Evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants : thirty-third report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, meeting held in Geneva from 21 to 30 March 1988

1. Introduction -- 2. General considerations -- 3. Comments on specific food additives and contaminants -- 4. Revision of certain specifications -- 5. Setting priorities for the safety review of food flavouring ingredients -- 6. Future work -- 7. Recommendations -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Annexes

Assesses fourteen food additives and seven contaminants. An opening section discusses the responsiveness of the evaluation procedure to improvements in analytical methodology and to changes in patterns of additive use, in raw materials, and in methods of manufacture. The most extensive part of the book summarizes the chemical, biological, and toxicological data considered when evaluating individual additives and contaminants. The status of existing specifications and the sufficiency of available data on toxicological properties are included. Readers are also advised of areas where further research is required or desired and alerted to methodological problems that should be avoided in the future. To facilitate an overview of the results of the evaluations summarized in the report, information on these compounds is included, in tabular form, in annexes indicating acceptable daily intakes, changes in the status of specifications, the need for further toxicological studies, and the information required or desired from these studies. The report also proposes a four-step method for setting priorities for the evaluation of food flavouring ingredients, emphasizing the need to identify high-risk flavouring ingredients and attach priority to their review.