March 27 – The Codex Committee on Food Additives last week agreed to adopt nine colours for use in food supplements at levels consistent with recommendations by the International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations (IADSA).

At its meeting on March 17 in Beijing, the Committee agreed to put Allura Red AC (300 mg/kg), Caramel Colour, Class IV (20,000 mg/kg), Carotenoids (300 mg/kg), Chlorophylls, Copper Complexes (500 mg/kg), Erythrosine (300 mg/kg), Fast Green FCF (600 mg/kg), Grape Skin Extracts (500 mg/kg), Indigotine (300 mg/kg) and Iron Oxides (7,500 mg/kg) forward for the Codex General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA), which sets down conditions for permitted food additives to be used in all foods.

These colours will now be reviewed in July by the Codex Commission, which is the decision-making body in Codex, for a decision on whether they will be adopted.

“We are satisfied with the outcome,” said David Pineda, IADSA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs. “The alternative of deleting key additives from the General Standard for Food Additives list or adopting very low levels would have created both considerable confusion in many countries and significant barriers to trade.

“The establishment of a list of additives to be used freely in trade in food products has long been a goal for Codex, and we are pleased to help contribute to its work to improve the General Standard for Food Additives. Our aim is to ensure that the adopted levels are both safe for consumers and consistent with those widely used by the global food supplement industry.”

Over the last four years IADSA has worked in the Codex Committee to provide technical arguments to support the use of a range of additives at meetings of both the Codex Additives Committee and the Codex Commission, and has seen the levels of BHA, BHT, Carnauba wax, Castor oil, Polysorbates, Polyvinyl alcohol, Acesulfame potassium, Aspartame, Cyclamates, Neotame, Saccharin, Sucralose, Ponceau 4R and Sunset Yellow FCF endorsed at levels consistent with its proposals.

A number of colours and other additives still remain under consideration as they were not able to be addressed last week due to time constraints. These have now been referred to the next Codex Committee on Food Additives meeting in 2010 for discussion.