Canada – List of Permitted Emulsifying, Gelling, Stabilizing or Thickening Agents (Lists of Permitted Food Additives)

Date modified: 2023-03-29

This List of Permitted Emulsifying, Gelling, Stabilizing or Thickening Agents sets out authorized food additives used to form or maintain a uniform emulsion of two or more phases in a food, impart a particular food texture through the formation of a gel, maintain a uniform dispersion of two or more ingredients in a food, or modify the viscosity of a food. It is incorporated by reference in the Marketing Authorization for Food Additives That May Be Used as Emulsifying, Gelling, Stabilizing or Thickening Agents.

Article – Information on food additives on food labels in Brazil: a critical analysis

Questions about the safety of food additives and their consumption have been raised in recent years. The increased exposure to these substances, either by intake of ultra-processed foods or by the broad use and combination of various categories of additives, may be related to higher risks to consumer health. This article comments on the results of a study that quantified and characterized food additives found on the labels of 9,856 packaged foods and beverages available in Brazilian supermarkets. The study adopted a field diary method to record and analyze nonconformities in the lists of ingredients. The objective of this article is to discuss the use of additives identified on the labels and the limitations of Brazilian legislation, which should guarantee the right to information and health.

Article – Food additives added to packaged or canned foods in Mexico, reliable information?

Introduction: Food additives (AA) are ingredients that are added to foods to modify their physical and chemical characteristics. Approximately 1,000 AA are used under the “Generally Recognized as Safe” designation without approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. There is evidence that some AA can be potentially toxic to health. The person in charge of regulating AA worldwide is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, through the Codex Alimentarius Commission. However, in Mexico there are no studies on the toxicity of AA in the population, given the impossibility of estimating its consumption taking the “Admissible Daily Intake” as a reference (IDA).

Brazil – ANVISA authorizes the use of food additives and processing aids in several food categories

The National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (ANVISA in Portuguese) published the Resolution – RDC No. 740/2022 that authorizes the use of food additives and technological aids in various food categories.

Chile – Draft food additive amendment and technical standard for food additives

This proposal has been prepared by the Advisory Working Group on Food Additives (03 February 2021, Exempt Decree No. 08, Ministry of Health). For its preparation, a “Food Classification System” has been established based on the principles of the Codex Alimentarius, adapting some of its headings, definitions and examples to the national reality and specifically to the provisions of DS 977/96, in order to allow the use of food additives in each food category.

The descriptors of the food categories established in the Technical Standard on Food Additives are not intended to be legal designations of the products for labeling, but serve to validate the additives and limits that are allowed in them. Likewise, the Food Category System is hierarchical in nature, which means that when the use of an additive is recognized in a general category, such use is recognized in all its subcategories, unless otherwise indicated.