The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has updated its analysis of the occurrence of arsenic in food in Europe, setting lower estimates of dietary exposure to inorganic arsenic than the agency reported in 2009. The analysis includes nearly 3,000 data samples of inorganic arsenic, evidently more toxic than organic compounds, and EFSA reports that the estimates’ accuracy has improved due to new consumption and occurrence data and a more detailed classification of foods. Arsenic, which has been linked to health problems such as skin lesions, cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer, is a widely found contaminant that occurs both naturally and as a result of human activity. It appears in various forms, which can be either organic—containing carbon—or inorganic. Food, particularly grain-based processed products, such as wheat bread, rice, milk, dairy products, and drinking water are the main sources of exposure for the general European population. Although the European…
Category Archives Issue 516
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a public consultation on its draft guidance for sugar intake that aims to help countries limit sugar consumption and address public health issues such as obesity and tooth decay. The action follows increasing concern that consumption of free sugars, particularly in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages, “may result in both reduced intake of foods containing more nutritionally adequate calories and an increase in total caloric intake, leading to an unhealthy diet, weight gain and increased risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).” The organization also cites concern about the role free sugars play in the development of dental disease, noting that they are the most prevalent NCDs globally despite the treatment and prevention improvements of the last decade. WHO estimates that the cost to treat dental disease—5 to 10 percent of the health budgets in many industrialized countries—would exceed the financial resources available for all…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reopened the comment period on its draft industry guidance titled “Ingredients Declared as Evaporated Cane Juice” on food labels. First published for comments in October 2009, the draft guidance advises industry of “FDA’s view that the common or usual name for the solid or dried form of sugar cane syrup is ‘dried cane syrup,’ and that sweeteners derived from sugar cane syrup should not be declared on food labels as ‘evaporated cane juice’ because that term falsely suggests the sweeteners are juice,” and they are not “juice” as defined in federal regulations, 21 C.F.R. 120.1(a). FDA seeks “additional data and information to better understand the basic nature and characterizing properties of the ingredient, the methods of producing it, and the differences between this ingredient and other sweeteners.” Among the specific questions the agency has raised are (i) “How is ‘evaporated cane juice’…
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