摘要：On January 1, 1948 (the 23rd year of Showa) the Food Sanitation Law was put into operation and 22 coloring matters were listed as food additives in the Food Sanitation Law Enforcement Regulation. Since then 3 new coloring matters have been approved and 14 have been delisted. The specifications and use restrictions have been revised many times. The latest specifications and use restrictions are described in the Sixth Edition of the Japanese Standards for Food Additives published in 1992. After enforcement of the Food Sanitation Law, the government had a legal basis toprohibit the use of unapproved coloring matters. However some food processors continued using unapproved coloring matters for about ten years. Government agencies, the food industry and the various food additive industries worked together to eliminate the use of unapproved coloring matters. According to a recent survey, foodstuffs colored with unapproved coloring matters have been driven almost completely out of the Japanese market.
