Food Additives

What is intentional food additives?

2011-12-11T21:32:00.000-08:00

Chemicals that are intentionally introduced into foods to aid in processing, to act as preservatives or to improve the quality of the food are called intentional additives.

Such materials as colors, flavors, sweeteners, vitamins and minerals for enrichments, mold inhibitors, bactericides, antioxidants and emulsifiers are intentional food additives.

Intentionally food additive are chemicals or compounds, natural or synthetic added deliberately to make some changes on the food product, e.g. to add color, to preserve to provide nutritional supplement.

It also include sequestrants, surface active agents, stabilizers and thickeners, bleaching and maturing agents and starch modifiers, buffers, acids, alkalies, and flavoring agents.

Their use is strictly regulated by national and international laws.

The national academy has listed the purpose of food additives as follows:
*To improve or maintain nutritional value (e.g. vitamins and minerals)
*To enhance quality
*To reduce wastage
*To enhance consumer acceptability
*To improve keeping quality
*To make the food more readily available
*To facilitate preparation of the food

The additive must not impart any undesirable flavor, odor, color or texture to the food. That is, it must no make the food unacceptable in any way.
What is intentional food additives?

The use of food addictive

2011-11-28T17:49:00.001-08:00

Food additives play a vital role in today’s bountiful and nutritious food supply. They allow our growing urban population to enjoy a variety of safe, wholesome, tasty foods year round.

Food additives can be used to:
*Improve the taste or appearance of processed food.

*To improve or maintain nutritional value.

*Improve the keeping quality or stability of a food. It is done by adding vitamins and minerals to common foods such as milk, flour, cereal and margarine.

*Enhance flavor or impart desired color.

*Preserve food when this is the most practical way of extending its storage life. It will keep the food appetizing and wholesome. Food addictives retard product spoilage caused by mold, air, bacteria, fungi or yeast.

*To maintain product consistency. Emulsifiers give products such as peanut butter a consistent texture and prevent them from separating. Stabilizers and thickeners give ice cream a smooth, uniform texture.

Use of food additive whether an intentional or incidental one should not be permitted until its safety under conation of the proposed use has been established beyond reasonable doubt as judged by competent experts.
The use of food addictive

Functions and the principles of food additives

2011-09-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

At the turn of the century, changes in population from agriculture to industrial had resulted in a need to establish distribution systems to supply the growing population of the cities with food.

Therefore, food additives are used to preserve the quality of the food and maintain its appeal and at times to restore diminished nutritional value.

It is added to food during its production, processing, treatment, storage or packaging. Some additives are used to change a food’s color or maintain its natural color. Other additives prevent food from spoiling or increase a product’s nutritional value.

According to expert, food deterioration results when the food supply is more than the consumption.

Deterioration can also accrue during the long time required in transit or during storage before it actually reached the consumers.

The current forms of food production and distribution have increased the demand for longer shelf life. Furthermore, the world food supply situation requires preservations by avoiding deterioration as much as possible.

The quality of food can be affected by physical, chemical, biochemical and microbiological processes.

The addition of permitted chemicals substances or food additives can prevent or greatly impede the process of deterioration.

A few principles governing the use of a food additive:
*Technological effective
*Safe in use. Food additives and their degradation products should be non-toxic at their recommend levels of use.
*Absolutely necessary quantity
*Never with the intention of misleading the consumer about the nature or quality of a food
*Minimum use of non-nutrient food additive. They are added to the food in carefully controlled amounts during processing.
*The additives are applied only when required for the nutritive or sensory value of food.
Functions and the principles of food additives

Food flavor

2011-09-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

Food flavor normally are compounds, many of which are natural, although there are also many synthetic ones, which are added to foods to flavors or to modify exiting flavors.

Food flavor also may be a single chemical entity of naturals or synthetic origin. In the early days of human existence, salt, sugar, vinegar, herbs, spices were added to foods to improve their taste or to produce special, desirable taste.

The range of natural and synthetic flavorings available to the modern food technologists is very large.

Food flavor includes taste sensations perceived by the tongue- sweet ,salty, sour, bitter and smell perceived by the nose.

Often the term flavor and smell are used interchangeably. Food flavor and aroma are difficult to measure and difficult to get people to agree on.

The flavor if food is created by aromatic chemicals that are biosynthesized during normal metabolic processes in plants and animals and possible further modified by cooking or processed.

This intrinsic flavor of food represents the complex impact made by these aromatic components on the sense of odor and taste.

The definition makes clear that flavor is a property of (a material of food) as well as of the receptor mechanism of the person ingesting the food.
Food flavor

Contaminant in Food

2011-07-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Generally food consumers prefer high quality and intrinsically safe food for a low price, but they are also ware of food related health and safety concerns.

