Codex releases 2026 General Standard for Food Additives: 72 additives get revised use provisions

On 7 August 2026, the Secretary of the Codex Alimentarius Commission notified Codex contact points of member countries — including Vietnam — about the issuance and update of the Codex General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA, Codex Stan 192-1995), 2026 edition. The standard took effect immediately on 7 August 2026. On 10 August 2026, the Vietnam Food Administration (Ministry of Health) published the details on vfa.gov.vn so domestic companies could update their documentation in time.

Compared with the 2025 edition, the notable changes are in Table 1 of the standard. The additive Gelangum 418(i) (introduced in 2025) has been merged into the Gellan group, which now covers Gellan gum 418(i) and Low-acid clarified gellan gum 418(ii). Nisin (INS 234) in the 2025 edition has been replaced by Nisin A (INS 234(i)). In total, 72 food additives saw changes across 304 use provisions. Table 3 has no newly added additives.

This is far from a distant paperwork issue for Vietnamese businesses. The GSFA is a common reference in export negotiations with markets applying Codex standards. Gellan gum is increasingly found in beverages, jellies and gel-form supplements, while Nisin A is widely used as a preservative in packaged foods, dairy and meat products. Splitting INS 234 into 234(i) or merging the Gellan group means companies must review their self-declaration dossiers, label wording and additive limits in production formulas.

From our experience rolling out production lines for food and supplement clients, DKQ engineers usually face three issues whenever a factory reformulates additives to meet a new standard. First is micro-dosing: many additives are used at a few ppm to a few parts per thousand, and manual weighing can deviate by more than the GSFA limit itself — automated dosing with high repeatability is a must. Second is homogeneity: gum-type additives such as Gellan tend to clump in dry mixing and need high-shear mixers or suitable agitation; hydration requires controlled heating around 80–90°C followed by cooling, so the mixing tank must be jacketed. Third is verification: after switching an additive code, samples must be taken to check dispersion and batch uniformity and avoid defective lots. Equipment does not necessarily need replacing, but process parameters — agitation speed, mixing time, temperature — must be recalculated, and that is exactly where DKQ supports clients from the very start of a transition.

Companies should download the PDF or use the online GSFA 2026 lookup on the FAO website to cross-check every additive code in use, update declaration dossiers before the year-end export season, and review dosing and mixing equipment whenever formulas change.

Source: Vietnam Food Administration (vfa.gov.vn) — https://vfa.gov.vn/tin-tuc/uy-ban-codex-quoc-te-ban-hanh-tieu-chuan-chung-codex-ve-phu-gia-thuc-pham-ban-2026.html