Report of the 47th Session Codex Committee on Food Additives, Xi’an, China, 23-27 March 2015

John Lupien

The Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) held its 47^th Session In Xi’an, China from 23-27 March, 2015. The CCFA is a committee of the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC).

The CAC was established about 50 years ago by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop international standards for foods and related codes of practice, guidelines and recommendations to protect consumers and ensure fair practices in international food trade.

The CCFA is the CAC committee assigned the role of assuring that all Codex approved food additives are used at levels that are safe and effective, whether included in specific Codex food standards, or intended for use in standardised or non-standardised foods. In earlier years of the existence of the CCFA its purpose was to endorse the use of additives included in specific Codex Commodity standards. In more recent years work has been focused on the production of a General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA) that includes all food additives intended for use in Codex standardised foods or for use in other foods traded internationally.

Additives that can be considered by Codex must first be evaluated by the FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Experts appointed to serve on JECFA meetings review chemical, toxicological and related data to determine a chemical specification for each substance evaluated, and to make a recommendation on the safety of each substance, setting an acceptable daily intake level for substances that may present problems if consumed at high levels, or recommending that no ADI need to be specified for substances with very low toxicity that can be used at good manufacturing practice (GMP) levels in foods.

The GSFA has been constructed with a preamble that sets out how the GSFA should function, including setting up food categories that cover standardised foods and food products that have not been standardised. The GSFA contains three tables of food additives. Table 1 lists additives allowed in specific food products or food categories. Table 2 is a list of the GSFA food categories with additives allowed in each food category listed under the food category heading.

 Table 3 lists additives permitted in food in general, unless otherwise specified, in accordance with GMP. All additives in the GSFA must first be evaluated by JECFA which sets specifications for each additive, assesses the use and effectiveness of each additive, and sets safe use levels on the basis of an acceptable daily intake (ADI) level. If an additive does not present any safety concerns when used at GMP levels in food products, JECFA assigns the additive with an “ADI not specified” status, meaning the additive can be used at GMP levels.

Many Governments rely on JECFA reviews and Codex listing of JECFA reviewed additives in setting national food additive regulations. In addition, many food sector processors will only purchase and use additives that have been through the JECFA/Codex process. In both cases manufacturers of substances that are considered to be food additives are aware of the fact that favorable JECFA review and Codex action to include their additives in the GSFA are important to acceptance of their products in various countries and food processing industries.

In the past, the CCFA has given priority consideration to additives with a specific ADI, since these are the additives that may present food safety risks. This created a problem for the GSFA since the safest additives listed in Table 3 were in many cases excluded from use in any Codex standard unless the additive was listed in the specific standard, and were also excluded from use in foods in about 40 different GSFA food categories listed in an Annex to Table 3.

Starting with the 43^rd CCFA session, action was initiated to include where appropriate Table 3 substances in Tables 1 and 2. In order to make progress in improving the GSFA it was decided at the 44^th session that all products in Table 3 that were acidifying agents, thickening agents, emulsifiers and stabilisers should be considered for more general use in all food appropriate food categories in Tables 1 and 2.

To help in accelerating this work, the 46^th CCFA session agreed to an Electronic Working Group chaired by the USA to prepare proposals for Table 3 additives in Tables 1 and 2. The Electronic Working Group received inputs from many Codex Member Countries and other interested bodies, and prepared a working paper for a physical Working Group meeting that took place in Xi’an from 20-21 March 2015. The GSFA Physical Working Group was also chaired by Dr Paul Honigfort from the US Food and Drug Administration. About 40 Codex Member Countries and 25 Codex recognised non-governmental organisations (NGOs) participated in the Working Group session. IUFoST  has International Observer Organisation status with Codex, and was represented in the Working Group session and the CCFA session by Dr John R. Lupien, Adjunct Professor of Food Science, University of Massachusetts, USA and Professor Duo Li of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

The Working Group gave detailed consideration to proposals for acidifying agents, thickening agents, stabilisers and emulsifiers, and to many other additives listed in Table 3 of the GSFA. The results of the discussion led to approval of a number of substances that had been excluded from Tables 1 and 2 of the GSFA for a number of years, due to CCFA concentration and priority given to additives with a JECFA assigned ADI. The results of the Working Group meeting were presented to the CCFA Plenary in a report from the Working Group session.