The possibility of harmful or toxic substances becoming part of the food supply concerns the public, the food industry and regulatory agencies.

Toxic food contaminants might also be formed within the food itself or within the human digestion tract by reactions of some food ingredients and additives.

Toxic chemical may be introduced into foods unintentionally though direct contamination, through environmental pollutant and as a result of processing.

Food may be contaminated by natural or man-made toxins, including substances shown to be carcinogenic in experimental animals and in some cases in humans.

Many naturally occurring food compounds may be toxic.

Naturally occurring carcinogen include mycotoxins, particularly aflatoxins, which contribute to causation of liver cancer in Africa and Asia.

Some substances are toxic and at the same time essential for good health such as vitamin A and selenium.

Measure require to prevent contamination include:
*Extensive analytical control food
*Determination of the source of contamination
*Legislation to establish permissible levels of contaminants.
Contaminant in Food

Biological Hazard of Food Safety

2011-07-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

A biological hazards is an agent in food with potential to cause human illness. It is the most significant hazards in our food.

Biological hazards involve mainly living organisms, implying strong growth, no growth or death depending on the intrinsic and extrinsic factors of the food matrix.

Intrinsic factors are mainly related to the structure and composition of the foodstuff, while extrinsic factors are related to some environmental parameters that affect the food.

Biological hazards include disease-causing micro-organisms, certain plants and fish that carry toxins (poisonous). Or it can be referred to as microbial contaminants, microorganisms or pathogens.

Once a biological hazard is in the food, it may be very hard to kill or control.

It should ne noted that biological hazards pose the greatest public health threat at the pre-harvest stage since the chemical and physical hazards do not reproduce and increase in the food and in the environment with time, as do microbiological hazards.

Some micro-organisms can survive freezing temperatures. Bacteria and the toxins they produce do not have an odor or taste to help you detect them. Bacteria can be a silent killer in foods.

Some bacteria produce spores. Spores are thick-walled, protective structures that allow bacteria to survive cooking, freezing temperatures, and some sanitizing mixtures.

Microorganisms grow when they have the right nutrients and conditions for growth. Bacteria need these conditions to grow:
Food
High protein foods are often contaminated at the time of purchase. Using safe food practices destroys the bacteria. Acidity: bacteria prefer low-acid environments. Some bacteria do survive an acidic environment.

Bacteria use an enormous range include various sugars and either carbohydrates, amino acids, sterols, alcohols, hydrocarbons, inorganic salts and carbon dioxide.

Time
Potentially hazardous foods should not remain in the danger zone for more than four hours during the entire food handling process.

Temperature
The temperature danger zone is 40 degrees F to 140 degrees F.

Oxygen
Many bacteria grow bets in the present of oxygen (aerobic organism). Some bacteria grow without oxygen- anaerobic. However, both types of bacteria cause foodborne illness.

Others grow equally well under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions.

Moisture
Bacteria grow best in a moist environment.
A high proportion of the mass of a bacterium is water, and during growth, nutrients and waste products enter and leave the cell. Bacteria can grow only in or on materials which have adequate free or available water.

pH
Most bacteria grow best at near pH7 (neutral), and the majority cannot grow under strongly acidic or strongly alkaline solution.
Biological Hazard of Food Safety

Chelating agents

2011-06-29T17:13:00.001-07:00

Chelating agents have acquired greater importance in food processing. Their ability to bind metal ions has contributed significantly to stabilization of food color, aroma and texture.

Trace elements such as iron, cobalt, and copper often accelerate the deterioration of foods. They can act as catalysts for fat or oil oxidation. For instance, ascorbic acid, vitamin E, thiamine and folic acid are affected by copper and both copper and iron led to the destruction of natural and added vitamin A.

Trace metal ions in foods can produce undesirable effects such as discoloration, turbidity, and oxidation.

Pink discoloration in canned pears, blue green in shellfish and arthropods, grey bean in canned maize, clouding of soft drinks, and chill haze in beer are caused by trace minerals.

Their binding by chelating agents increases antioxidants efficiency and inhibits oxidation of ascorbic acid and fat soluble vitamins.

The binding of a hydrogen or metal atom between two atoms of a single molecule is called chelation from the Greek word ‘chele’ (or crab’s claw).

Chelating agent is a molecule that can form several coordinate bonds with a single metal ion.

The most important chelating agent in the food industry is EDTA. There are other two important chelating agents are ethylenediamine and dimercaprol.

