evaluation of certain food additives - libdoc.who.int - World Health ...

2. General considerations
As a result of the recommendations of the first Joint FAO/WHO Conference
on Food Additives, held in September 1955 (1), there have been 70 previous
meetings of the Committee (Annex 1). The present meeting was convened
on the basis of a recommendation made at the sixty-ninth meeting (Annex 1,
reference 190).
The tasks before the Committee were:
to elaborate further principles for evaluating the safety of food additives
(section 2);
to undertake toxicological evaluations of certain food additives (section 3
and Annex 2);
to review and prepare specifications for certain food additives (section 3
and Annex 2).
2.1 Modification of the agenda
The Committee considered the names of the compounds branching enzyme
from Rhodothermus obamensis and expressed in Bacillus subtilis, lycopene
oleoresin extract from tomato and OSA (octenyl succinic acid)-modified
acacia gum (gum arabic), which were on the agenda for evaluation for the
first time, to be inappropriate. The Committee renamed them, respectively,
branching glycosyltransferase from Rhodothermus obamensis expressed in
Bacillus subtilis, lycopene extract from tomato and octenyl succinic acid
modified gum arabic.
A temporary acceptable daily intake (ADI) “not specified” was allocated to
the food additive cyclotetraglucose and cyclotetraglucose syrup at the sixtyeighth
meeting of the Committee (Annex 1, reference 187) pending submission
of information on the identity of the bacterial strain used to produce the
6--glucosyltransferase and -isomaltosyltransferase (6-GT/IMT) enzyme
preparation and evidence of its lack of pathogenicity and toxicogenicity. The
specifications for cyclotetraglucose syrup were made tentative pending additional
information on the total saccharide content and test methods and on
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