Consolidation of regulations on additives and technological assistants for use in food has been published.

Anvisa published the rules that consolidate requirements and lists of food additives and technology support. The official publication took place in the Official Gazette of the Union on March 8th. These norms were previously foreseen in 67 normative acts. The reason for this consolidation was aimed at facilitating the identification of authorized substances, along with their respective conditions of use, both by the regulated sector and also by inspection authorities.

In this scenario, the requirements and lists of food additives and technology assistants authorized for use in food now consist of three items, two resolutions, and one normative instruction:

RDC 778/2023 – Collegiate Board Resolution that talks about the general principles, the technological functions, and the conditions of use of food additives and food technology adjuvants;

Normative Instruction 211/2023, establishing technological functions, the maximum limits and conditions of use for food additives and technology support authorized for use in food; and RDC 779/2023 – Collegiate Board Resolution that provides information on food additives, chemical yeasts, and technology assistants, biological yeasts and yeast nutrients intended for use in bakery products and cookies.

To make consultation easier about additives and technology support approved and listed in IN 211/2023, Anvisa has made available on its portal 2 consultation panels, to facilitate the search for more than 19 thousand authorizations for use, filtering by product category or type of function.

Why did this change happen?

This theme is part of the agency’s Regulatory Agenda 2021-2023 and is part of Anvisa’s actions to improve and manage the regulatory stock, intending to maintain the consistency of standards and rationalize and promoting qualified access to the regulatory framework for food.

Starting under Decree 10,139/2019, work on reviewing and consolidating the standards for food additives and technology assistants authorized for use in food implied changes in the merits of the current standards, for the reason that they were normative acts lower than a decree that did not imply a change in the substance of the rules in force.

The partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) allowed the elaboration of normative proposals, making it possible to consolidate substances previously provided only in the legislation of that ministry.

To understand it better:

The Food Additive refers to the ingredient intentionally added to food, to modify the physical, chemical, biological, or sensory characteristics, during the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packaging, conditioning, storage, transport, or manipulation of food, with no purpose of nutrition. This additive or its derivatives can be converted into a component of the food. This definition excludes contaminants or nutritive substances that are added to food to maintain or improve its nutritional properties.

Now Technology Supporting is the substance that is not consumed as a food ingredient and that, intentionally, is used in the elaboration of raw materials, food, or its ingredients, to obtain a technological purpose during the treatment or manufacture. This substance needs to be eliminated or inactivated from the food, and the presence of traces of the substance, or its derivatives, in the final product may be assumed.

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