For over 40 years the Food Chemical Codex (FCC) has protected consumer safety and promoted uniform quality in production of food chemicals by providing standards for the identity and purity of food chemicals. 

The Fifth Edition of the FCC is a comprehensive revision with substantial changes in specifications for heavy metal limits in most monographs, most particularly for lead content. There have been also multiple changes in other entries within individual monographs, especially with regard to description, function in foods, structures, and identification numbers.

The Fifth Edition features 52 new monographs on food additives and generally-recognized-as-safe (GRAS) substances, and 48 new monographs on flavoring agents, for a total of over 1000 monographs.  The Fifth Edition has also implemented the FCC committee's new policies on heavy metals and microbiological attributes, and its new guideline on fluoride content. 

The first interactive online version of the Food Chemicals Codex, Fifth Edition (E-FCC), is now available. E-FCC is hosted by the Knovel Library service and provides users with the full text complemented by two interactive search tables.

Access to the E-FCC is provided as a subscription service directly through Knovel. For additional information, please visit E-FCC on Knovel.

The National Academies Press is no longer publishing the 5th edition of the Food Chemicals Codex.  For information about the 5th edition or the forthcoming 6th edition, please visit the Web site of the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), the new publisher of the Food Chemicals Codex.