As an edible flavoring, vanillin is widely used in a variety of flavored food products that need to add a creamy scent, such as cakes, cold beverages, chocolates, candies and so on.
However, recent media reports claim that vanillin is an excitotoxin that can stimulate the brain reward system and make the consumers feel that the products with added vanillin are more delicious. Recently, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) released the 3rd issue of Food Safety Risk Analysis in 2016, organizing relevant experts to interpret vanillin.
Interpretation I
Vanillin is an edible flavor widely used worldwide. Vanillin is an aromatic organic compound with a wide range of uses. Its scientific name is 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, also known as vanillin and vanillin aldehyde, which naturally exists in vanilla beans. People use vanilla pods as edible spices, with a documented history of thousands of years. However, due to the low content of natural vanillin extracted from vanilla beans, the price is very expensive.
In order to meet the market demand, the 19th century appeared with o-methoxyphenol and other raw materials synthesized, and the natural structure is identical to vanillin. With the progress of science and technology, the production method of vanillin has been improved. According to the statistics, the vanillin used for food flavoring in the world every year in more than 10,000 tons, except for a small amount from the natural, the vast majority of synthetic.
Interpretation 2
Reasonable use of vanillin will not be harmful to human health.
In view of the importance of vanillin to the food industry, the global food science and technology community is very concerned about its safety. According to the large amount of data accumulated from toxicology experiments, relevant research results and exposure assessment, it is considered that the reasonable use of vanillin is safe. Moreover, as a food additive, vanillin has gone through standardized and scientific food safety risk assessment, and its use in accordance with the provisions of relevant standards will not be harmful to human health.
Interpretation 3
International organizations and some countries have relevant regulations allowing the reasonable use of vanillin. The Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has evaluated the safety of vanillin and not only allowed its use in food, but also formulated relevant quality specifications.
The United States allowed the use of vanillin in food in the 1950s and did not stipulate the scope of food products allowed to use vanillin and the use limit, but based on the results of the existing exposure assessment, it is recommended that vanillin can be used in foods including beverages, ice creams, confectionery, bakery products, gelatine and pudding, chewing gums, chocolates, syrups, etc., and the dosage is usually 10-100 mg/kg.The use of vanillin in food in European countries is nearly the same as that in the United States, but it has been used in many other countries. European countries have nearly two hundred years of history of using vanillin in food, and the current EU regulations do not specify the scope and amount of its use.
China also has a long history of producing and using vanillin, and is the main country producing vanillin in the world. According to China's current National Standard for Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB2760-2014), the use of vanillin in formula food for larger infants and young children is 5mg/100mL, and the use of vanillin in cereal auxiliary food for infants and young children is 7mg/100g. In addition to this, there is no special restriction on the types of food and the amount of use of other foods that can be used with vanillin. Other than that, there is no special restriction on the types of other foods that can use vanillin and the usage amount.
Therefore, experts suggested that the media should strive to be scientific and objective when reporting on food safety. Consumers should have balanced nutrition and try not to be partial to certain kinds of food, not to mention consuming too much of a certain kind of food just because they crave for a certain taste. At the same time, the causes of addiction among addicted people can be analyzed and their relationship with flavors and fragrances can be studied.
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