Food Additives

Food additives are basically ingredients that are added to various types of food in order to preserve their freshness, to improve their visual appeal or taste, to preserve or add to their flavor, to preserve or add color to them, and so on. As a matter of fact, humans have been using food additives for ages, for instance adding vinegar or oil and salt for pickling, or preserving food by adding salt, adding sulfur dioxide in certain wines, etc.

With technological advances resulting in processed foods being introduced in the latter half of the 20th century, it has led to the introduction of several more food additives, both artificial as well as natural.

Why are Food Additives Used:

Although foods like bread, cookies, cakes, ice-cream, beer, and wine are still made at home by some people, however, with the continuing growth of urbanization and the hectic pace of modern life, larger and larger numbers of people are buying more and more types of foods from supermarkets and food shops. As we all know, home-cooked food is usually consumed soon after it is made, but when food is produced on a large-scale, in order to supply the food shops and supermarkets where we buy our food from, before they reach our tables they have to be transported over long distances and then stored. Therefore, food additives are used in order to prevent these from spoiling, and to maintain their coloring, flavoring, and so on.

While some of the food additives that are most familiar to us are colors, flavors, and preservatives, however, with further advances and scientific knowledge, there are many other types of food additives, each of them designed for particular purposes.

What are the Various Kinds of Food Additives?

Preservatives: These are chemical compounds that are added to food products in order to prevent food from spoiling because of the growth of micro-organisms like bacteria and fungi. Apart from being anti-microbial, there are also preservatives that are anti-oxidants. Some of the common preservatives are sulfur dioxide used in beer and wine, calcium propionate used in baked foods like bread, sodium nitrite used in ham and sausage. Anti-oxidant preservatives are BHT and BHA. Methylchloroisothiazolinone, ethanol, glutaraldehyde, and formaldehyde are some of the other preservatives used.

Colors: Colors are used in order to either enhance the looks of food or to compensate for the color that is lost while preparing it. Most of us are well aware that our perception of the flavor of foods, whether it is an apple or wine, is greatly influenced by their color. This is why manufacturers of food products add color, such as caramel color in soups, bouillon, and soft drinks, red color to glacé cherries, and so on.

Flavors: These are added in order to enhance the flavors of foods, which can be either artificial or made from natural sources. Flavors are usually added to foods that are produced commercially, such as: cakes and breads; snack foods; sauces, soups or instant noodles; frozen dinners; desserts like ice-cream; fast foods; and soft drinks. Some of the common flavoring agents are monosodium glutamate or MSG, maltol, and disodium guanylate.

Sweeteners: Sweetening agents are used in order to heighten the sweet flavor of foods. Apart from sugar, artificial sweeteners are used in order to keep the calories low, or to enable people wit diabetes mellitus to have sweet foods. Some of the common artificial sweeteners are aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and stevioside.

Food Acids: These are added in order to add tartness to the flavor of foods, as well as to act as anti-oxidants and preservatives. Some of the commonly used food acids are citric acid, lactic acid, fumaric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, phosphoric acid (in colas), and vinegar.

Emulsifiers: These are added in order to enable oils and water to emulsify, or remain combined together, such as homogenized milk, mayonnaise, and ice-cream.

Anti-Caking Agents: These are used in order to prevent foods from lumping or caking together, such as milk powder and salt. They are insoluble in water and act by either coating the particles or absorbing the moisture tat is in excess. For example, one of the common anti-caking agents used is calcium silicate, which is added to table salt.

Flour Treatment Agents These are added to flour so as to enhance its properties. For example, bleaching ingredients are added to make flour look whiter, and to oxidize the flour grain surfaces, and to help in the development of gluten. Maturing ingredients are also added to help in the development of gluten.

Humectants: These help in keeping foods moist.

Stabilizers, Gelling Agents, and Thickeners: Substances like pectin or agar give a firmer texture to foods.

Some of the other common food additives are: antioxidants, which help in preventing the oxidization of foods, or them becoming rancid; glazing agents, which help in protecting food and improving their visual appeal; and propellants, which help in propelling food from their container.

Safety and Regulation Factors of Food Additives

The safety and benefits of many of the artificial food additives are a cause of increasing concern amongst the general public, and is being debated amongst scientists as well as regulators who specialize in food toxicology and food science.

Hence, in order to regulate food additives and keep the consumers informed, each of these additives has been given a particular number. It began at first in Europe, with ‘E numbers’ being used to demarcate each additive that had been given approval, the ‘E’ being prefixed before each number. However, the numbers are used in countries that are not in Europe without the ‘E’ prefix. These items are listed by the United States Food and Drug Administration as ‘GRAS’ or ‘Generally Recognized As Safe’.

It is mandatory in most countries for food additives to be listed on the labels of food products, either with the name spelt out, or by their number.

Before being given approval, each food additive undergoes rigorous testing for safety. However, critics argue that they are usually tested in isolation, and that their cumulative effects with other food additives in the long term are still not known.

The proponents say however, that chemicals are the constituents of all foods, some of which have not been found any safer than those that occur in food additives. For example, people who have food intolerances or allergies are usually also sensitive to the chemicals that occur naturally in some foods like shellfish or nuts.