Food additives are designed to impart a unique texture or color to foods to make them more appetizing, supplement nutritional components, and maintain or preserve quality, and as such they play a central role in enriching our dietary life.
In Japan, Food additives are defined in the Food Sanitation Act as "substances which are used by being added, mixed or infiltrated into food or by other methods in the process of producing food or for the purpose of processing or preserving food."
Fujifilm Wako offers a wide range of various reagents and reference standards for food additive tests. We also distribute food additives produced based on the standards described in the Japan's Specifications and Standards for Food Additives.
In Japan, as a general rule, only approximately 470 food additives designated by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (designated additives) can be used in accordance with Article 12 of the Food Sanitation Act. Among non-specified additives, existing additives, natural flavors, and general food/drink additives can be used as additives. For food additives, the “acceptable daily intake (ADI)” (1/100 of the no-observed-adverse-effect level) has been established as the daily safe intake under the Food Sanitation Act.