EDTA or Ethylenediametetraacetic acid used as a stabilizing agent in the food industry. It promotes color retention on dried bananas, bans, chick peas, canned clams, pecan pie filling, frozen potatoes and canned shrimp.
Chelating agents

Xylitol as food additive

2011-05-13T17:58:00.001-07:00

Xylitol is a pentose sugar alcohol having the formula C5H7(OH)5. It is presently used in chewing gum, gumdrops and handy candy, mints, toothpaste and mouthwashes, mainly because of its noncariogenic property (it has not been found to cause tooth decay).

Xylitol’s intense and distinctive cooling effect in combination with its equal sweetness to sugar make it perfect ingredient for use in chewing gum especially sugar free chewing gums.

Xylitol is a white crystalline substance that for all purpose looks and tastes like white sugar.

It occurs naturally as a constituent in raspberries, strawberries, plums and some vegetables, and is a normal intermediary product of carbohydrate metabolism in humans and in animals.

Because xylitol is slowly absorbed into blood stream and is only partially metabolized, it has a much lower caloric value about 40 percent lower than white sugar.

Xylitol was discovered in wood chips in 189o. It is as sweet as sucrose and was approved as safe for use in humans in 1986.

Commercially, it is produced by the hydrolysis of xylan (which is present to many plants), to xylose. Which is then hydrogenated to produce xylitol.

Xylitol is then purified and crystallized. Xylitol impart a sweet taste, which also appears to have a cooling effects. As it is metabolized by many organisms, it is quite stable.

Xylitol does not encourage growth of yeast, including Candida albicans. In contrast to ordinary sugar, xylitol increases the absorption of B-vitamins and calcium.

Recently, xylitol has been credited in reducing the transmission of cariogenic, bacteria from mother to infant and has been shown to have bactericidal qualities.
Xylitol as food additive

Nutritional Supplements

2011-04-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

Nutritional supplements are a major type of additive. Breakfast cereals, which is often make extensive nutritional claims, rely heavily on such additives.

Many of the additive used are vitamins (such as vitamin C) and are intended to make the product a better source of nutrition.

Vitamins and minerals are added to many common foods such as milk, flour, cereal, and margarine to make up for elements likely to be lacking in a person’s diet, replace those lost in processing or improve shelf life.

Other uses include moisture control, thickening, and processing aids.

To regulate all these additives, and to help consumers sort through the complex and confusing terminology, each additive is assigned a unique number.

This codification (also called E numbers in Europe) is recognized internationally and is managed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

Codex Alimentarius Commission was created by Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization in 1963.

The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally adopted food standards presented in a uniform manner.

These food standards aim at protecting consumer’s health and ensuring fair practices in the food trade.

Its mission is to develop food standards and guidelines for identification worldwide. For example. Aspartame a popular artificial sweetener, is coded E951, while monosodium glutamate (MSG) is coded E621.

Estimates are that 2,000 to 20,000 agents are added to the food that we consume. These include preservatives, stabilizers, conditioners, thickeners, colorings, flavorings, sweeteners and antioxidants.
Nutritional Supplements

Food Additives as Preservatives and Appearance Additives

2011-03-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

Food Additives as Preservatives and Appearance Additives
Preservatives are added to food substance to slow spoilage and deterioration. Some sources estimate that there are about 100 common preservatives being used by the food industry.

Preservatives are specific to the food being preserved; antioxidants are used in fatty products, for example, while breads often have “mold inhibitors.”

Other common multipurpose preservatives are familiar ingredients such as salt, sugar and vinegar. All of these extend the shelf life of food products and reduce the risk of food related disease.

Some preservation techniques , such as irradiated food, aseptic processing and microwave pasteurization, reduce the need for conventional food additives used to reduce spoilage, but their safety is sometimes debated.

Appearance additives include texturizers, coloring agents and flavorings. These additives enhance the look, mouthfeel or taste of foods without changing other characteristics.

Texturizers are put into food products to maintain a desired texture, and sodium nitrate is used to develop and stabilize the pink color in meats.

Coloring agents are used to increase attractiveness of food to consumers; foods that are frequently colored include candy, soft drinks and diary products such as butter, cheese, and cream.

Flavoring additives are the most common type of additive approved for human consumption. If the roughly 3,000 additives approved, about 2,000 are flavorings used to replace the flavors lost during processing.

Hence, this category of additives used mainly to appeal to user tastes and to enhance purchasing of the target food product.
Food Additives as Preservatives and Appearance Additives

Food Coloring

2011-02-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

Food Coloring
Color is important to many food, both those that are unprocessed and those that are manufactured. Together with flavor and texture, color plays an important role in food acceptability.

In addition, color may provide an indication of chemical changes in a food, such as browning and caramelization.

For a few clear liquid foods, such as oils and beverages, color is mainly a matter of transmission of light.

Other foods are opaque - they derive their color mostly from reflection.

