On 20 June 2023, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) issued the Yakusho Food Kiha Circular No. 2 of 2023 to conduct a survey of the sales, etc., of existing additives in order to compile a list of additives to be eliminated. The main contents of the notification include:
1. Survey of sales, etc. of existing additives. The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan has established a list of additives to be exempted in accordance with Articles 2-3 of the Supplementary Provisions to the Law Concerning Partial Revision of the Food Sanitation Law and the Nutrition Improvement Law (Law No. 101 of 1995) (hereinafter referred to as the "Exemption Provisions"). The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan may prepare and publicly notify the list of additives to be eliminated in accordance with the provisions of the Elimination and Deletion Regulations (hereinafter referred to as "the Elimination and Deletion Regulations"), and delete their names from the existing list of additives after going through the necessary procedures (Ministry of Health and Welfare Circular No. 120, 1996). On this basis, 132 items have been removed so far. Since there may be 78 families of existing additives listed in Annex 1 that are not currently used for sale, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has decided to conduct a preliminary survey on the actual conditions of sale, etc. of 357 existing additives on the list of existing additives. This survey is to investigate the actual conditions of sales, etc. of these items;
2. Importers of existing additives are notified of the survey, and if they have imported them, they are requested to submit a report following the implementation guidelines in Attachments 2-1 and 2-2. Existing additives or preparations or food products containing existing additives (hereinafter referred to as "existing additives, etc.") for which reports have not been submitted in accordance with Annexes 2-1 and 2-2 shall not be sold, etc;
3. If a substance is an existing additive listed in Annex 1, it is not subject to reporting in principle if it is not used as a food additive, but if the substance is a vitamin or mineral intended to enhance the nutrition of a food, it shall be reported even if it is not used as an additive;
4. Additives that have been removed from the list of existing additives under the deletion provisions are prohibited from being sold as additives, etc., unless they are redesignated as additives under Article 12 of the Food Sanitation Law (Law No. 223 of 1947).
