Food Standards Committee report on fluorine : revised recommendations for limits for fluorine content of foods.

  • Great Britain. Food Standards Committee.
Date:
1957
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Food Standards Committee report on fluorine : revised recommendations for limits for fluorine content of foods. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    FOOD STANDARDS COMMITTEE REPORT ON FLUORINE Revised Recommendations for Limits for Fluorine Content of Foods In February, 1953, the Food Standards Committee received a Report from their Metallic Contamination Sub-Committee recommending modification of the limits for the fluorine content of acidic phosphates and related foods laid down in the Fluorine in Food Order, 1947. The Report has since been revised in the light of representations received from trade and other interests. The Revised Report which has been adopted by the Food Standards Committee is in the following terms :— 1. Fluorine is found in the bones and teeth of man and animals in amounts which usually increase with age. The normal range of fluorine content of the bones of land mammals has been estimated at 100 to 1,000 p.p.m., or more, and in man from 200 p.p.m. to 800 p.p.m. The fluorine content of teeth is less than that of bones and is lower in the enamel than in the dentine. 2. There is considerable evidence that the drinking of water containing about 1 p.p.m. fluorine is accompanied by a reduction in the incidence of dental caries. On the other hand, the drinking of water containing 2 p.p.m. or more fluorine often gives rise to small white flecks in the tooth enamel. With further increases in the fluorine content of water this flecking is yet more frequent, and brown staining of the teeth is also seen. The ingestion of fluorine in large amounts may lead to overgrowth and brittleness of the bones and calcification of liga- ments and tendons, which in extreme cases may cause immobility and death in animals and severe malformation in man. 3. In May, 1946, the Inter-Departmental Committee on Food Standards pub- lished a report on the question of prescribing limits to the fluorine content of acid phosphates used for food purposes. The Committee stated that on the evidence then available it was only possible to make an approximate estimate of the maximum amount of fluorine which could be ingested daily over a period of years without harmful effect. At that time a small but indispensable part of the acid calcium phosphate used for food purposes was manufactured from rock phosphate highly contaminated with fluorine. The Medical Research Council, who were consulted by the Committee, pointed out that the safest procedure would have been to prohibit the use of calcium acid phosphate (A.C.P.) made from rock phosphate for food purposes, but, having regard to the supply position at that time and to the small proportion of A.C.P. which is used in such foods as self-raising flour, they considered that a limit of 300 p.p.m. of fluorine in A.C.P. would be safe. 4. The Fluorine in Food Order, 1947, embodied the Committee’s recommenda- tions, and set the following limits to the fluorine content of acid phosphates used in the manufacture of food and of baking powders and self-raising flour: Articles of Food Maximum Fluorine Content (i) Calcium acid phosphate, sodium acid 300 parts per million pyrophosphate or any other acidic phosphate