The 23-27 March CCFA session was chaired by Professor Junshi Chen of China. The session was opened by Dr Xiaotao Jin, Vice-Minister of the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission. Dr Jin stressed the importance of CCFA and Codex work on additives which contribute to consumer protection and proper food trade. He assured the CCFA that the Government of China would continue to give full support to CCFA and CAC.

The CCFA 47^th Session was attended by 51 Member Country delegations, one Member Organisation (the European Union), observer delegations from 32 international NGOs, and FAO and WHO, about 400 individual participants in all.

The CCFA discussed additive related referrals to CCFA by the CAC and other Codex committees. The CCFA was informed of the results of the 79^th JECFA session held in June 2014. FAO and WHO representatives working with JECFA reported that a number of additives and flavors had been evaluated with regard to specifications and in some cases for food safety considerations. Due to lack of sufficient data, pectin use in infant formula was not cleared and additional data were requested. The CCFA also reviewed JECFA discussions on lead levels in additives used in infant formula production and agreed that lower levels should be established in the specifications for such additives. Carrageenan was favorably reviewed with regard to use in infant formula and CCFA agreed to recommend to the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) the inclusion of carrageenan in the Codex standard for infant formula.

The CCFA discussed the continuing process of alignment of additional standardised foods through an Electronic Working Group chaired by Australia, and agreed to forward to the next session of the CAC new GSFA provisions for additives in soups and broths, and corrections to five meat commodity standards. The CCFA Chairman and the attending delegations complimented the delegation of Australia on their important work that makes the GSFA more complete and accurate. The Electronic Working Group will be continued under Australian chairmanship, and will request all member countries and observers for data and information on other standards to be considered at the next CCFA session.

The CCFA endorsed a series of recommendations made by the 20-21 March GSFA Working Group.  These endorsements covered the horizontal use of acidifying agents, thickening agents, stabilisers and emulsifiers, and a number other additives in the GSFA Tables 1 and 2. The work on this task will be continued as necessary, but the success in completing a more comprehensive approach to the GSFA is a major achievement. The USA  chaired an  Electronic Working Group on this topic during the second half of 2014 and early 2015 and reported the results of its work to the Physical Working Group that met immediately before the 47^th  CCFA Session.

Following the various discussions related to the 20-21 March Working Group report, the CCFA agreed to forward to the CAC draft and proposed draft food additive provisions of the GSFA for adoption at Step 8 and Step 5/8, and other provisions recommending the revocation of certain food additive provisions. An Electronic Working Group led by the USA will prepare proposals for additional Table 3 applications on a horizontal basis in Tables 1 and 2 of the GSFA for discussion in the 2016 CCFA session.

The 20-21 March Working Group meeting did not discuss the GSFA note161 and left this task to the CCFA plenary session. The CCFA plenary session discussion on note 161 pointed out that this note in the GSFA essentially negates the work of Codex and GSFA. While many developed and developing country delegations expressed the need to eliminate this note from the GSFA (and anywhere else in Codex work where it exists) opposition to and change by the European Union delegation and EU member countries prevented the possibility of consensus on any change in the note, or its elimination altogether from the GSFA.
 

CCFA agreed to a number of changes in the International Numbering System used for

food additives in the GSFA and in some national regulations. It also prepared a list of additives for possible JECFA review and agreed to set up a more structured approach for request to JECFA for review. Food colors will be used as the model for evaluating requests to JECFA.

The CCFA initiated work on review of substances used in the production of wine. More work will be needed and France and Australia will co-chair an Electronic Working Group to produce a working document for the 2016 CCFA session.

More CCFA work on milk and dairy-based drinks will be undertaken by CCFA if the next session of the CAC agrees to this, and if so, New Zealand will chair an Electronic Working Group on this topic.

The next CCFA session will be held in China from 14-18 March 2016, and will be proceeded by the 11-12 March Working Group meeting.

The report of CCFA 47 is available on the Codex website, including the main report, and annexes on recommendation to the CAC for final adoption of many horizontal food additive provisions, and on other topics discussed in this report. The work of the CCFA is important to all food scientists and technologists and a review of the CCFA report should be of interest to all involved in IUFoST related work.

Dr John Lupien is Adjunct Professor of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA, a former Secretary of the FAO / WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission (1986-90), and a former Director of the FAO Food and Nutrition Division (1990-2000). He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFoST), a former Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for The World of Food Science, and is a regular correspondent for IUFoST; E-mail: john@jrlupien.net