US holds food additive meeting ahead of Codex

The meeting, which is set for March 8, aims to provide information and receive comments on issues including maximum levels for food additives and processing aids in Codex standards. The Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) was formed last year as a division of the Codex Alimentarius, or food code. Established in 1963 by two United Nations organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization – Codex is designed to be a global point of reference for food processors, government agencies and consumers. Through adoption of food standards, codes of practice, and other guidelines developed by its committees, and by promoting their adoption and implementation by governments, Codex aims to protect the health of consumers and ensure that fair practices are used in trade. CCFA was established to set or endorse maximum levels for individual food additives, prepare priority lists of food additives for risk assessment and assign functional classes to individual food additives. Other aims include recommending specifications of identity and purity for food additives for adoption by the Commission; considering methods of analysis for the determination of additives in food; and considering and elaborating standards or codes for related subjects such as the labeling of food additives when sold as such. Next week's meeting, which will take place at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, Maryland, will present draft US positions on the 39^th​ CCFA session agenda items, and attendees will have the opportunity to comment. Written comments may be offered at the meeting or sent via e-mail in advance. Items to be discussed include proposed draft guidelines for the use of flavorings; processing aids; the inclusion of food additive provisions of commodity standards into the Codex General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA); International Numbering System (INS) for food additives; and specifications for the identity and purity of food additives. The 39^th​ Session of the Codex Committee on Food Additives will be held in Beijing, China, on April 24-28, 2007. For an outline of the agenda, click here​. For USDA's notice of next week's meeting, click here​.