Following the passage of the California Food Safety Act, several food additives are on the chopping block in a patchwork of different states, stirring up potential new challenges for food scientists.
 
The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) will be hosting a webinar, “Additives: State-Level Actions, National-Level Impacts,” will be held on Friday, February 16, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. CDT.
 
The webinar will address potential challenges created as stakeholders increasingly focus on food additives safety, with specific discussions about the California Food Safety Act and other bills in Illinois and New York seeking to ban brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, and red dye no. 3. Illinois is also expected to pursue banning titanium dioxide.
 
“In a complex world where consumer groups, state-level legislations, and the FDA all seek to identify, review, and prioritize food additive safety, it is essential for food scientists to understand the concerns, science, and implications of the resulting actions,” said Bryan Hitchcock, chief science and technology officer at IFT said. “This webinar will help attendees gain clarity on what they should be thinking about related to these proposed and active bills, which could have far-reaching impacts that will create a variety of challenges.”
 
Registration for the webinar is available here.
 
Expert Panel
 
Food toxicology experts Craig Llewellyn, PhD, and James R. Coughlin, PhD, will offer their perspectives on the history and widespread implications of the state-level actions on food products, supply chains, and businesses, as well as the significant challenges and opportunities for U.S. food scientists related to the state-level legislation.
 
Llewellyn has more than 25 years of experience in toxicology, analytical food chemistry, scientific and regulatory affairs, designing and conducting scientific research, and product development from positions in academia; food, pharmaceutical, and coatings corporations; and state government.
 
He provides scientific and regulatory evaluations and support in various areas including direct and indirect food additives, flavorings, food allergens, ingredients, and precursors used by food and beverage, cosmetic ingredients, dietary supplements, consumer products, specialty chemicals, and pharmaceutical industries.
 
He did his post-doctoral training with Eli Lilly and Co. and has held positions with ingredient and product safety as well as global scientific and regulatory affairs responsibilities for SafeBridge Regulatory and Life Sciences Group, Kraft Foods, The William Wrigley Jr. Company, and The Coca-Cola Company.
 
Coughlin is an IFT Fellowand was recognized with IFT’s Bernhard L. Oser Food Ingredient Safety Awardin 2020. He did his post-doctoral training at the University of California – Davis and then spent two years at Armour Foods followed by 10 years at General Foods and Kraft General Foods in external scientific affairs before undertaking independent food toxicology consulting in Southern California in 1992.
 
Coughlin has served numerous times as Chair of IFT’s Toxicology and Safety Evaluation Division and for 17 years as IFT’s Codex Subject Expert on Contaminants in Food. He specializes in global food safety and benefit-risk evaluations, risk assessment and risk communication of food additives and contaminants, and health and regulatory issues surrounding coffee/caffeine, nitrate/nitrite/nitric oxide, red/processed meats, GRAS ingredients, confectionary products, dietary supplements, California Proposition 65, and other major food/functional food/dietary supplement products and ingredients.