Health Canada approves new food additives

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Published: October 2, 2008

Health Canada has recommended that Canadian food and drug laws be amended to allow the use of sodium diacetate and sodium acetate as preservatives in ready-to-eat meat products.

The rules allow interim use of such preservatives in preparations of meat, meat byproducts, poultry meat, poultry meat byproducts and prepared and preserved fish products at a maximum level of 0.25 percent of final product weight, according to a notice published on the Canada Gazette website.

The new allowed uses would include fresh and frozen prepared meals, salads, spreads, soups, sausages and luncheon meats.

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Rick O’Leary, a regulatory adviser for Health Canada, said the changes would allow meat processors to add the substances to products as antimicrobial agents aimed primarily at controlling the growth of listeria monocytogenes.

He added that the move had been in the pipeline for months, and was not a reaction to the widely reported listeriosis outbreak that has claimed 18 lives in recent weeks.

Sodium acetate and sodium diacetate have been permitted in the United States since 2000, according to the American Meat Institute.

Sodium acetate is a common pickling agent that gives salt and vinegar chips their flavour, and is also used in hand warmers that use a chemical reaction to produce heat.

It is also produced in classroom chemistry experiments in which vinegar is added to baking soda, creating a “fizz” reaction, according to wikipedia.com.

Sodium diacetate is also used as a microbial inhibitor, flavour enhancer, and as an acidity control agent. It is also used to inhibit mould in bread and hay.

Health Canada has fast-tracked approval of the substances, but will accept submissions from concerned parties for 75 days, said O’Leary, who added that to date none have been received since the notice was first published in the Canada Gazette two weeks ago.

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