[1] FCC standards are established, evaluated, and revised with scientific rigor in an open, collaborative process involving USP scientists, government representatives, expert volunteers, and public input.
Standards are approved by an Expert Committee that includes knowledgeable technical leaders from industry, academia, and regulatory bodies from around the world.
For these and other reasons, the Food Protection Committee of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council received requests in 1958 from its Industry Liaison Panel and other sources to undertake a project designed to produce a Food Chemicals Codex comparable in many respects to the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and the National Formulary (NF).
In response to these requests, advice was sought from special committees composed of representatives of industry, government agencies, and others experienced in the operation of the USP and the NF.
The FCC is published every two years in print and online formats and is offered as a subscription that includes a main edition and intervening supplements.
The scope of the first edition is limited to substances amenable to chemical characterization or biological standardization which are added directly to food to perform some desired function.
Such substances were selected from food additives generally recognized as safe, those approved by prior sanctions, and those for which special use tolerances have been established by FDA regulations.
[7] The specifications in this edition of FCC were officially recognized not only by the FDA but also, under certain conditions, by the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and UK authorities.
However, three previous monographs have now been deleted (i.e. carrageenan, cinnamyl antranilate and methyl formate) due to altered circumstances and special emphasis is now placed on reducing contaminants, particularly lead.
Based on scholarly manuscripts and media articles from 1980-2010, it serves as a baseline on fraud issues and can be a useful risk management tool for industry, regulators and other stakeholders.
Formulators also use spirulina in specialty food bars, powdered nutritional drinks, among other products due to its non-animal protein content.
The FCC is cited over 200 times in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations and is recognized by regulatory bodies around the world including the US, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Paraguay, and Uruguay.