proposed amendment to the food and drug regulations 1242 erythritol available in english and french pages 618-620 health canada has received a submission to permit the use of a new sugar alcohol erythritol as a carrier for intense sweeteners in table-to sweeteners and as a sweetener in dietetic beverages fat-based cream fillings and toppings dietetic cookies and wafers soft and hard candies and chewing gum at various maximum levels of use specified in the proposed amendments. evaluation of available data supports the safety and effectiveness of these uses of erythritol. similar applications of this food additive are already permitted in the united states japan and australia. under the current regulations all food products containing permitted sugar alcohols and or polydextrose must provide information on the label to indicate the total content of these substances in the food expressed in grams per serving of stated size. the proposed new section b.01.021 describes the labelling requirements for erythritol that would apply to products whose label does not carry a nutrition facts table. it should be noted that in this case as required by the current regulations the statement of the amount of polydextrose added to the product must be grouped together with the statement for sugar alcohols. in the case of products whose label carries a nutrition facts table subsection b.01.402 6 and item 12 of the table to section b.01.402 of the regulations require that the nutrition facts table show the amount of sugar alcohols including erythritol added to the product. the declaration of polydextrose is not included in the nutrition facts table and must be made separately in accordance with the regulatory requirements for nutrition labelling. therefore it is proposed to amend the regulations to permit the use of erythritol in the above-named foods at the specified maximum levels o use and to require that the label of a food product containing erythritol indicate the amount of erythritol added to the product expressed in grams per serving of stated size. this document has also been notified under the tbt agreement