Some hues occur frequently in foods provided by nature. Green, red, pink, orange, yellow and purple are common. Blue green is rare and no blues exist at all.

It is instructive to consider the fundamental natural rules governing the colors of the world around us and the food we eat.

Color is the general name for all sensations arising from the activity of the retina of the eye. When light reaches the retina, the eye’s neural mechanism responds, signaling color among other things.

Light is the radiant energy in t wavelength range of about 400 to 800 nm. According to this definition color cannot be studied without considering the human sensory system.

The color perceived when the eye views an illuminated object is related to the following three factors: the spectral composition of the light source, the chemical and physical characteristics of the object and the spectral sensitivity properties of the eye.

To evaluate the properties of the object we must standardize the other two factors. Fortunately, the characteristics of different people’s eyes for viewing colors are fairly uniform; it is not too difficult to replace the eye by some instrumental sensor or photocell that can provide consistent results.

There are several systems of color classification; the most important is the CIE system (Commission International de I’Eclairage –International Commission on Illumination. Other systems used to describe food color are the Munsell, Hunter and Lovibond systems.

Added colorants in foods dates from at least 3,700 BC when Egyptians were coloring their candy.

Sugar imported into Europe from Alexandra in the twelfth century was colored with madder and kermes, but the use of cochineal probably predates this.

Awareness of browning would have predated the use of color additives. For an extended shelf life in fresh fruits and vegetables, enzymatic browning must be eliminated.

Foods depending on enzymatic browning for their quality include black tea, dates, prunes and raisin, Non enzymatic browning provides many of the flavors of baking and cooking.
Food Coloring

Food Additives in General

2011-01-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

Food additives are used to preserve the quality of the food and maintain its appeal and at times to restore diminished nutritional value.

Additives are added to food to perform different technological functions, for example, to increase shelf life (preservative), or to protect against rancidity (antioxidants).

Food additives also improve the taste or appearance of processed food and keeping quality or stability of a food.

Wastage of food is a loss and should be avoided at all costs.

Food additive can be divided into two major groups, intentional additives and incidental additives.

Intentional additives are chemical substances that are added to food for specific purpose.

The use of additives in food is controlled by separate legislation relating to for example, colors in food, sweeteners, miscellaneous additives (other than colors and sweeteners) and flavorings.

What is the definition of food additive:
The term food additive means any substance the intended use of which result, or may reasonably be expectedly to result, directly or indirectly in its becoming a component or other wise affecting the characteristics of any food (including any substance intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting or holding food; and including any source of radiation intend for any such use).

There are three classes of intentional additives:
*Additives generally recognized as safe (GRAS)
*Additives with prior approval
*Food Additives

Adverse reactions to food additive occur in a small proportion of the population. More people are intolerant to foods themselves than to food additives.

Intolerance does not depend on whether the food additive is derived form natural or synthetic source.
Food Additives in General

Legal Background History of Food Additives

2011-01-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

Legal Background History of Food Additives
As with many other elements used in food processing, additives originate very early in human history, For example, people learned in prehistoric times that adding salt to meat would preserve it.

Likewise, smoke which also acts as a preservative might considered an early food additive. Overtime, additives have come to thoroughly influence our eating habits, our taste preferences, and our socio-cultural development.

The earliest legislation controlling the use of food additives took place in Britain in the 19th century, following the work of Frederick Accum, though its original impetus was the prevention of food adulteration.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the regulation of ingredients that can be added to food.

It was not until 1958 that registration was adopted requiring food and chemical manufacturers to test their additives before they were submitted to the FDA.

Before the law, the FDA itself was responsible for testing the submitted additive. Thereafter, Congress established a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) list.

This list recognized that many substances that had been added to food for along time were commonly seen as safe by qualified scientists, which exempted them from premarket clearance.

This list was revised in 1969 and as of 1980 contained 415 substances that were originally included in the 1958 project. Today, manufacturers are responsible for demonstrating their GRAS status and providing evidence (such as scientific literature) to support it.

Approximately 100 new substances are presented to the FDA for GRAS certification every year.

Also included in 1958 law was an amendment called the Delaney Act; it stipulated that “no additives may be permitted in any amount of the tests show that it produces cancer when fed to man or animals by other appropriate test.”

Many manufacturers, as well as some FDA commissioners, have criticized this amendment as being unenforceable.

Instead, in 2003, the FDA adopted a “no residue” clause; this clause provided that the FDA could approve an animal feed additive or drug that induces cancer if there is “no residue” of the additive found after slaughter.

The FDA maintains that the risk is slight or nonexistence of humans consume meat or drink milk from an animal with a minuscule amount of a carcinogen present.
History of Food Additives and History of Legal Background

History of Food Additive

2010-12-15T17:25:00.000-08:00

History of Food Additive
Before the Civil War, people raised most of what they ate and processed it themselves and food additives were limited mostly to home grown colorings and substances needed for preservation in storage vegetable and fruit juices, salt, spices, smoke.

