ABSTRACT

The following defi nition has been adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an intergovernmental agency consisting of more than 150 nations (FAO/ WHO, 1994).

A food additive is any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself and not normally used as a typical ingredient of the food, whether or not it has nutritive value. The intentional addition of this to food, for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose, in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport, or holding of such food, results or is reasonably expected to result (directly or indirectly) in it or its byproducts becoming a component of, or otherwise, affecting the characteristics of such foods. The term does not include “contaminants” or substances added to food for maintaining or improving nutritional qualities.