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What safety margin is normally used when determining levels of food additives?

Traditionally, the World Health Organisation has used a safety or uncertainty factor of 100, based on a 10-fold factor to allow for differences between animals and an average human, and a 10-fold factor to allow for differences between average humans and sensitive subgroups (pregnant women, the elderly). However, this may be varied according to the characteristics of the additive, the extent of the toxicology data and the conditions of use.