Our system of food supply changed after the Civil War. Thousands of rural people flocked to the cities to work in factories, they now needed food grown and preserved by someone else. Manufacturers of food products sprang up almost everywhere.

Food purity as such was not a major consideration. Cheap and handy methods of preserving foods were important to profits and scientific knowledge of food chemistry was practically nonexistent.

Dangerous adulteration of foods was commonplace. Chemicals to keep products looking good until they reached the consumer or just to hide the small and look of spoilage were used without much restraint.

The problem of food additives became acute. Supplying the rapid growing urban population required constantly expanding facilities and speed of production took precedence over both quaintly and safety.

For example, copper sulphate, a powerful emetic also known as blue vitriol, was added to canned vegetables to give them that fresh, green look; and salicylic acid, borax and formaldehyde were used generously - and carelessly.

Food and drug protection became an operating function of the Federal Government under the strong leadership of one man. Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, chief chemist for the US Department of Agriculture in Washington DC, announced publicly that the American people were being steadily poisoned by the dangerous chemicals that were being added to food with reckless abandon.

To dramatize the problem and to learn more about the reactions of the human body to ingestion of these chemicals, he formed , in 1902, what became known as “Dr. Wiley’s Poison squad.” Twelve young healthy men, recruited from the Department of Agriculture, pledge to eat nothing except what Dr. Wiley prescribed.

Over a period five years, Poison Squad members were fed measured doses of many kinds of commonly –used food additives. Dr. Wiley was not only concerned about determining the affects of these additives he was also interested in stirring up the public about the need for a pure food law.

The efforts of Dr, Wiley and the publication of the book The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, which told of the fifth accompanying the production of meat and meat products, were powerful, moving forces that helped persuade Congress to pass the Food and Drug Act 1906 as well as the Meat Inspection Act of the same year.

In 1927, the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration, later to be named the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created.
History of Food Additive
Further reading: Modern History of Food Additives

Acesulfame K in Soft Drinks as a Sweetener

2010-12-01T03:45:00.000-08:00

Acesulfame K in Soft Drinks as a Sweetener
As with all intense sweeteners, sweetness potency of acesulfame K relative to sucrose decreases with increasing concentration and varies with the medium in which the sweetener is being tested and the method used for qualifying sweetness.

The taste profile of acesulfame K is generally considered to be superior to saccharin. It has a rapid onset time but the sweetness quality is marred by a bitter astringent aftertaste that is particularly noticeable at higher concentrations.

Sweetness quality can be greatly improved by combining with other intense and bulk sweeteners. High levels of synergism (30% and above) reportedly occur with aspartame and to a lesser extent with cyclamate, glucose fructose and sucrose.

Very little synergy is repeated to occur with saccharin , possible because they compete for the same sweet receptor site.

The aftertaste of acesulfame K can be masked in some cases by the addition of sugar alcohols maltol and ethyl maltol.

In soft drinks as a sole sweetener, levels of 600-800 and 550-750 mg/l for cola and citrus flavored drinks, respectively are appropriate.

Blending with other sweeteners, in particular aspartame, gives a much more acceptable product.
Acesulfame K in Soft Drinks as a Sweetener

Definition of Food Additive

2010-11-17T06:49:00.000-08:00

Definition of Food Additive
Contrary to popular believe, the word “food additive” refers to a use and not a class of substances. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines food additive as follows:

"...the intended use of which results or may reasonably be expected to result, directly or indirectly, either in their becoming a component of food or otherwise affecting the characteristics of food.

A material used in the production of containers and packages is subject to the definition if it may reasonably be expected to become a component, or to affect the characteristics, directly or indirectly, of food packed in the container.

‘Affecting the characteristics of food’ does not included such physical effects as protecting contents of packages, preserving shape, and preventing moisture loss. If there is not migration of a packaging component from package to the food, it does not become a component of the food and thus is not a food additive.

A substances that does not become a component of food, but that is used, for example, in preparing an ingredient of the food to give a different flavor, texture or other characteristic in the food, may be a food additive.”

Sometimes additives are divided into two categories:
1. Intentional or direct
2. Incidental or indirect

Intentional or direct
These are the additives of known composition that have been purposely added to foods to achieve specific effects during production or processing or to impart or retain desired characteristics.

Incidental or Indirect
These are chemical which have no planned function in food, but become part of it during some phase of processing, packaging, or storing.

For most part, additives perform a necessary function on food. The amount of most additive consumed on a yearly basis is relatively small: hence, additives pose a minor health risk.

