Europe Tests Smoke Flavourings for Safety

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has completed its first review of the safety of 11 smoke flavourings used in the EU.

Based on EFSA’s report, which determines ‘margins of safety’ for each product, the European Commission will establish a list of smoke flavouring products authorised for use in foods.

Smoke flavourings are products that can be added to certain foods including meat, fish or cheeses to give them a ‘smoked’ flavour as an alternative to traditional smoking.

The flavourings can also be used as flavourings in other foods such as soups, sauces, drinks and confectionery.

All the smoke flavourings that have now been assessed by EFSA are currently or have previously been on the market in the EU.

EFSA chairman of the expert panel on flavourings Klaus-Dieter Jany said the panel based its conclusions on the limited data currently available as well as conservative – or cautious – intake estimates.

“The panel expressed safety concerns for several smoke flavourings where intake levels could be relatively close to the levels which may cause negative health effects,” Jany said.

“This does not necessarily mean that people consuming these products will be at risk.

“To be on the safe side the consumption estimates deliberately over-estimate intake levels.”

The CEF panel asked manufacturers for data on the composition and toxicity of their products as well as details on their intended uses and use levels.

The panel then determined the highest intake level at which each product was shown not to cause adverse health effects in animals.

This level was then compared to estimated intake levels for humans in order to determine ‘margins of safety’ for each product.

Of the 11 smoke flavourings evaluated by the panel experts found margins of safety for two of the products were large enough not to give rise to safety concerns when considering the uses and use levels specified by the manufacturers.

For eight others smaller margins of safety gave rise to safety concerns and for one of those smoke flavourings the panel could not rule out concerns regarding possible genotoxicity (damage to the genetic material of cells) given the available data.

The panel could not assess the safety of one further smoke flavouring due to the lack of adequate data available.