The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is an international expert scientific committee that has been meeting since 1956, initially to evaluate the safety of food additives and later to also include the evaluation of contaminants, naturally occurring toxicants and residues of veterinary drugs in food. To date, JECFA has evaluated more than 1300 food additives, approximately 25 contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants, and residues of approximately 80 veterinary drugs. A number of Chemical and Technical Assessments, documents which provide basic information on the identity, purity and use of a food additive, as it is related to its risk assessment, have now been made available on the web. Some of them concern food additives from genetically modified microorganisms. See http://www.fao.org/ag/AGN/jecfa/chemical_assessment_en.stm or contact [email protected] for more information.

06/02/2005