There are over 2,000 additives, many are common chemicals, and all are continually scrutinized by any adverse effects on the health of people. But, to enjoy the benefits from any technology carries as certain degree of risk.
Definition of Food Additive

Find out about Food Additive

2010-09-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

By definition, food additives are distinguished from food or natural food constituents. A food is a natural food constituent becomes a food additive when added to another food.

Food additives must be included in the ingredient list on the nutrition information panel, either as the name and the number (e.g. calcium alginate (404)), or as its functions and number (e.g thickener (404)).

You can use this information to gain a better understanding of what is in the food you eat.

For example acidity regulators help maintain a constant acid level in foods to prevent them from spoiling, as well as change the flavor of the food.

Food additives are used in processed foods in relatively small quantities. Many substances used as food additives also occur naturally, such as vitamin C or ascorbic acid (300) in fruit or lecithin (322) in yolks, soybeans, peanuts and maize.

The FDA, the European Food Safety Authority and many international agencies monitor the safety of chemical added to food.

Some chemical additives such as food coloring, must be tested for safety by the manufacturer prior to being approved for the use in foods.

On the other hand, many kinds of food additives are not tested rigorously for safety before entering the food supply; safety issues arise only after an additive has been in use and a deleterious effect in consumers; health is suspected.
Find out about Food Additive

Modern History of Food Additives

2010-08-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

Modern History of Food Additives
As with many other elements used in food processing , additives originate very early in human history. For example, people learned in prehistoric terms that adding salt to meat would preserve it.

Likewise, smoke, which also acts as a preservative, might be considered an early food additive.

Over time, additives have come to thoroughly influence our eating habits, our taste preferences, and our socio cultural development.

The earliest legislation controlling the use of food additives took place in Britain in the 19th century, following the work of Frederick Accum, though its original impetus was the prevention of food adulteration.

In the United States the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the regulation of ingredients that can be added to food.

It was not until 1958 that legislation was adopted requiring food and chemical manufacturers to test their additives before they were submitted to the FDA.

Before that lawn the FDA itself was responsible for testing the submitted additives. Thereafter, Congress established a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) list.

This list recognized that many substances that had been added to food for a long time were commonly seen as safe by qualified scientists, which exempted them from premarket clearance.

This list was revised in 1969 and as of 1980 contained 415 substances that were originally included in the 1958 project.

Today, manufacturers were responsibility for demonstrating their GRAS status and providing evidence (such as scientific literature) to support it. Approximately 100 new substances are presented to the FDA for GRAS certification very year.
Modern History of Food Additives

Fruit Quality and Quality Products

2010-07-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

Fruit Quality and Quality Products
*High quality juice operation are dependent upon a source of high quality raw material.
No matter how good the process is, starting with poor quality fruit for juice production will lead to a poor quality product.
Often the quality of the fruit is dependent the stage of maturity or the level of ripening.
Typical assessments of fruit ripening include sugar concentration, acidity starch content, color, flavor and firmness.

*As is often the case in unit operations, efficiency drives the harvesting process, and in terms of harvester operation, this usually means some form of mechanical harvesting.
Quality can be preserved with mechanical harvesting; however extra care needs to be exercised in the design and use of harvesters.

*In general, all handling of the fruit should be done with sensitivity to the potential of cruising and contamination of the fruit.
Special care must be made on transport of the fruit through the plant so that large drops or other impacts are avoided.

*Storage facilities must be optimized for the type and maturity of the fruit.
Although general cooling of fruit at controlled relative humidity is standard for extending storage life of the fruit, controlled atmosphere can be used to maximize shelf life of fruits such apples.

*Starting with good quality, sound fruit is important but so, too, is the cleanliness of the process operations are important.
In all phases of the juice production, design and assurance of clean and safe operations are important.
Daily cleaning and sanitation of the plant with routine shutdowns will assure maintenance of a clean operation and prevent buildup of trouble spots.
Fruit Quality and Quality Products

Food Additives as anticaking, free flow agents and antioxidants

2010-05-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

Food Additives as anticaking, free flow agents and antioxidants
These are compound that are added to dry ingredients such as salt, powdered sugar and finely ground spice blended to keep the product free flowing during storage and use.

The compound added, such as calcium stearate, has the ability to preferentially tie up moisture, therefore maintaining the free flow properties of the dry product and minimizing the problems of caking, lumping and agglomeration.

While for antioxidants traditionally, these food additives have been added to fats, oils, and fat containing foods to prevent oxidation from occurring , which in turn can result in product rancidity.

Both naturally occurring compounds such as vitamins A and C as well as synthetic antioxidants typified by butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) have been utilized due to their ability to tie up free oxygen before it can react with the unsaturated portion of fatty acids.

