Support regulated use of food additives
What you need to know:
- The end-game is an operating environment that not only allows consumers to make informed decisions regarding what they eat or drink, but also punishes manufacturers who are non-compliant, while validating those engaged in ethical practices.
- Besides regulating food additives, ensuring their safety assessment and risk management, there is a strong case for a proper risk communication and for countering some of the negative, unscientific information that is being targeted at food additives.
The use of additives in the manufacture of food has become a generally accepted practice globally. The key condition, however, is that such usage must be done in a manner that adheres to regulations as set by a competent government authority.
Food additives are perhaps as old as the day when man discovered that salt could make meat and other foodstuffs last longer.
Invariably, their use has coincided with the ascendancy of manufactured foods as sole reliance on home-made foods wanes. Today, very few humans can claim to consume grown food exclusively.
Additives are widely and safely used in the food industry to lend certain desirable attributes to food and related products. These include longevity, taste, colour and even general aesthetic appeal.
Most exist in nature while some have to be extracted from food items or created through scientific processes.
Food regulation in Kenya, which is the province of the Kenya Bureau of Standards, and to some extent, the Ministry of Health, is largely based on the Food, Drugs and Chemical Substances Act Cap 254 and a slew of national standards and enabling regulations.
These are supposed to ensure adherence to set guidelines on purity, levels of use, labelling and what level of carry-over is allowed from other sources.
The Kenya food additives regulations are harmonised with international standards, such as Codex. Harmonisation is important in the pursuit of a number of ideals.
These are consumer safety, appropriate use of the additive in question, product quality, fair trade and an environment of openness or disclosure.
UNSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
The end-game is an operating environment that not only allows consumers to make informed decisions regarding what they eat or drink, but also punishes manufacturers who are non-compliant, while validating those engaged in ethical practices.
In Kenya, similar to other countries in the region, two possible hues may emerge within the food industry: one playing by the rules, and another one operating outside the relevant standards. The undeniable corollary of this situation is unfair competition.
Lately the use of food additives in Kenya and the region in general has come in for heavy criticism from both consumers and other organised groups. Sadly, most of this criticism is founded on raw emotions as opposed to scientific evidence.
The fact of the matter is that when used within the regulated limits and according to the well-defined purity criteria, food additives are absolutely safe for human consumption.
Besides regulating food additives, ensuring their safety assessment and risk management, there is a strong case for a proper risk communication and for countering some of the negative, unscientific information that is being targeted at food additives.
This way, the government shall not only be promoting fair trade and competition, it shall also be providing much-needed credible “guidance” to consumers in a terrain where lack of information is sometimes pervasive.
Besides, and perhaps more significantly, it shall be actively supporting the entire food industry and the huge support eco-system it sustains through quality and permanent jobs, supplier linkages with other segments of local business, tax revenue to the Exchequer, and in some cases, foreign exchange.
Dr Chumburidze is the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager for Coca-Cola Eurasia & Africa Group
