Risk Assessment of Food Additives
Hi all,
need help with "Ingredient inherent" risk assessment of food ingredients (food additives e.g. accidents, vitamins, etc.), is there a ready to refer list on how to classify them or rate them, and i'm here talking about all ingredients listed in FCC if i have to rate them as Low risk, medium risk, high risk or on scale of 1-5 (1 being low risk and 5 being high risk).
thanks all.
Dear Sam,
The intensity of the risk for additives depends also on its nature, the usage and your process. But globally there are some fist rules:
- Additives: In general these are purified and concentrated substances. The micro-organisms don't like such environments
- Food acids: As described under the first topic
- Vitamines: The dosage needs to be very accurate. Underdosage is dangerous for people who depend of your product. Overdoses of vitamines are very dangerous for the vitamines A, D, E and K
- There are many additives that have a maximum dosing level, to avoid that they cause health problems at the consumers
- Foreign bodies: This can be a risk when the additives are dosed by means of automatic dosing systems or in big quantities
- Food legislation risk: Please note that there are additives with different formulations, which may be forbidden in export countries. For example: Sodium Phosphate, which indicates 1 additive, however there are 5 or 6 different chemical formulas of it on the market
I hope this gives an idea on how to approach your Risk assessment.
Kind regards,
Gerard Heerkens
Hello Gerard,
thanks for the insight, this helps,
just to list down the criteria's what i have in my mind as of now.
1. Microbial sensitivity
2. Legal requirements
3. Dosage level requirement
4. Potential risk of foreign contamination
5. Where used (end use of ingredient)
6. Potential risk of Chemical contaminants (agricultural residue etc.)
i'm thinking of if there is more that i should consider.
Since i have to work from scratch with over 500 ingredients, here is just an ask to ease my labor, "does anyone have any readily available list that can be shared for reference"...
just to list down the criteria's what i have in my mind as of now.
1. Microbial sensitivity
2. Legal requirements
3. Dosage level requirement
4. Potential risk of foreign contamination
5. Where used (end use of ingredient)
6. Potential risk of Chemical contaminants (agricultural residue etc.)
i'm thinking of if there is more that i should consider.
Since i have to work from scratch with over 500 ingredients, here is just an ask to ease my labor, "does anyone have any readily available list that can be shared for reference"...
Hi Sam,
I'm unclear as to the actual purpose of yr encyclopedic quest.
HACCP typically requires food ingredients /additives to be "approved". "Approved" implies "Food Grade" as per supplier specification.
I imagine that by now India will have its own list of approved additives.
It would seem logical to rate such items as low risk when used as stipulated.
Use a reference if you wish such as the FCC, FDA Gras, FEMA (If any flavors). I would try and keep it simple by using a HACCP hazard analysis with biological, chemical, and physical. I would further group like types of ingredients. Be sure to consider allergen or sensitive agent implications.