Due to potency of some synthetic antioxidants, maximum usage levels are enforced. It should be noted that antioxidants are intended to retard but not to prevent product deterioration and discoloration.
Food Additives as anticaking, free flow agents and antioxidants

Flavoring agent

2010-04-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

Flavoring agent
Spices as well as natural and artificial sweetening agents are important additives. Of the flavour enhancers, sodium, chloride is the most common and the oldest.

Monosodium glutamate was isolated as early as 1867 but its flavor-enhancing properties were not described until 1908 by a Japanese chemist, K. Ikeda.

It is used extensively in oriental foods and is thought to cause Chine restaurant syndrome (primarily hot flushes or the neck).

There is some evidence that it may cause brain damage in mice and monkeys. Other flavour potentiators include ethyl maltol, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.
Flavoring agent

Food Additives

2010-04-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

Food Additives
The use of food additives dates back to ancient times. Examples of these early additives are salt to preserve meats and fish, herbs and spices for seasoning foods, sugar to preserve fruits and vinegar vegetable.

Today manufacturers use more than 3,000 food additives.

A commonly used definition of a food additive is any substance added to a food either directly or indirectly though production, processing, storing or packaging.

Food additives serve a number of functions:

Preservatives to keep food fresh and to prevent spoilage.
This is important, as in our modern lifestyle; food is rarely eaten at the time or place it is produced. Calcium propionate inhibits molds and is often added to bread products for this purpose.

Nutrients to improve or maintain the nutritional quality of foods. Most salt contains iodine to prevent goiter a condition resulting for iodine deficiency.

Processing aids to maintain product texture such as retaining moisture, preventing lumping, or adding stability. Powdered foods such as cocoa contain silicon dioxide to prevent clumping when water is added.

Flavors to enhance or change the status or aroma of a food. These include spices, herbs, flavor enhancers, natural and synthetic flavors and sweeteners.

Colors to glove foods an appealing look. Many of the colors associated with foods are from added colorings, such a caramel to make cola drinks brown and annatto to make margarine yellow.

Food additives are derived from naturally occurring and synthetic materials. Scientist can now synthesize in the laboratory many additives that used to be derived from natural sib stance, creating a larger and cheaper supply.

Food additives allow us to enjoy safe, wholesome, tasty foods each year round without the inconvenience of growing our own foods or shopping daily. Convenience foods are made possible by the use of food additives.
Food Additives

Food Additive in Preservation and Processing of Food

2010-03-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

Food Additive in Preservation and Processing of Food
Direct food additive serve several major functions. Many additives in fact, are multifunctional.

Preservation
Food preservation techniques have advanced in the past 100 years and now include thermal processing, concentration and drying, refrigeration and freezing, modified atmosphere and irradiation.

However, the use of chemical preservatives frequently augments these basics preservation techniques and represents the most economical way for manufacturers to ensure a reasonable shelf life for their products.

Antioxidants and antimicrobial agents perform some of these functions as well.

Processing
Food processors are increasingly using food additives to ensure the integrity and appeal of their finished products.

Emulsifiers maintain mixtures and improve texture in breads, dressings and other foods.

They are used in ice cream when smoothers is desired , in breads to increase shelf life and volume and to distribute the shortening, and in cake mixes to achieve better consistency.

Stabilizers and thickeners assist in presenting an appealing product with consistent texture.

Sorbitol, a humectants and sweetener, is used to retain moisture and enhance flavor.

With the removal of sugar from many foods for dietetics reasons, a substitute bulking agent is needed.
Food Additive in Preservation and Processing of Food

What is Food Additive?

2010-03-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

What is Food Additive?
The broadest definition of a food additive is any substance that becomes part of a food product, either directly or indirectly, during some phase of processing, storage or packaging.

The universe of food additives encompasses:
Direct Food Additives
Direct food additives, these that rare intentionally added to food for a functional purpose, in controlled amounts, usually at low levels (from parts per million to 1-2%, by weight.)

Indirect Food Addictive
Indirect or incidental food additives, those entering into food products in small quantities as a result of growing or packaging.

The difference between food ingredients and additives is mainly in the quantity used in any given formulation.

Food ingredients can be consumed alone as food (e.g., sucrose), whole food additive are used in small quantities (usually less than 2%) relative to the total food composition but which nonetheless play a large part in the production of desirable and safe food products.

Food additives may be looked upon as minor ingredients incorporated into foods to affect their properties in some desired way.

Most commonly, the effects desired relate to color, flavor texture nutritive value, or stability on storage.

There is no rigorous definition that meets all needs.

The Codex Alimentarius, which dominates actions in international circles, considers an additive as a ingredient “not normally consumed as a food by itself and normally used as a typical ingredient.”
What is Food Additive?

