Food additives, enzymes and processing aids

Committee:
Food & Agriculture
status:
Progress
Published:
Differences in the lists of approved additives and enzymes between Japan and other major markets remain common. Notable examples include iodised salt, amidated pectin, and TBHQ. While the EBC acknowledges progress in Japan’s approval of certain additives, the overall process continues to present significant challenges. The EU and Japan should leverage the EPA to further enhance cooperation in this area. Despite earlier expectations that the EPA would lead to faster approval times, there is still considerable room for improvement. In some cases, the regulatory logic appears inconsistent—for instance, sorbic acid is permitted in jams but prohibited if the jam is diluted, even though the concentration of the additive is lower.

Recommendations

  • Japan should harmonise its definition of food additives by excluding processing aids—substances that are no longer active in the final product after manufacturing.
  • Japan should ensure that standards of use in Japan are not in conflict with international standards of use, such as potassium sorbate and nutrition fortifiers.
  • Japan should also harmonise the specifications of food additives, such as purity, definition of specific food additives and size of molecules.
  • Japan should not set up unique requirements/practices for enzyme registration. An example is artificial gastric digestion data.
  • Japan should make certain that approval times are decreased as discussed in the EPA. Currently, the consultation period can be very long.