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The work of the United Nations
International standards for the wholesomeness
and safety of foods have been provided since 1962 by the Codex Alimentarius
Commission (CAC), which was established by the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The
CAC's objective is to guide food-producing industries and to protect the health
of consumers. In arriving at its standards, guidelines and principles, the CAC
draws on the work of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA),
which was formed in 1956 to advise the FAO and the WHO, and, through them,
member governments of the United Nations Organization on the use of food
additives.
To date, JECFA had evaluated more than 1,300
food additives:
- JECFA has established principles for the
evaluation, specification and analysis of food additives.
- JECFA provides information about the amounts
of food additives which can be consumed every day without adverse effects.
This information is provided as an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), which is
expressed in milligrams of the substance per kilogram body weight of the
consumer.
- JECFA determines whether food additives are
useful and technologically necessary for the production, wholesomeness,
palatability, storage, transport, and marketing of foods.
Good Manufacturing Practice
Good Manufacturing practice (GMP) means that
the amount of an authorized additive used in food is the minimum necessary to
produce the desired effect. In most cases, the quantity of an additive which is
used is limited by technical, economic or taste considerations.
Evaluation of Monosodium Glutamate by JECFA
In 1987, JECFA confirmed that monosodium
glutamate was safe. The committee decided that it was not necessary to set a
numerical Acceptable Daily Intake. JECFA adopts the definition "ADI not
specified" when the committee concludes that a food additive is of such low
toxicity that establishment of an ADI in numerical form is not necessary.
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