For those of you who don't know me, I'm Judith Hilton. I'm a medical doctor and currently head up the Agency's Microbiological Safety Division. Andrew asked me to keep an eye on the blog while he's away.
Science doesn't stand still, when when our Chief Scientist is on holiday. Every day studies are completed and results published. Periodically we need to ask ourselves whether the evidence still supports our conclusions or whether we need to think again.
This is what is happening with the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) re-evaluation of food additives. Colours were first looked at by an EC advisory committee in 1974 and this is the first group of additives that EFSA is reviewing.
The initial stage involves pulling all the information together – the original work plus all the data and studies that have been produced since. An EFSA working group decided the colour Red 2G was a priority for re-evaluation. Red 2G breaks down in our bodies to several compounds, including aniline.
The working group based its evaluation on the conclusions of the 2004 EU Risk Assessment of aniline, which found that aniline has the potential to damage the genetic material in cells and cause cancer in animals. EFSA concluded it would be prudent to regard Red 2G as being of safety concern and withdrew the acceptable daily intake.
When this opinion was published we quickly recommended that food producers should stop using Red 2G, and this was formalised by a decision of the EU Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health at its meeting on 20 July.
Although it is a concern that a previously permitted food additive is no longer considered safe, it shows that the scientific risk assessment process responds to new data and provides risk managers with the evidence and robust analysis they need to act to protect people.
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