Hong Kong Guidelines on the Use of Aluminiumcontaining Food Additives
Purpose
The Guidelines set out principles for the use of aluminium-containing food additives in food production and provide recommendations to the trade for reducing aluminium content in food products. The Guidelines are applicable to all manufacturers and producers (including restaurants and bakeries).
2. The Joint Food and Agriculture Organization / World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) re-evaluated the safety of aluminium in 2006 and concluded to lower the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) from 7 mg/kg body weight (bw) to 1 mg/kg bw for aluminium (including additives). Subject to the availability of new scientific data including bioavailability data, JECFA might re-evaluate the safety of aluminium in near future.
3. In view of the latest safety evaluation of aluminium, public concern and a lack of local data on the situation of food containing aluminium-containing food additives, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has conducted a study on “Aluminium in Food” aiming to examine the levels of aluminium in various food products in relation to the use of aluminium-containing food additives, to estimate the potential dietary exposure to aluminium of the population in Hong Kong and to assess the associated health risk. The study revealed that aluminiumcontaining food additives are widely used in the productionof steamed bread/bun/cake, some bakery products such as muffin, pancake, waffle, coconut tart and jellyfish. On the other hand, the study also revealed that certain bakery products generally contain low levels of aluminium, and they are white bread, wheat bread and rolls. Although the results indicated that it is unlikely to cause adverse health effect of aluminium for the general population, the adverse health effect of aluminium for some population who regularly consume foods added with aluminium-containing food additive such as steamed bread/bun/cake, bakery products
and jellyfish cannot be ruled out. To protect public health, efforts should be made to reduce exposure to aluminium for the population.
