One-hundred-and-second meeting - Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)

Overview

The one hundred and second meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) was held in Nanjing from 9 to 18 June 2026. The meeting was made possible through the generous support of the Government of China, in particular the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment and Nanjing Medical University. The tasks before the Committee were to (i) undertake safety evaluations of certain food additives; (ii) review and prepare specifications for certain food additives; (iii) review and prepare specifications for certain processing aids; and (iv) undertake safety evaluations of certain previous cargoes.

Dr D. Benford served as Chairperson and Dr R. Cantrill served as Vice-chairperson. Ms A. Vlachou and Mr K. Petersen served as joint secretaries for FAO and WHO, respectively.

The Committee evaluated the safety of seven food additives and one substance as a previous cargo, revised the specifications for three food additives, established specifications for one food additive and revised the specifications for lead for three processing aids.

The report of the meeting will be published as WHO Technical Report Series No. 1062. The report will summarize the main conclusions of the Committee in terms of acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) and other toxicological, dietary exposure and safety recommendations. Information on deliberations and conclusions with regards to the specifications for the identity and purity of certain food additives and processing aids examined by the Committee will also be included.

The participants are listed in Annex 1. Information of a general nature that the Committee wishes to disseminate quickly is provided in Annex 2. Recommendations arising from the report of the one hundred and second meeting are summarized in Annex 3. Finally, Annex 4 includes requests for corrections that were reported to the JECFA Secretariat, evaluated by the Committee and found to be necessary (note that these corrections will only be made in the electronic versions available in the online database).

Toxicological monographs summarizing the data that were considered by the Committee in establishing ADIs will be published as WHO Food Additives Series No. 93. New and revised specifications for the identity and purity of the compounds will be published in FAO JECFA Monographs No. 36.

More information on the work of JECFA is available at: http://www.fao.org/food-safety/scientific-advice/jecfa/en/ and https://www.who.int/foodsafety/en/