Estimates of the theoretical maximum daily intake of erythorbic acid, gallates, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) in Italy: a stepwise approach

The three recent EU directives which fixed maximum permitted levels (MPL) f or food additives for all member states also include the general obligation to establish national systems for monitoring the intake of these substance s in order to evaluate their use safety. In this work, we considered additi ves with primary antioxidant technological function for which an acceptable daily intake (ADI) was established by the Scientific Committee for Food (S CF): gallates, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BH T) and erythorbic acid. The potential intake of these additives in Italy wa s estimated by means of a hierarchical approach using, step by step, more r efined methods. The likelihood of the current ADI to be exceeded was very l ow for erythorbic acid, BHA and gallates. On the other hand, the theoretica l maximum daily intake (TMDI) of BHT was above the current ADI. The three f ood categories found to be main potential sources of BHT were "pastry, cake and biscuits", "chewing gums" and "vegetables oils and margarine"; they ov erall contributed 74% of the TMDI. Actual use of BHT in these food categori es is discussed, together with other aspects such as losses of this substan ce in the technological process and percentage of ingestion in the case of chewing gums. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.