State bans on food additives: New IFT toolkit separates fact from fiction

The toolkit includes information on additives and preservatives, including their history in the food industry.

courtesy of: IFT

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has released an educational toolkit to help address confusion over food additives and preservatives in the production of foods. The Food Additives Toolkit covers critical information on additives and preservatives, including the history surrounding food additives and preservatives; cases and key benefits, including ensuring food safety, reducing food waste, and enriching nutrition; concerns such as chemical-sounding names, public health, and emerging science; and information on the regulatory landscape both nationally and internationally.

“Food additives not only help improve shelf life and reduce microbiological growth but help ensure a safe and affordable food supply while also reducing food loss and waste. But as the addition of these ingredients has increased over the years, so has confusion, leading states to propose legislation to ban certain food additives in conflict with federal regulations,” said IFT Chief Science and Technology Officer Bryan Hitchcock. “This toolkit is such a valuable resource as it provides science-based, factual information at a time when misinformation is rampant.”

This toolkit is the latest in a series of educational tools IFT has developed around food additives, including hosting a webinar in February on how the state-level food additives ban will impact the food industry as well as creating an IFT members-only 2024 Additives Overview that shares crucial information about many additives being considered for those state-level bans, including titanium dioxide, brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, and Red dye No. 3. This resource also includes current regulatory status, relevant scientific studies, commonly used alternatives, and additional reading for each of the additives included.

IFT has also released a special collection of papers that dives into food additives and preservatives from its scientific journals, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety and Journal of Food Science, and will also be hosting a webinar titled “An Introduction to FDA’s Food Ingredient Regulatory Programs” on April 2 which will educate attendees on the FDA’s regulatory pathways. Featuring FDA Regulatory Review Specialist Katie Overbey, PhD, MS, the webinar will cover food and color additive petitions, as well as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) chemicals. Overbey will share essential information about determining the regulatory status of ingredients, saving valuable time and money when formulating new products.

To register for the upcoming webinar, click here. To download the Food Additives Toolkit, click here.

Liz Parker Kuhn is the senior editor of Candy Industry and Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, and has worked at BNP Media since 2012. She has written for CBS Detroit as well as for her own blogs. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. Liz can be contacted at (248) 839-7156 or at parkere@bnpmedia.com.

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