What are Flavorings?
Flavorings are often complex mixtures of natural and manmade substances. The Food and Drug Administration evaluates flavoring ingredients to determine whether they are “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) to be eaten. Even if they are safe to eat, these ingredients might still be harmful to breathe in the forms and amounts to which food and chemical industry workers may be exposed. Given the complexity of flavorings mixtures, and the lack of health data for many of the component materials, identifying the relative contributions of individual substances to causing flavoring-induced lung disease is a difficult challenge. As noted in the NIOSH Alert, Preventing Lung Disease in Workers Who Use or Make Flavorings, the flavorings industry has estimated that over a thousand flavoring ingredients have the potential to be respiratory hazards due to possible volatility and irritant properties (alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones, aliphatic aldehydes, aliphatic carboxylic acids, alipha
Related Questions
- How will OSHA proceed with rulemaking on diacetyl and food flavorings that contain diacetyl so that process is not stretched over many years, as has occurred with beryllium, silica, and chromium?
- When recipes list optional toppings or flavorings, are they included in nutritional information listed?
- What are the natural and artificial flavorings?
