Under EU legislation, EFSA must re-evaluate hundreds of food additives and their permitted uses by 2020. It has now drawn up a priority list of 51 additives for which it seeks data from industry by the end of the year, including 15 with a data deadline of July 31 and a further 36 with a deadline of November 30. It aims to adopt opinions for the first 15 additives by the end of 2013 if possible, followed by several others in 2014.
The food safety body says its Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food has grouped the additives based on availability of scientific data, and is also reviewing previous re-evaluations of certain food colours “because consumer exposure to them for some population groups was originally estimated, based on limited data, to be higher than the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI).”
Additives prioritised due to more refined exposure assessments are curcumin (E 100), brown HT (E 155), azorubine/carmoisine (E 122), allura red AC (E 129), brilliant black BN (E 151), quinoline yellow (E 104), sunset yellow (E 110) and ponceau 4R (E 124).
EFSA said it was looking for information from industry on the amounts of additives used in their products, as well as data from food analyses on actual quantities of additives in foods and drinks from industry, national food authorities, researchers and academia.
Click here for full list of the 56 additives for which EFSA has called for data by the end of 2013.