The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that a petition has been filed by food ingredients company Kerry to amend current food regulations.
Kerry, the international food ingredients corporation, has filed a petition proposing that the food additive regulations be amended to provide for the safe use of gum arabic as a thickener, emulsifier or stabiliser in the manufacture of creamers for use in alcoholic beverages at a maximum level of use of 20 per cent.
The food additive petition was initially filed by Kerry - then Beatrice Foods - as a generally recognised as safe (GRAS) affirmation.
In September 2001, Kerry requested that the FDA convert the GRAS affirmation petition to a food additive petition. The petition proposes to amend the food additive regulations in Food Additives Permitted for Direct Addition to Food for Human Consumption
The agency has determined that this action is of a type that does not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment. Therefore, according to Alan Rulis, Director of Food Additive Safety, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required.