Introduction
The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is an international scientific expert committee that is administered jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It has been meeting since 1956, initially to evaluate the safety of food additives. Its work now also includes the evaluation of contaminants, naturally occurring toxicants and residues of veterinary drugs in food.
To date, JECFA has evaluated more than 2600 food additives, approximately 50 contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants, and residues of approximately 75 veterinary drugs. The Committee also develops principles for the safety assessment of chemicals in food that are consistent with current thinking on risk assessment and take account of recent developments in toxicology and other relevant scientific areas such as epidemiology, biotechnology, exposure assessment, food chemistry including analytical chemistry and assessment of maximum residue limits for veterinary drugs.
JECFA normally meets twice a year with individual agendas covering either (i) food additives, contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants in food or (ii) residues of veterinary drugs in food. The membership of the meetings varies accordingly, with different sets of experts being called on depending on the subject matter.
Purpose
JECFA serves as an independent scientific expert committee which performs risk assessments and provides advice to FAO, WHO and the member countries of both organizations, as well as to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). The requests for scientific advice are for the main part channelled through the subsidiary bodies of the CAC in their work to develop international food standards and guidelines under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The advice to CAC on food additives, contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants is normally provided to the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) and to the Codex Committee on Contaminants in food (CCCF), and advice on residues of veterinary drugs to the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Food (CCRVDF).
All countries need to have access to reliable risk assessment of chemicals in food, but not all have the expertise and funds available to carry out separate risk assessments on large numbers of chemicals. JECFA performs a vital role in providing a reliable and independent source of expert advice in the international setting, thus contributing to the setting of standards on a global scale for the health protection of all consumers and for ensuring fair practices in the trade of safe food. Some countries use information from JECFA in the establishment of national food safety control programmes and CCFA, CCCF and CCRVDF develop standards based on evaluations by JECFA.
A particularly important aspect of the work of Codex Committees results from the agreement, as a result of the Uruguay Round in which the World Trade Organization (WTO) succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, that scientific, risk-based standards established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission should be employed under terms of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to address fair trade practices. Governments wishing to argue particular cases at WTO are likely, therefore, to turn increasingly to Codex, and through Codex to JECFA and other scientific bodies, for advice on their own legislation.