CAC/GL 66-2008 Guidelines for the Use of Flavourings
1.0 SCOPE
This guideline provides principles for the safe use of the components of flavourings evaluated by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and determined to present no safety concern at estimated levels of intake, or that have established JECFA acceptable daily intakes (ADIs), and for which corresponding specifications of identity and purity have been established and adopted by Codex.1 In addition,
the guideline provides principles for the establishment of practices that do not mislead the consumer.
2.0 DEFINITIONS
2.1 Flavour is the sum of those characteristics of any material taken in the mouth, perceived principally by the senses of taste and smell, and also the general pain and tactile receptors in the mouth, as received and interpreted by the brain. The perception of flavour is a property of flavourings.
2.2 Flavourings are products that are added to food to impart, modify, or enhance the flavour of food (with the exception of flavour enhancers considered as food additives under the Codex Class Names and the International Numbering System for Food Additives - CAC/GL 36-1989). Flavourings do not include substances that have an exclusively sweet, sour, or salty taste (e.g. sugar, vinegar, and table salt). Flavourings may consist of flavouring substances, natural flavouring complexes, thermal process flavourings or smoke flavourings and mixtures of them and may contain non-flavouring food ingredients (Section 2.3) within the conditions as referred to in 3.5. They are not intended to be consumed as such.
