Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants

Veterinary drug residues Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Food (CCRVDF) and the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (JECFA). 

Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants... 

World Health Organisation UK Pesticides Safety Directorate UK Food Standards Agency Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST)... 

The Joint FAOAVHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) includes Functional Use in the specifications published in Food and Nutrition Paper 52 and its Addenda. JECFA includes an indication of the functional use or uses, as part of its specifications of purity of additives. JECFA has developed these as part of the description of the additive, and although JECFA provides advice on specifications to the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants, the uses quoted in those specifications are not necessarily the same as the functions given for the same substance in the Codex INS system. Frequently more than one use is listed and these uses often refer to countries outside the EU, and may not include the reason for use listed by the EU. The various categories, uses or classes of additive used by the EU, INS and JECFA are listed in Table 11.2. With minor exceptions, the JECFA functional uses marked with an asterisk are generally regarded as processing aids and not additives and therefore outside the scope of this volume. 

The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) was established in 1955 to consider chemical, toxicological, and other aspects of contaminants and residues of veterinary drugs in foods for human consumption. The Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants and the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Dmgs in Foods identify food additives, contaminants, and veterinary drug residues that should receive priority evaluation and refer them to JECFA for assessment before incorporating them into Codex standards. 

Abbreviations. WHO, World Health Organization FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization CCFAC, Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants JECFA, Joint Food and Agriculture Organiza-tion/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives ADI, acceptable daily intake INS, International Numbering System. 

The risk to health from chemicals in food can be assessed by comparing estimates of dietary exposure with recommended safe levels of exposure. For most metals and other elements, these are the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intakes (PTWIs) and the Provisional Tolerable Daily Intakes (PTDIs) recommended by the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations and the World Health Organisation International Programme on Chemical Safety (JECFA). The European Commission s Scientific Committee on Food has established other relevant safe levels. These are Acceptable Daily Intakes (ADIs) for chemicals added to food, and Tolerable Daily Intakes (TDIs) for chemical contaminants. The use of the term tolerable implies permissibility rather than acceptability. All the above recommendations are estimates of the amount of substance that can be ingested over a lifetime without appreciable risk, expressed on a daily or weekly basis as appropriate. 

Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives 1998. Safety evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants. WHO Food Additives Series 40. Aflatoxins. http //www.inchem.org/documents/ jecfa/jecmono/v040je 16.htm April 16, 2004. 

This is the procedure that has been and is still used by the Joint Experts Committee on Food Additives (FAO/WHO) in evaluating food additives and contaminants. It is also used by the Food and Drug Administration for food additives, color additives, contaminants, natural toxicants, or any other identifiable substance in food. It is built into the Code of Federal Regulations for such use. (3)... 

All provisions in respect of food additives will require to be endorsed by the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants, on the basis of technological justification submitted by the commodity committees and of the recommendations of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives concerning the safety-in-use (acceptable daily intake (ADI) and other restrictions) and an estimate of the potential and, where possible, the actual intake of the food additives, ensuring conformity with the General Principles for the Use of Food Additives . 

The source of international food standards. Codex Alimentarius, is pubHshed by the Food and Agricultural Organization and World Health Organization (FAOAVHO) of the United Nations. In Europe, the sources of food standards are EU directives. The Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (CCFAC) deals with the issue of additives, contaminants and natural toxins in food, and also proposes the Maximum Residue Level (MRL, in mg/kg food) for food additives, for example, in the case of arbitration of the World Trade Organisation. The advisory body of CCFAC is the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), composed of experts from Member States and Associated Countries of the FAO/WHO. Recommendations for the EU come from a committee of experts nominated by an authority called the Scientific Committee for Food (SCF). These recommendations are converted into legislative form in different countries. In the United States, for example, the source of food standards is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

JEFCA (2002) Joint FAO/WHO Committee on Food Additives. Evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants (fifty-fifth report of the joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives)... 

WHO (1989). Evaluation of Certain Food Additives and Contaminants. 33rd report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, WHO Tech. Rep. Ser., 776. World Health Organization, Geneva. 

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. 

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