Documents Artificial Reefs Coral Reefs Eco half yearly report of Kuwait Environment (Arabic) Eco monthly report of additive June 99 UVABC (Arabic) Electricity in Kuwait Hazardous Waste Disposal Kestrels of Kuwait PET Red Tide (English) Red Tide (Arabic) 1-Eco-Conditions-Information-Copyrights-Trademarks-V2-2002 2-Eco-How to use this CD-V2-2002 3-Eco-Kuwait Environmental Strategy-V2-2002 EIA Booklet Food Additives It is well established that food additives are a subject of health concern worldwide. High-risk groups such as hyperactive and asthmatic children can suffer from many foods Additives contained in food products. In the state of Kuwait, a weakness in regulations and lack of awareness resulted in floods of foods entering the local market that are considered as a source of health risk to these groups. A survey was carried-out in eight co-operative societies to assess the presence and frequency of occurrence of food additives in eight different types of food products. The survey revealed the high occurrence of food additives, in food either produced locally or imported, suspected of causing adverse health impacts. Key Words: Food additives, Risk, E-Numbers, Food Colours, Preservatives, Hyperactive children, Best Avoidable Additives. Introduction After the discovery of oil, the Kuwaiti society transformed from a simple sea pearling and trading society to a consumer type society. The country exports oil and import almost all other life necessities including food. For example, between 1990-1993 food and drinks imports increased from 148,197 to 290,053 million Kuwaiti Dinar (KD) (Ministry of Planning, 1994). Author note: Each KD equals 2 Sterling Pounds. Food products are imported from all over the world such as Australia, Europe, United States, Turkey, South East Asia and Arabian Gulf States. The term food additives refer to the process of adding special chemicals to food products during their manufacturing process. Therefore, they do not constitute part of food natural characteristics. Food additives are usually declared in food labels by the prefix "E" followed by three numbers. Additives delay oxidation, prevent rancidity and the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. Also, they enhance the taste and texture of food products. According to their function, food additives can be classified into the following: Anti-oxidants and preservatives. The former prevents food from being rancid and the latter extends the shelf life of food products. Vitamins and minerals and sweeteners that add nutritive and reduce caloric values of food products Cosmetics, that enhance flavour, add special texture, boost taste and append colours to food products to embellish its taste and appearance. Material and Methods All foreign companies interested to import goods to Kuwait, they have to appoint a sole Kuwaiti agent in Kuwait. The main activity of the agent is to distribute the goods to the local market. The local market can be divided into three types. The first, are the small privately owned shops that are distributed among Kuwait's residential areas. Whilst the second, are the co-operative societies. These are owned by both the public and governmental sectors. Two types exist in all Kuwait's residential areas, the small branches and one main large supermarket. The third, are the small and large privately owned super markets. Data, needed for the study, were collected from eight main co-operative societies in different residential areas. This is because most of the people by their food from these societies. Also, food product availability and variety are more in the main co-operative societies than the small branches and shops. Eight different groups of food products were selected for the purpose of the study. These include canned food, crisps, milk, juices, cheese, ice cream, chocolate and sweets and gums. Food products can be found in massive varieties in the co-operative societies. For example, after checking with one co-operative society administration, it was found that it had 250 variety of juices. Therefore, for the purpose of convenience, the number of products sampled for the study was limited only to 26 samples. During the survey, two hundreds' and eight food products were investigated for their food additives' contents (Tables 1-8). Each food category was collected randomly from the eight co-operative societies. Then each product was noted for its food additives in terms of it's "E-number" content. A survey information sheet was designed for the data collection task. Data related to the product brand name and the types of the food additive it contained were, also, registered on the sheet. Also, the name of the company or the countries of origin were taken. This categorisation was adopted because many similar products are produced in different countries. One significant part of the study was to note the frequencies of occurrence of each food additive within each food group collected. Results and discussion After analyzing the data, it was found that food products collected, contained three types of labels. The first were labels that clearly indicate the type of the food additive it contained in the "E-number form". The second, were labels that referred to additives in the following form "Red 40, Blue1, Yellow 5". Whilst, the third, were labels that did not specify the exact types or names of the additives. Hanssen and Marsden, (1988) developed a list for the Best Avoidable Additives (BAA) in food products. These are avoidable because of their potential adverse health impacts on high-risk groups such as hyperactive children. Many countries ban the use of such additives e.g. Scandinavian countries and the United States (Table 9). From the 208 samples collected, it was found that there were 22 different types of BAA. The frequency of occurrence of these additives varies from one food group to another (Table 2). A maximum of 14 BAA was found in gum products followed by 9 in chocolate and sweets. Ice cream, canned food and crisps, milk and juices had 8, 7, 6 and 3 BAA's, respectively. Thirteen BAA with frequencies ranging from 1-9 were detected in gum products. The minimum BAA was found in cheese products. Only