Food additives, categories flavoring substances

In the 1992 edition, flavoring substances are classified into Category A or B based on the information currently available (i.e., Category A - flavoring substances which may be used in foodstuffs, or Category B - flavoring substances for which further information is required before an opinion on their safety-in-use can be determined) (CE, 1992). In addition, where available, an ADI is specified by the Committee of Experts. The ADI is typically the one recommended by JECFA, and, in cases where the substance has not been evaluated by JECFA and where toxicological data are insufficient to establish an ADI, acceptable upper use levels in food (i.e., those that would be considered to result in no risk to health) are specified. 

Some 1700 natural and synthetic substances are used to flavor foods, making flavors the largest category of food additives. 

Determining the level to which the constituents of an essential oil should be identified depends on estimates of intake of food or flavor additives. These estimates are traditionally calculated using a volume-based or a menu-census approach. A volume-based approach assumes that the total annual volume of use of a substance reported by an industry is distributed over a portion of the population consuming that substance. A menu-census approach is based on the concentration of the substance (essential oil) added to each flavor, the amount of flavor added to each food category, the portion of food consumed daily, and the total of all exposures across aU food types. Although the latter is quite accurate for food additives consumed at higher levels in a wide variety of food such as food emulsifiers, the former method provides an efficient and conservative approximation of intake, if a fraction of the total population is assumed to consume aU of the substance. 

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