ROCKVILLE, Maryland, January 13 /PRNewswire/ -- New standards to help ensure the quality and enhance the safety of key ingredients widely used in infant formulas and a variety of functional foods are being proposed for inclusion in the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), an internationally recognized compendium of quality standards for food ingredients. The proposed standards are for three nucleotides, present in breast milk and commonly added to infant formula, and two docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) oils, essential omega 3 fatty acids present in fish and often added to both infant formula and a host of functional foods. The proposed standards are now available for public review by industry and consumer representatives.

The standards will be incorporated into a future edition of the FCC, published by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), following a three-month period in which USP will accept public comments on the proposals and consider suggested modifications. FCC standards are voluntary industry standards that help ensure an ingredient's quality for consumers as well as for food manufacturers who purchase the ingredient for use in their products. Specifically, these quality standards are used to assess the identity, purity and impurities of an ingredient.

Nucleotides are routinely added to infant formulas today. The three new nucleotide standards proposed are for Disodium 5'-Uridylate, 5'-Adenylic Acid and 5'-Cytidylic Acid. The three standards include validated test methods that provide an accurate and repeatable means of measuring the ingredients' components, and corresponding reference materials, which are authenticated chemical specimens that ensure compliance to an FCC written standard. No such standards with validated test methods and corresponding reference materials currently exist for these ingredients within any food compendium.

The new standards being proposed for DHA oils are for DHA Algal Oil, Crypthecodinium Type and DHA Algal Oil, Schizochytrium Type. The first is used in infant formulas as well as for a wide variety of other products considered functional foods such as soy milk and yogurts; the second is used for functional foods but not in infant formula. No other food compendium contains standards for these ingredients.

In the modern manufacturing environment, food companies procure the ingredients they use in their finished products from facilities all over the world, said James Griffiths, Ph.D., USP vice president of food, dietary supplement and excipient standards. Within this highly competitive atmosphere in which suppliers seek to provide the most economical ingredients for purchase, the existence of and adherence to quality standards for ingredients can be a significant protection in guarding against substandard ingredients.

Proposed FCC standards are open to any interested parties via the online FCC Forum. Manufacturers and others are encouraged to visit www.usp.org/fcc/forum/. Comments will be accepted through March 31, 2010, and final standards will be published August 31, 2010.

The seventh edition of the FCC will publish in February 2010. For more information, visit www.usp.org/fcc/.

SOURCE: U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention

CONTACT: Francine Pierson of U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention,+1-301-816-8588; fp@usp.org