Science and Food Today and Tomorrow (1961) / Chapter Skim
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The Meaning of Safety as Regard Food Additives
The Meaning of Safety as Regard Food Additives
Pages 49-56
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From page 49... ...
BLACKWELL SMITH, JR. President, Medical College of Virginia Safety, in relation to food additives, has been defined as the practical certainty that no harm will ensue when a particular material is used in a specified manner.
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From page 50... ...
There are potential hazards associated with the use of food additives, but these can be controlled through the application of knowledge and common sense, just as society controls the adverse potential of other accepted hazards incident to everyday living. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, it might be pointed out that every potential social advance presents alternatives imposing value judgments which cannot be avoided except at the risk of stagnation.
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From page 51... ...
The truth, belatedly recognized, is that substantially every substance, including pure water and table salt, may be harmful if a sufficient quantity is swallowed or otherwise introduced into the body; and conversely, it is a generally accepted fact that there is no substance sure to kill or harm if swallowed or taken otherwise, provided the amount taken be sufficiently small. That this harmless amount in many cases may be so small as to approach zero doubtless accounts for the popular characterization of substances known to be harmful in relatively small amounts as poisonous.
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From page 52... ...
The major exception to this generalization concerns proposed additives found to be carcinogenic when studied by the longterm animal feeding tests now routinely employed in the study of most additives. The cause or causes of spontaneously occurring cancer are still unknown, as are the modes of action of chemicals known to produce cancer when fed or otherwise administered to animals.
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From page 53... ...
The rapid development of new chemicals technologically useful in packaging, in improving the palatability or attractiveness of old food products, or in the development of new food products having great consumer appeal, has created pressure for the early use of many new additives in this category. It is not remarkable that those directly entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the integrity of the food supply should approach conservatively the problems involved in the almost simultaneous introduction of so many new chemical additives, nor that others of conservative mind should express concern.
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From page 54... ...
Second: Absolute proof of safety of a given use of a food additive cannot be adduced, but the methods used to establish safety are believed to provide data which give far greater assurance of human longevity than do data relative to the safety of riding in automobiles, crossing the street, climbing ladders, standing in the bath, or many of the other common activities in which we routinely engage. Third: This country has the world's most abundant and wholesome food supply -- convincing evidence that the methods required for assurance of safety have not completely stultified agricultural and food industrial progress and, further, that these methods have served to guard effectively against the introduction of harmful uses of food additives.
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From page 55... ...
Second Report: Procedures for the Testing of Intentional Food Additives to Establish their Safety for Use. WHO Technical Report Series No.
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