New edition of FCC offers standards to help ensure quality of innovative ingredients

The latest specifications for the identity, quality and purity of more than 1,100 food ingredients, test methods to verify specifications, key guidance on critical issues such as impurities testing for metals, and full content from an upcoming Food Fraud Database are all included in the new Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), Eighth Edition.

Published by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), FCC is a compendium of internationally recognized standards for the authenticity of a wide variety of ingredients including colorings, flavorings, nutrients, preservatives and processing aids. Via FCC, USP provides a unique combination of specifications for the authenticity and quality of each ingredient and test methods to verify these specifications, as well as reference materials suitable to confirm that the test methods are executed appropriately and measurement results therefore can be trusted.

"The food industry is constantly innovating with new products and ingredients designed to meet consumer desires for healthful, flavorful and convenient foods," said Praveen Tyle, Ph.D., USP executive vice president and chief science officer. "At the same time, manufacturers are increasingly sourcing their ingredients globally. Public standards provided by FCC can serve as a key resource for manufacturers in managing their supply chains by providing specifications to authenticate their ingredients, and can also help differentiate suppliers.

These standards may be particularly important for more complex, natural ingredients and for high-value ingredients, where price competition is fierce. Quality standards for ingredients can help ensure all parties have the same expectations regarding required quality, which can be written into contractual agreements, and can help protect against substandard ingredients—one of the safety nets for the global food supply chain," Dr. Tyle continued.

The authoritative reference provides:

• More than 1,100 monographs, which include chemical formula and structure, chemical weight, function, definition, packaging and storage, labeling requirements, test procedures and more.
• Fourteen appendices, which detail more than 150 tests and assays, with step-by-step guidance for the analysis of enzymes, impurities such as metals and pesticides and markers for authenticity testing, among others.
• General information, which includes relevant information on a variety of topics including Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Guidelines for Food Chemicals, a compare-and-contrast table of food and drug GMPs, a table of citations where the FCC has been incorporated by reference in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, AOAC International/International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) method validation guidelines, and helpful introductions into a variety of different analytical test methods.

The eighth edition also features for the first time the complete contents of USP's upcoming Food Fraud Database. The database features more than 1,300 entries on adulterants reported for specific ingredients and the corresponding analytical detection method. Based on scholarly manuscripts and media articles from 1980-2010, it serves as a baseline on fraud issues and can be a useful risk management tool for industry, regulators and other stakeholders.

Provided by US Pharmacopeia