. 

DiNovi, M.J. and Kuznesof, PM. 2001. Estimating exposure to direct food additives and chemical contaminants in the diet. Retrieved November 29, 2005, http //vm.cfsan.fda.gov/ dms/opa-cg8.html. 

This document deals only with estimating exposure to direct additives and chemical contaminants. The procedures used to estimate exposure to chemical contaminants in food (including naturally occurring toxicants, such as mycotoxins) are essentially the same as those used for direct additives. Thus, contaminants will be considered in the discussion of direct additive exposure estimation. The procedures discussed herein are equally applicable to color additives, GRAS substances, prior-sanctioned ingredients, and pesticide residues. 

Renwick, A. G. (1993) Data-derived safety factors for the evaluation of food additives and environmental contaminants. Pood Additives and Contaminants. 10,275-305. 

Toxicological evaluations of food additives and of contaminants, naturally occurring toxicants and residues of veterinary drugs in food produced by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), and of pesticide residues in food by the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) are used by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and national governments to set international food standards and safe levels for protection of the consumer. 

In addition, FDA has published a guideline Estimating Exposure to Direct Food Additive and Chemical Contaminants in the Diet (15), which details the databases and methodologies used by the FDA to estimate exposure to food additives found in the diet and that are very important considerations in assessing the safety of a food ingredient. 

Estimating Exposure to Direct Food Additives and Chemical Contaminants in the Diet. Office of Premarket Approval. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, September 1995. 

Interest in investigating the relationship between dietary factors and carcinogenesis dates back to the early part of the century. Over the past four or five decades, epidemiological investigations and laboratory experiments in animals have generated abundant data about cancer and its relationship to dietary patterns, to individual foodstuffs, nutrients, food additives, and dietary contaminants (16). This vast body of literature was recently analyzed by the Committee on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer of the National Research Council (6), and the committee reached the major conclusions outlined in Tables I to III. 

The analysis of natural compounds in foods is also assisted by the use of the purge and trap technique in methods for distinguishing strawberry varieties [100] the aroma of unprocessed foods including gherkin [101], durian [102], garlic [103] and meat [104-107] cheese [108,109] and other dairy products [110] tobacco, tea and coffee [111,112] and peanuts [112]. Food additives including sulphur dioxide [113,114] and food contaminants such as VOCs [115-126], have been recovered by PT, particularly from table-ready foods. Animal [127,128] and plant tissues [129,130] have also been subjected to PT for separation of volatile compounds. 

A. G. Renwick, Data Derived Safety Factors for the Evaluation of Food Additives and Environmental Contaminants, Food Additives and Contaminants, 10(3), 275-305... 

JECEA (Joint EAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives). 1972. Evaluation of Certain Food Additives and the Contaminants Mercury, Lead, and Cadmium. World Health Organization Technical Series No. 505. Geneva World Health Organization. 

Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment, Exposure to multiple additives and chemical contaminants in food, Tox/2004/39, http //www.food.gov.uk/science/ ouradvisors/toxicity/cotreports/cotwgreports/cocktailreport (accessed September 09, 2008). 

Evaluation of certain food additives and the contaminants mercury, lead, and cadmium (Sixteenth report of the Joint FAOAA/HO Expert Committee on Food Additives). FAO Nutrition Meetings Series, No. 51, 1972 WHO Technical Report Series, No. 505, 1972, and corrigendum. 

Komolprasert, Vanee, and Kim M. Morehouse, eds. Irradiation of Food and Packa ng Recent Developments. Washington, D.C. American Chemical Society, 2004. Excellent coverage of irradiated foods and foods contaminated with pathogens and the effects of irradiation on food packaging and additives. 

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