Food Additives: Overview
On this page
About food additives
Food additives are typically used to achieve a technical effect on a food. Preservatives, food colours, and sweeteners are examples of food additives. Certain ingredients are excluded from being food additives, including spices, seasonings, flavouring preparations, vitamins, minerals, supplemental ingredients, and agricultural chemicals (e.g. pesticides).
Some substances used to aid in food manufacture or processing are classified as food processing aids, instead of food additives, if they do not become part of the food or do not affect the food’s characteristics. For more information see Food Processing Aids and Policy for Differentiating Food Additives and Food Processing Aids.
Safety of food additives
Food additives undergo pre-market safety assessments before they are authorized for use in Canada. A request to use a new food additive is made by filing a food additive submission with Health Canada’s Food and Nutrition Directorate. The food additive submission must adequately support the safety of the food additive for its requested use.
The Directorate’s Bureau of Chemical Safety coordinates the evaluation of food additive submissions. The safety evaluation considers some or all of the following: potential dietary exposure to the food additive, allergenicity, chemistry, microbiology and molecular biology, nutrition, and toxicology. The safety of food additives is determined based on the weight of scientific evidence available at the time of the review.
Health Canada also reviews the safety of already-permitted food additives when a food additive submission is filed to extend the use of the food additive or when there is an emerging scientific development about the food additive’s safety.
Health Canada will not authorize a new food additive, a new use of an already-permitted food additive, or a higher level of use for an already-permitted food additive if it would make food unsafe. Health Canada will further restrict the permitted use of a food additive, or no longer permit a food additive to be used at all, if there is a safety reason to take such action.
Regulation of food additives
In Canada, food additives are regulated under the Food and Drugs Act (FDA) and the Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA) and regulations under these Acts. The definition of “food additive” is in Division 1 of the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR). The main regulations for food additives are in Division 16 of the FDR.
It is prohibited to sell a food in Canada that contains a poisonous or harmful substance or that is adulterated. Under the FDR, a food is adulterated if it contains a food additive unless the food additive is permitted in the food.
The food additives that are permitted in Canada are set out in the Lists of Permitted Food Additives. The Lists show which food(s) each additive can be used in and the maximum level of use in the food(s).
Food additives must also meet any required food-grade specifications.
Anyone can ask that Health Canada permit a new use of a food additive. The request is made by filing a pre-market food additive submission with Health Canada’s Food and Nutrition Directorate. See Food Additives – Submission Preparation for information on preparing a food additive submission.
In general, uses of food additives that are permitted in Canada are similar to those permitted in Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the United States, and to uses accepted internationally in the Codex General Standard for Food Additives.
Food additives must be declared by name in the list of ingredients on prepackaged foods.
Join Health Canada's Food Additives e-Notice, a free service to stay on top of advice as well as regulatory and scientific developments in the area of food additives in Canada.
Register for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada's Consultation and Stakeholder Information Management System. This system allows direct communication with our stakeholders about consultations and/or other health-related information: CSIMS | New Registration
Page details
- Date modified: