So how much of a specific chemical is safe in our food?

So foods are full of all sorts of nasty chemicals right?

There are many who make this claim and advocate strongly for food with no chemicals. This is the main reason for the increase in the “clean” food movement.

Some “chemicals” are essential to give us the food we all want when we go shopping.

Without preservatives many foods would not be available when we want them.

Chemicals are used to ripen some fruits to be able to give us those fruits all year round.

Some chemicals  give us the texture we want in some foods.

Some chemicals make the food we crave the colour we expect.

Some chemicals are used to make the food we want taste like it does.

The Food Standards Code is where we find what chemicals are allowed to be used in what foods and how much is permitted to be added. This can be found in Standards One and Two –  http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/code/Pages/default.aspx

It is not allowed for any chemical to be added to a food if it is not permitted by the Code.

It is the role and responsibility of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) to both develop these standards and to maintain them. To determine what is an acceptable chemical for use in food and how much can be used if allowed, FSANZ does much research, including; article searches, testing if considered necessary, review of national and international science and other jurisdiction standards, and submissions from the public and interested parties.

The decision about what chemicals are permitted and how much of these can be used is only made after prolonged review and some of these have specific safety issues surrounding them and these have more information provided on the FSANZ website.

For more details about these higher risk  or profile chemicals have a look at http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/chemicals/Pages/default.aspx