The safety or otherwise of natural foods was established by the trial-and-error
experiments of our distant ancestors. In the modern world, novel foods and additives have
to run the gamut of testing by the regulatory authorities before being released onto the
market. It is often claimed that chemicals are added to food without adequate safety
testing. In fact, the opposite is true: chemicals whose composition and purity are known
and which have been fully tested are added to foods about which we know comparatively
little. Foods have never been subject to the same formal testing procedures for safety -
habitual consumption has been taken to be a guarantee of safety.
The general principles governing the use of additives and making sure they are safe are
the same everywhere (Safety Testing). They can be used only
if they have been fully tested, shown to be safe, and placed on the official listing
(permitted list) of the foods in which they are allowed. |
