Evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants. Forty-ninth report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.

This report presents the conclusions of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee convened to evaluate the safety of various food additives and contaminants, with a view to recommending acceptable daily intakes for humans, and to prepare specifications for the identity and purity of food additives. The first part of the report contains a general discussion of the principles governing the toxicological evaluation of food additives and contaminants, including flavouring agents, and the establishment and revision of specifications, with comments concerning limits for arsenic, lead and other heavy metals, and enzymes derived from genetically manipulated organisms. A summary follows of the Committee's evaluations of toxicological data on various specific food additives (tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), microcrystalline cellulose, sucrose esters of fatty acids and sucroglycerides, alpha-acetolactate decarboxylase, maltogenic amylase, trans-anethole, hydrogenated poly-1-decene and maltitol syrup), food ingredients (short- and long-chain acyltriglycerides), flavouring agents and the contaminants aflatoxins. Annexed to the report are tables summarizing the Committee's recommendations for acceptable daily intakes of the food additives and food ingredients considered, changes in the status of specifications for these substances and specific flavouring agents, and further toxicological studies required.