Toxicological evaluation of some food
    additives including anticaking agents,
    antimicrobials, antioxidants, emulsifiers
    and thickening agents



    WHO FOOD ADDITIVES SERIES NO. 5







    The evaluations contained in this publication
    were prepared by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
    Committee on Food Additives which met in Geneva,
    25 June - 4 July 19731

    World Health Organization
    Geneva
    1974

              

    1    Seventeenth Report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on
    Food Additives, Wld Hlth Org. techn. Rep. Ser., 1974, No. 539;
    FAO Nutrition Meetings Report Series, 1974, No. 53.

    ACID-TREATED STARCHES

    Explanation

         These modified starches represent an intermediate stage in the
    normal enzymatic digestion of food starch in the human body. This
    process also occurs in the human stomach and results in hydrolysis of
    some of the linkages between adjacent anhydroglucose units with a
    reduction of the mean molecular weight of these starch molecules. In
    the commercial process hydrochloric, sulfuric or phosphoric acid is
    used and the excess is neutralized with sodium hydroxide or sodium
    carbonate.

         Subsequent treatment of the modified starch ensures that only
    traces of either sodium chloride, sodium sulfate or sodium hydrogen
    phosphate remain behind.

    Comments:

         These starches should be regarded as normal constituents of food.

    EVALUATION

    Estimate of acceptable daily intake for man

         Not limited.*

              

    *    See relevant paragraph in the seventeenth report, pages 10-11.

    See Also:
       Toxicological Abbreviations
       Acid-treated starches  (FAO Nutrition Meetings Report Series 46a)
       Acid-treated starches (WHO Food Additives Series 17)