About the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)
Terms of Reference of the Committee
For food additives, including enzymes and flavouring agents, contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants, the Committee:
- elaborates principles for evaluating their safety and for quantifying their risks;
- conducts toxicological evaluations and establishes acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) or tolerable intakes for chronic exposure and other guidance values for acute exposure;
- assesses the performance, quality and applicability of analytical methods;
- prepares specifications of purity for food additives; and
- assesses exposure of populations to chemical substances in food.
For residues of veterinary drugs in food, the Committee:
- elaborates principles for evaluating their safety and for quantifying their risks;
- establishes ADIs and other guidance values for acute exposure;
- recommends maximum residue limits (MRLs) for target tissues; and
- determines appropriate criteria for and evaluates methods of analysis for detecting and/or quantifying residues in food.