INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON CHEMICAL SAFETY
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
TOXICOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF CERTAIN
FOOD AND ADDITIVES
WHO FOOD ADDITIVES SERIES 37
Prepared by:
The 46th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)
World Health Organization, Geneva 1996
This publication is a contribution to the International Programme on
Chemical Safety.
The International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), established in
1980, is a joint venture of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the World
Health Organization (WHO). The overall objectives of the IPCS are to
establish the scientific basis for assessing the risk to human health
and the environment from exposure to chemicals, through international
peer-review processes, as a prerequisite for the promotion of chemical
safety, and to provide technical assistance in strengthening national
capacities for the sound management of chemicals.
The Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals
(IOMC) was established in 1995 by UNEP, ILO, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, WHO, the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization, and the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (Participating Organizations), following
recommendations made by the 1992 United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development to strengthen cooperation and increase
coordination in the field of chemical safety. The purpose of the IOMC
is to promote coordination of the policies and activities pursued by
the Participating Organizations, jointly or separately, to achieve the
sound management of chemicals in relation to human health and the
environment.
ISBN 92 4 166037 6
CONTENTS
Preface
Emulsifier
Glycerol ester of wood rosin
Sweetening agent
Alitame
Thickening agent
Konjac flour
Miscellaneous substances
Benzyl acetate, benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and benzoic 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 Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives,
Geneva, 6-15 February 1996
Annex 4 Acceptable daily intakes, other toxicological
information, and information on specifications
PREFACE
The monographs contained in this volume were prepared by the
forty- sixth Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA),
which met in Geneva, Switzerland, 6-15 February 1996. These monographs
summarize data on the safety of selected food additives reviewed by
the Committee, and these data form the basis for the acceptable daily
intakes (ADIs) established by the Committee.
The forty-sixth report of JECFA will be published by the World
Health Organization in the WHO Technical Report Series. The
participants in the meeting are listed in Annex 3 of this publication,
and a summary of the conclusions of the Committee is included as Annex
4.
Specifications established at the forty-sixth meeting of JECFA
will be published by FAO as FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 52, Add. 4.
These toxicological monographs should be read in conjunction with the
specifications and the report.
Reports and other documents resulting from previous meetings of
JECFA 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 and Contaminants and the
Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods, regarding
the safety of food additives, residues of veterinary drugs, naturally
occurring toxicants, and contaminants in food. Committees accomplish
this task by preparing reports of their meetings and publishing
specifications or monographs on residues or toxicology, such as those
contained in this volume, for substances that they have evaluated.
The toxicological monographs contained in this volume are based
on working papers that were prepared by Temporary Advisers. A special
acknowledgement is given at the beginning of each monograph to the
author who prepared the working paper.
Many unpublished proprietary reports are cited. In many cases,
these reports represent the only data available on the safety of these
substances, and they were submitted voluntarily to the Committee by
various producers of the food additives under review. The Temporary
Advisers based the working papers they wrote on all the data that were
submitted, and all of the studies were available to the Committee when
it made its evaluations. The monographs were edited by Mrs E.
Heseltine, St Léon-sur-Vézère, France.
Between 1972 and 1975, the toxicological monographs prepared by
JECFA were published in the WHO Food Additives Series; after 1975, the
series was available in the form of unpublished WHO documents, which
were provided upon request to the Organization. WHO Food Additives
Series No. 20, which was prepared by the twenty-ninth Committee in
1985, and subsequent volumes through to WHO Food Additives Series No.
24, which was prepared by the thirty-third Committee in 1988, were
published by Cambridge University Press. Beginning with WHO Food
Additives Series No. 25, which was prepared by the thirty-fourth
Committee, WHO has been producing the volumes as priced documents.
The preparation and editing of the monographs contained in this
volume were made possible through the technical and financial
contributions of the Participating Institutions of the International
Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), which supports 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 make and disseminate evaluations of the
effects of chemicals on human health and the quality of the
environment.
The designations used 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 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 properties of the compounds reported in this publication
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