Qingdao Tianya Chemical Co Ltd

CMC food grade as a food additive in wine approve report
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) received an Application from the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) on 6 May 2010. This Application sought to amend Standard 1.3.1 – Food Additives and Australia-only Standard 4.5.1 – Wine Production Requirements of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) to allow CMC food grade as an additive in wine and sparkling wine.
Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose food grade stabilises wine by inhibiting tartrate crystal formation and subsequent precipitation which can cause cloudiness and sediment formation and make the wine undesirable to drink. CMC food grade is intended to be used as an additional tool, rather than as a replacement for existing tartrate crystal control methods.
Prior to any approval being granted for a new food additive or an extension of use, a pre-market assessment of its safety and technological function is required.
Food additives are regulated under Standard 1.3.1 – Food Additives, which applies to both Australia and New Zealand. CMC food grade is already permitted under Standard 1.3.1 for a number of foods, but not wine. Thus an amendment to this Standard was sought.
Wine produced in Australia, regardless of where it is finally sold, needs to comply with Standard 4.5.1– Wine Production Requirements. As CMC food grade is currently not listed as an additive allowed in wine production under Standard 4.5.1, an amendment to this standard was also sought.
Approval of CMC food grade as an additive in wine was sought to meet requirements under the 2008 Agreement between Australia and the European Community for Trade in Wine. Currently wines which contain CMC food grade, including those from the European Union (EU), are not legal in Australia or New Zealand.
The Application was assessed under the General Procedure.
Risk and Technical Assessment
A Risk and Technical Assessment was undertaken to determine whether the use of CMC food grade as an additive in wine is technologically justified and safe for use.
Evidence presented by the Applicant in support of the Application provided adequate assurance to FSANZ that the use of the additive for the proposed purpose is technologically justified and has been demonstrated to be effective in achieving its stated purpose.
The hazard assessment considered the history of safe use of CMC food grade in other foods. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) has not assigned CMC food grade a numerical Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) value. Instead, it has been assigned a ‘not specified’ ADI which applies to substances of low hazard. FSANZ agrees with the conclusions of JECFA. On the basis of this ADI and that the additional contribution to dietary exposure arising from wine consumption will be negligible, the additive is considered not to pose a risk to public health.
The overall conclusion of the risk and technical assessment is that the use of CMC food grade as an additive in wine to inhibit tartrate crystal formation is technologically justified and raises no public health or safety issues.
Risk Management
The Application stated that the maximum concentration of CMC food grade expected to be used in wine is 100 mg/L. As this Application is an extension to the use of sodium CMC and considering there are no specific public health or safety issues identified for this extended use, FSANZ proposes to permit the use of CMC food grade in wine and sparkling wine at good manufacturing practice (GMP) levels, rather than set a specific maximum limit.
Wines containing this additive will not need to be labelled as they are not subject to labelling on the final food under subclause 2(b) of Standard 1.2.4 – Labelling of Ingredients.
The additive is already permitted in other foods and a specification already exists. No amendments to the specification are considered necessary.