one was found with frequency of eight occurrences (Table 10). Food additives are as old as human history. In the old times the absence of refrigeration and food processing technologies, lead human beings to use natural products. These natural food additives include sugar, saffron and salt. These add taste, colour and preserve the food from rotting. However, industrial development brought about consumer's societies. Thousands of food products are produced competing to gain the consumer attention and money. This lead food manufacturing companies to use so many different types of food additives. Many of these are not necessarily improving food nutritive value and quality but can be linked to adverse health problems. The problems with harmful food additives not only their presence in food products but their frequent occurrence in other food products. For example, juices, crisps, chocolates, gums and ice cream they all contain the additive tartarzine. Children consume these food products in considerable quantities. Therefore, the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of tartarzine can exceed the recommended daily amount. Also, the synergistic effects of consuming a variety of food additives including the BAA are not known and poorly studied. During the fifties, two food colour additives used in popcorn and candy were banned in the USA. Both, FD&C Orange No. 1 and FD&C Red No. 32 caused incidents of diarrhea in children (Nonan, 1984). Currently, other food additives were also banned because of their potential health effects on high-risk groups such as the hyperactive and asthmatic children. For example, E-102, E-110, E-122, E-133 and E-151 are advised to be prevented from food products consumed by children as they increase their hyperactivity (Hanssen and Marsden, 1989). Other additives such as E-321 are linked to foremost and liver cancer in mice and fish, respectively. There was a petition in the USA to prohibit its use in food products (Foulke, 1995). Conclusion and Recommendations In many countries, additives added to food products must be stated clearly on the food label. However, no country in the world adopts writing the ADI and the percentage of additives used in food products during the manufacturing process. In industrialized countries, guidelines were established to control and aware consumers of the side effects of consuming harmful food additives (CSIRO, 1994 and Knowles, 1995). This lead many companies to change their attitude towards food additives. Many food products produced, now, in developed countries contain natural additives instead of synthetic ones. Natural additives that give colour to food like betanin and turmeric are being widely used. Labels' contents were also improved. Remarks such as no preservatives and artificial colours are very common in food products sold in many European super markets. Many super markets, in UK for example, such as SAFEWAY and TESCO publish leaflets that contain information related to food additives for consumer's information and awareness. By law, food products manufactured in Kuwait are required to have a label only for their food contents. However, the nutritional value of the food is not indicated in the label. Three different authorities that work separately deal with food control in Kuwait. The first, is the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Food laws, licensing and inspection are done through the Department of Standards and Specifications and the Department of Inspection and consumer protection. They are in charge of setting laws and food standards and providing industrial licensing. The second authority is Kuwait Municipality, which is responsible for food inspection and the renewal of licensing. There are several branches for Kuwait Municipality Inspectorate of food that exist in many locations in Kuwait (Al-Fras, 1984). These include the following: The sanitary control centre in Shuwaikh area Kuwait Airport. The main fruit and vegetable markets to assure food safety. The third is the Ministry of Health (MoH). Through its Nutrition Unit and the Public Health Laboratories the MoH insures the setting of proper food regulations and procedures. Food imports are checked for their contents and suspicious foods are sent to labs for analysis and inspection. In general, the three authorities works, almost, independently to achieve the following: To protect the consumer from consuming unhealthy food. Shops, restaurants, bakeries, food manufacturing companies and food import centres are inspected regularly. Warning and penalties are given to violators. Any food found to be unsuitable for consumption it is confiscated and destroyed. To prevent any violation of Kuwait food standards and the import, preparation and consumption of food that is not prepared according to the Islamic principles. However, many food products that contain ambiguous food labels are imported and allowed to be consumed. Most of the inspection work that is carried out by Kuwait Municipality is limited to preventing nauseating food from being sold. However, the three authorities that deal with food in Kuwait must establish guidelines for food additives. These guidelines should outline the following: The safe use and consumption of food additives The need for clearly labelling all food products with the "E" prefix followed by the code number for any additive used. Preventing misleading labelling practice. Ambiguous food labels that read "contains artificial flavours and colours" are to be banned. The need for submitting toxicological information of additives to be used by local food manufacturing companies. Toxicological data should be evaluated by the concerned authorities before being granted permission for their use. Designing and introducing awareness programmes for the public and the food manufacturing companies in relation to the BAA. Also, concerning ways of encouraging them to use safer alternatives and good food manufacturing practice. Food labels to contain nutrition information about the food product. 8- Food products that contain nut derivatives and mono-sodium-glutamate must be clearly declared on food labels to prevent allergic people from consuming it.