JOINT FAO/WHO EXPERT COMMITTEE ON FOOD ADDITIVES Eighty-third meeting

A meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) was held in Rome, Italy, from 8 to 17 November 2016. The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate certain contaminants in food. Dr R. Cantrill, American Oil Chemists’ Society, United States of America, served as Chairperson, and Dr D. Benford, Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom, served as ViceChairperson. Dr M. Lipp, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Dr A. Tritscher, Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses, World Health Organization, served as Joint Secretaries. The present meeting was the eighty-third in a series of similar meetings. The tasks before the Committee were (a) to elaborate principles governing the evaluation of contaminants in food; (b) to undertake toxicological evaluations and dietary exposure assessments for six contaminants or groups of contaminants in food; and (c) to undertake toxicological evaluations and dietary exposure assessments in relation to co-exposure to two groups of contaminants in food. The report of the meeting will be published in the WHO Technical Report Series. Its presentation will be similar to that of previous reports – namely, general considerations, comments on specific contaminants or groups of contaminants, and future work and recommendations. An annex will include a summary (similar to the summary in this report) of the main conclusions of the Committee in terms of provisional maximum tolerable daily intakes and other toxicological and safety recommendations. The participants in the meeting are listed in Annex 1. Items of a general nature that the Committee would like to disseminate quickly are included in Annex 2. Future work and recommendations are listed in Annex 3. Toxicological and dietary exposure monographs on the contaminants or groups of contaminants considered will be published in WHO Food Additives Series No. 74.