Japan Updates the Permitted Food Additives List

On December 27, 2022, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) of Japan unveiled a notice, announcing the formal deletion of the food additive 3-acetyl-2,5-dimethylfuran, and issued the revision for other food additives. This notice has taken effect since January 1, 2023.

It is noteworthy that the revision targets the subcategory in the Designated Additives List, as there are 18 kinds of additives collected in the list only with category names, without the name of specific substances.

Deleted additive

As early as April 2022, MHLW announced the additive 3-acetyl-2,5-dimethylfuran would be deleted. Now the deletion has formally happened. Stakeholders shall stop manufacturing, importing, processing, and using 3-acetyl-2,5-dimethylfuran as well as preparations and foods containing 3-acetyl-2,5-dimethylfuran.

Revised additives

According to the revision, the CAS numbers of 80 additives including "Anisyl isobutyrate" and "Butyl 3-hexenoatehave" have been added. Enterprises can use the newly provided CAS number from MHLW to check whether the correct additives are used. In addition, the English names of 12 ingredients have been revised. Feel free to contact ChemLinked if you need translation service for the complete comparison of the before and the after.

CAS number

Additives	Category name	CAS number
Additives	Category name	Before	After
Acetaldehyde ethyl trans -2-hexenyl acetal	Ethers	Not listed	54484-66-1
Anisyl isobutyrate	Ethers	Not listed	71172-26-4
Butyl 3-hexenoate	Ethers	Not listed	41519-01-1 118869-62-8
5,7-dihydroxy-2-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-2,3-dihydro-4H-chromen-4-one	Ketones	69097-99-0	69097-99-0 520-33-2
...(details)

English name

Additives
Before	After	Category name	CAS number
3,7-dimethyl-2-methylene-6-en-1-ol	3,7-dimethyl-2-methyleneoct-6-en-1-ol	Aliphatic Higher Alcohols	18478-46-1
3,6-dimethyl-2(3H)-bemzofuranone	3,6-dimethyl-2(3H)-benzofuranone	Lactones	65817-24-5
3-{1-[(3,5-dimethylisoxyzazol-4-yl)methyl]-1H-pyrazol-4-yl}-1-(3-hydroxybenzyl)imidazolidine-2,4-dione	3-{1-[(3,5-dimethylisoxazol-4-yl)methyl]-1H-pyrazol-4-yl}-1-(3-hydroxybenzyl)imidazolidine-2,4-dione	Esters	38634-59-2
...(details)

New additives

Compared with the previous list, there are 32 new additives, involving 13 categories.

Additives	Category name	CAS number
2-heptylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid	Fatty Acids	1225070-56-3 697290-76-9 697290-77-0
2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid	Phenols	89-86-1
2,4,6-trimethylphenol	Phenols	527-60-6
Click here to view all 3,181 food additives under subcategory.

ChemLinked has upgraded a series of FOOD-LIST, including food additives approved for use in China, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. To mitigate compliance risks, welcome to use the FOOD-LIST and quickly retrieve the regulatory status of food additives.