INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON CHEMICAL SAFETY
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
TOXICOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF CERTAIN
FOOD ADDITIVES AND CONTAMINANTS
WHO FOOD ADDITIVES SERIES 21
Prepared by:
The 30th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)
World Health Organization, Geneva 1987
(c) World Health Organization 1987
First published 1987
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data available.
British Library cataloguing in publication data
Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives,
Meeting (30th: 11986: Rome)
Toxicological evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants.
1. Food additives -- Toxicology
2. Food contamination
3. Food poisoning
I. Title II. World Health Oraganization
363.1'92 RA1258
ISBN 0 521 35985 6
The preparation of this document was supported by the International
Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), Geneve, Switzerland.
CONTENTS
Preface
Antioxidants
Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
TBHQ (Tertiary butylhydroquinone)
alpha-Tocopherol
Food colours
Curcumin and turmeric oleoresin
Erythrosine
Fast Green FCF
Lithol rubine BK
Sweetening agents
Mannitol
Thickening agents
Ethylhydroxyethyl cellulose
Tara gum
Xanthan gum
Miscellaneous food additives
Glucono delta-lactone
Sulfur dioxide and sulfites
Contaminant
Lead
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 1986 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 thirtieth
Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which met in
Rome, Italy, 2-11 June 1986. These monographs summarize the safety
data on selected food additives and contaminants reviewed 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 thirtieth report of JECFA has been published by the World
Health Organization in the WHO Technical Report Series (No. 751). 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 thirtieth 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. 37. 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 co 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 1986 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.L. 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 m 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 me 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