Excerpts from FOOD ADDITIVES: A Shopper's Guide... #2

Even if all of the food additives used in our foods were safe individually, rarely does any food have only one additive in it. Testing for additive safety has been done for individual additives, not for combinations of additives. Additives that are safe individually may be harmful in certain combinations. Nobody knows the effects of the many different additives used in the thousands of different combinations.

This book lists 800 of the most common food additives. Each additive is preceeded by a code representing it's safety and the advisability of its use. The code indicates if the additive is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA, and an evaluation of its safety and advisability of its use, independent of the FDA evaluation. The codes are listed on page 7 under HOW TO USE THIS BOOK.