7. The Expert Committee evaluated 11 food additives, 124 flavouring agents in four related groups, and two contaminants at its fifty-fifth meeting. A total of 383 specifications were prepared (345 flavouring agents and 38 food additives). Eighty-six specifications were designated as “tentative” and 297 were designated as “full”. Good progress had been made on flavouring agents, as “full” specifications had been developed for 74% of the 758 flavouring agents that had been considered since the forty-sixth meeting. JECFA expects to update most of the remaining “tentative” specifications at the fifty-seventh meeting to be held in June 2001 if complete information is provided to the Committee.
8. Among the food additives that were evaluated were referrals from the CCFAC to consider expansion of uses of benzoyl peroxide, nitrous oxide, and stearyl tartrate in the draft General Standard for Food Additives beyond those uses that had been cleared previously by JECFA. No toxicological data were supplied relating to the assessment of safety of these additional uses, so the Committee was unable to consider them.
9. The provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of 7 mg/kg body weight (bw) for cadmium was maintained. Even though information had become available since the previous evaluation which indicated that a proportion of the general population may be at increased risk of cadmium-induced tubular dysfunction, the Committee did not have a good basis for changing the PTWI because the risk estimates that can be made at present are imprecise. Further data were requested.
10. The acute toxicity of tin was re-evaluated, but the data were insufficient for establishing an acute reference dose. The Committee reiterated the opinion that it had expressed previously that concentrations of 150 mg/kg in canned beverages and 250 mg/kg in other canned foods may produce acute manifestations of gastric irritation in certain individuals.
11. At its fifty-sixth meeting the Committee evaluated several mycotoxins: aflatoxin M1, fumonisins, ochratoxin A, and the trichothecenes deoxynivalenol and T-2 and HT-2 toxins. Integrated assessments were performed, in which sources of contamination were identified, the available metabolism, toxicological, and epidemiological studies were evaluated, analytical methods, sampling protocols and the effects of processing were reviewed. Intake was assessed on the basis of surveillance and consumption data and procedures for prevention and control were identified.
12. Carcinogenic potencies and population risk were estimated for aflatoxin M1 based primarily on toxicological and epidemiological data available on aflatoxin B1, assuming that aflatoxin M1 has a potency one-tenth that of aflatoxin B1, and estimates of intake from the European regional diet. The impact of contamination at the two proposed maximum limits of 0.05 and 0.5 mg/kg in milk were compared. Using worst-case assumptions, the additional risks for liver cancer predicted when moving from 0.05 to 0.5 mg/kg was very small, and would not be measurable.
13. A group provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (PMTDI) of 2 mg/kg bw was allocated to fumonisins B1, B2, and B3. Estimates of intake based on available data on national consumption were well below this value.
14. The provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of 100 ng/kg bw for ochratoxin A that had been established previously was maintained. When considering the impact of the two proposed maximum limits of 5 and 20 mg/kg in cereals, the data indicated that there would be no significant difference in average intake. Consumers of cereals at the 95th percentile may approach the PTWI.
15. A PMTDI of 1 mg/kg bw was allocated to deoxynivalenol. Estimation of the dietary intake of deoxynivalenol on the basis of mean concentrations and GEMS/Food regional diets resulted in values that exceeded this value in four of five regional diets.
16. A group PMTDI of 60 ng/kg bw, alone or in combination, was allocated to T-2 and HT-2 toxins. The limited information available suggested that intakes would not exceed this value.
