For use by the human food industry its safety is guaranteed by more than three hundred years of non-interrupted use by some countries and for more than a century on a world scale. In addition the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius permits the use of agar in the human food industry and it has also been accepted and authorized by the regulations of the more exacting countries such as United Kingdom, Federal Republic of Germany, Russia, France and Poland. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States assigns agar as a grading of GRAS (Generally Recognised as Safe).