Food additive

A food additive is a substance (either natural or artificial) which is not a foodstuff in itself by which is added to food for some technological reason.

Numbering

In many countries, but not normally in the United States, food additives are identified by numbers as well as (or even instead of) by name. The International Numbering System (INS) is maintained by the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). An equivalent system is in use in the European Union, where the INS numbers are prefixed by the letter E: this has led to the colloquial term "E numbers" to refer to food additives in general.

The INS groups additives roughly according to their classification, although this is not always possible: some additives have more than one use and, in any case, almost all of the three-figure numbers in the INS has been used up, so new additives may have to be numbered outside their normal range.

Classification

Food additives are classified according to their functional class, which may be divided into subclasses. The most common scheme is that used by the FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission, which has been adopted by many individual countries.

Regulation

Food additives are regulated by law in most indutrialised and many developing countries. The United Nations specialised agencies have no direct role in regulation, although they do publish recommendations and other scientific studies.

• FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission
• FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)

European Union

The European Union is responsible for the authorisation of food additives within the European Economic Area (the 27 EU members states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). There are four main pieces of legislation:

• Council Directive 89/107/EEC, of 21 December 1988, on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning food additives authorised for use in foodstuffs intended for human consumption, as amended.
• European Parliament and Council Directive 94/36/EC, of 30 June 1994, on colours for use in foodstuffs.
• European Parliament and Council Directive 94/35/EC, of 30 June 1994, on sweeteners for use in foodstuffs, as amended.
• European Parliament and Council Directive 95/2/EC, on food additives other than colours and sweeteners, as amended by Directives 96/85/EC, 98/72/EC and 2001/5/EC.

Australia and New Zealand

United States