Food Law News - EU - 2001

Report from the Commission, 1 October 2001

ADDITIVES - Dietary Food Additive Intake in the European Union

The following is taken from the Report. The Report can be downloaded from:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sfp/flav15_en.pdf

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

European Parliament and Council Directives 94/35/EC, 94/36/EC and 95/2/EC require each Member State to monitor the consumption and usage of food additives. The Commission is required to submit a report on this monitoring exercise to the European Parliament and Council.

Ten Member States and Norway, acting under EU Scientific Co-operation, have been working together to develop a tiered approach to evaluate dietary intake of food additives. The 'tiers' described are essentially additive intake estimation methods that progress in complexity and data requirements, intended to produce gradually a more accurate estimate of the additive intake. Where results of the estimates in a tier indicate that an ADI is unlikely ever to be exceeded, the additives in question are eliminated from further consideration. Resources can then be focused on the remaining additives for a more refined intake estimate. It must be emphasised that these tiers are essentially tools for establishing priorities for further monitoring.

This report represents a first attempt to obtain an overview of the dietary food additive intake in the European Union. Even if the results must be regarded as a very preliminary indication on the dietary intake of food additives, they indicate that the intake of the majority of food additives permitted today in the European Union is below the acceptable daily intake (ADI) set by the Scientific Committee on Food. This report has many limitations. Food consumption data used was insufficient to estimate accurately food additive intake leading to worst case assumptions and consequent over-estimations of intake. Also several Member States did not use the agreed methodology for estimation of additive intake, leading to lack of comparability of the collected data. This highlights the need for Member States to apply the agreed, harmonised methodology to ensure consistency of approach and to allocate adequate resources for all future intake estimations. The current study should then be repeated and a new report should be drawn up within three years from now.

CONCLUSIONS

• The Member States should follow up the SCOOP task on methodologies for the monitoring of food additives in order to achieve harmonisation of intake studies of additives in the European Union. In addition, better food consumption data should be gathered in order to estimate dietary food additive intake more accurately.
• The preliminary results with limited data available indicate that for the majority of food additives the dietary intake is below the acceptable daily intake.
• For the additives that were moved to tier 3 and certain additives that are permitted at quantum satis, intake estimations should be carried out using actual food consumption data combined with the actual usage levels of the additive. The examination should be carried out by all the Member States without delay and the results should be reported to the Commission with a view to initiating necessary action, if any.
• Intake of additives that did not exceed the ADI in tier 2 should, nevertheless, be re-examined in the light of the more detailed food consumption data.
• Intake studies should be carried out in respect of the additives which, at the time of this exercise, had only recently been approved.
• Co-operation with the food industry should be developed with a view to obtaining better information on food additive usage.
• A new report on the overall situation on food additive intake in the European Union should be compiled in three years time. It is essential that efforts are made by all the Member States to participate fully in the next monitoring task on dietary intake of food additives.