Abstract
Food Safety Commission of Japan (FSCJ) conducted a risk assessment of anacardic acid (CAS No. 11034-77-8) in response to the request from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) in line with the application for a new designation of cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL) as a feed additive. Anacardic acid, a major substance of CNSL, is an alkyl phenol suppressing methane production in the first rumen of cattle. Submitted documents for the feed additive designation was used for the current evaluation. The data used in the assessment include fate in animals (cattle and others), tissue residues (cattle), genotoxicity, acute toxicity (mice), and subacute toxicity (mice). FSCJ determined the non-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of 600 mg/kg bw per day for the females and 1,000 mg/kg bw per day (the maximum dose) for the males. Although chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies for anacardic acid have not conducted, possible concerns of chronic effects would be anticipated from the results of the subacute toxicity study, and also considering the low residue of anacardic acid and the long-term food experience of cashew nuts containing the anacardic acid. In Japan, CNSL containing anacardic acid has been applied as a feed ingredient to livestock since 2012. No safety issue has been reported on livestock or their products due to this feed ingredient. FSCJ concluded that anacardic acid would not harm human health through the residues in food as long as used ordinally as a feed additive.