ABSTRACT
The safety assessment of food additives and of flavoring agents resembles in a general fashion methods used for the safety assessment of chemical products. During the period 1950–1962, the major principles of toxicological assessment were elaborated concerning substances present in foods, either by accident or by design, as in the case of food additives. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) is one of the additives in which toxicity has been most intensively studied. A variety of multiple effects of BHT on lung, liver, kidneys, thyroid metabolism, blood coagulation and promotion, or inhibition of carcinogenesis have been reported. Saccharin has been tested in several two-stage carcinogenesis models and found to promote bladder lesions initiated by different carcinogenic initiators. Nongenotoxic carcinogens, that is, promoters, appear to act by means other than genetic events. Better knowledge of the numerous mechanisms implied in chemical carcinogenesis will permit better hazard characterization in the case of the nongenotoxic/carcinogenic substances.
