IPCS INCHEM Home


        INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON CHEMICAL SAFETY

        WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION



        TOXICOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF CERTAIN
        FOOD ADDITIVES



        WHO FOOD ADDITIVES SERIES 22





        Prepared by:
        The 31st meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
        Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)



        World Health Organization, Geneva 1988




    (c) World Health Organization 1988

    First published 1988

    Printed in Great Britian at the University Press, Cambridge

    Library of Congress cataloging in publication data available.

    British Library cataloguing in publication data
    Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives,
    Meeting (31st: 1987: Geneva).
    Toxicological evaluation of certain food additives and
    contaminants.

    1.   Food additives -- Toxicology
    2.   Food contamination
    3.   Food poisoning

    I.  Title   II.  World Health Organization



    ISBN 0 521 36928 2



    The preparation of this document was supported by the International
    Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), Geneve, Switzerland.










    CONTENTS

    Preface

    Enzyme preparations
         Enzyme preparations
         Enzymes derived from Aspergillus oryzae
         Enzymes derived from Aspergillus niger
         Beta-glucanese from Trichoderma harzianum
         Cellulase from Trichoderma reesei

    Flavouring agent
         Smoke flavourings

    Food colours
         Beet red
         Canthaxanthin
         Carbon black
         Citranaxanthin

    Miscellaneous food additives
         Glutamic acid and its salts

    Annexes

         Annex 1   Reports and other documents resulting from previous
                   meetings of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee
                   on Food Additives
         Annex 2   Abbreviations used in the monographs
         Annex 3   1987 JECFA participants
         Annex 4   Acceptable daily intakes, other toxicological
                   recommendations and information on specifications
    

    PREFACE

    The monographs contained in this volume were prepared by the
    thirty-first Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA),
    which met in Geneva, Switzerland, 16-25 February 1987. These
    monographs summarize the safety data on selected food additives by the
    Committee. Generally, the compounds on which monographs were prepared
    are those on which substantial safety data exist. The data reviewed in
    these monographs form the basis for acceptable daily intakes (ADIs)
    established by the Committee.

         The thirty-first report of JECFA has been published by the World
    Health Organization in the WHO Technical Report Series (No. 759). The
    participants in the meeting are listed in Annex 3 of the present
    publication and a summary of the conclusions of the Committee is
    included as Annex 4.

         Specifications established by the thirty-first meeting of JECFA
    have been issued separately by FAO under the title  Specifications
     for the identity and purity of certain food additives, FAO Food and
    Nutrition Paper, No. 38. These toxicology monographs should be read in
    conjunction with the specifications and the report.

         Reports and other documents resulting from previous meetings of
    the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives are listed in
    Annex 1.

         JECFA serves as a scientific advisory body to FAO, WHO, their
    Member States, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission, primarily
    through the Codex Committee on Food Additives, regarding the safety of
    food additives and contaminants in food. Committees accomplish this
    task by preparing reports of their meetings and publishing
    specifications and toxicological monographs, such as those contained
    in this volume, on substances that they have considered.

         The toxicological monographs contained in this volume are based
    upon working papers that were prepared by temporary advisers in
    advance of the thirty-first JECFA meeting. A special acknowledgement
    is given to those who prepared these working papers: Dr C.L. Galli,
    Professor of Experimental Toxicology, University of Milan,
    Milan, Italy; Dr S.I. Shibko, Associate Director for Regulatory
    Evaluation, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and
    Drug Administration, Washington, DC, USA; and Dr Ronald Walker,
    Professor of Biochemistry, University of Surrey, Guildford,
    Surrey, England.

         Many proprietary unpublished reports are referenced. These were
    voluntarily submitted to the Committee by various producers of the
    food additives under review and in many cases these reports represent
    the only safety data available on these substances. The temporary
    advisers based the working papers they developed on all the data that
    were submitted, and all these studies were available to the Committee
    when it made its evaluations.

         From 1972 to 1975 the toxicology monographs prepared by Joint
    FAO/WHO Expert Committees on Food Additives were published by WHO in
    the WHO Food Additives Series; after 1975 this series became available
    only in the form of unpublished WHO documents provided on request by
    the Organization. Beginning with the 1985 monographs, they are
    published by Cambridge University Press, which should ensure that
    these monographs are more widely known and available.

         The preparation and editing of the monographs included in this
    volume have been made possible through the technical and financial
    contributions of the Participating Institutions of the International
    Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), which support the activities of
    JECFA. IPCS is a joint venture of the United Nations Environment
    Programme, the International Labour Organisation, and the World Health
    Organization, which is the executing agency. One of the main
    objectives of IPCS is to carry out and disseminate evaluations of the
    effects of chemicals on human health and the quality of the
    environment.

         The designations employed and the presentation of the material in
    this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever
    on the part of the organizations participating in the IPCS concerning
    the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or its
    authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or
    boundaries. The mention of specific companies or of certain
    manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or
    recommended by those organizations in preference to others of a
    similar nature that are not mentioned.

         Any comments or new information on the biological or
    toxicological data on the compounds reported in this document should
    be addressed to: Joint WHO Secretary of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
    Committee on Food Additives, International Programme on Chemical
    Safety, World Health Organization, Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27,
    Switzerland.




























    See Also:
       Toxicological Abbreviations