Food Additives in general

2010-02-26T16:31:00.000-08:00

Food Additives in general
Food additives are used as anti-microbial agents, to reduce physical and chemical spoilage and to aid processing.

Their use is as old as cookery. Salting and smoking as preservation techniques and the addition of spices and sweeteners to make food more palatable and introduce a greater variety into eating have been used since prehistoric times.

It was during the nineteenth century that the use of food additives proliferated enormously and many of them were highly reprehensible.

Red lead was used to color sweets, alum and copper sulphate to ‘improve’ bread, ground beech leaves to adulterate tea and bone meal to whiten flour.

Today, effective methods of detection and more or less strict food legislation prevent the more glaring transgression in many countries.

Nevertheless, just as the aim of the politician is to attain power, the purpose of business is to make money and for many the temptation to break the law is too great.

A hundred years ago, some manufacturers were prosecuted for cheapening spice with starch of groundnut shells.

Today, some are prosecuted for adding excessive amounts of soya protein to meat products.

The increase use of synthetic food additives also poses health problems but these must be seem in proper perspective.

Some toxins are present in very small amounts but others in such quality that, if they were an ingredient in a new food additive, it would almost certainly be prohibited.

Also, a large number of other toxins have been isolated from seafood and fungi.

Food additives actually are essential to modern living. Without them the world’s population could not be fed adequately and the range and palatability of food could not be maintained.
Food Additives in general

Basic of Sensitization in Atopic Allergy

2010-02-10T16:53:00.001-08:00

Basic of Sensitization in Atopic Allergy
During the first year of life, allergic sensitization occurs readily via the intestinal tract because the protective immunologic mechanisms are not fully developed.

Breast milk offers passive protection during the vulnerable age but is also a possible route of sensitization.

Overproduction of IgE is characteristics of atopic allergy. Many healthy children develop IgE antibodies, against egg white for instance, during the first year of life.

These antibodies usually disappears in a few months and are probably a reflection of the normal humoral immunoresponse.

However, in those children who manifest a clinical allergy to egg white, antibodies disappear more slowly. It has been postulated that the function of cells, especially lymphocytes, controlling IgE synthesis is not in balance.

Atopy may be related to deficient or retarded maturation of cells suppressing IgE synthesis.

The protective mechanism of the intestinal mucosa, although their exact nature is not known, prevent sensitization effectively. From animal studies it is known that mice develop antibodies when given cow’s milk protein parenterally.

However, if the animal is fed cow’s milk before the injection, it develops immunotolerence and no antibodies can be detected.

The role of mucosal IgA is vitally important. Quantitative or qualitative deficiencies of IgA enhance the manifestation of circulation antibodies to foreign proteins as well as the formation of immunocomplexes.

If the permeability of the gastrointestinal or respiratory tract is increased for some reason, allergens penetrate the mucous membranes more easily and induce an immunologic response.

The function of the intestinal mucosal barrier is disturbed by infections, dietary habits, ingestions of alcohol and drugs and so fourth.
Basic of Sensitization in Atopic Allergy

The Term of Food Additive

2010-01-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

The Term of Food Additive
The definition used by the Codex Alimentarius Commission is:

‘Food Additive’ means any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself and not normally used as a typical ingredient of the food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment , packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food result, or may be reasonably expected to result (directly or indirectly) in it or its by products becoming a component of or otherwise affecting the characteristics of such foods. The term does not include ‘contaminants’ or substance added to food for marinating or improving nutritional qualities.

This definition:
-Leaves much room for judgment regarding what is a “typical” ingredient

-Includes only direct additives though use of the word “intentional”

-Excludes contaminants and nutritional adjuncts, both of which can be additives under US law.

As might be expected, there is also a definition for contaminants, and pesticides, also defined, constitute a separate category.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission has a committee on Food Additive, for which the host is the Netherlands.

Its responsibility is, in part, “To endorse or establish permitted maximum levels for individual food additives and for contaminants in specific food items.”

The commission also has set forth a set of general principles for the use of food additives which requires that they be proven safe for their intended use, that they have definitive specifications, and that they serve one or more of flour defined purposes:

-To preserve nutritional quality

-To provide necessary ingredient or foods for groups of consumers having special dietary needs

-To have keeping quality or improve organoleptic properties

-To provide a processing aid
The Term of Food Additive

Use of Intense Sweeteners

2009-12-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

Use of Intense Sweeteners in Soft Drinks
Use of sweeteners in soft drinks is not restricted to low calorie or dietetic products.

In some countries, particularly where sugar price are comparatively high, intense sweeteners are used in combination with sugar or glucose syrups to give more efficient formulations.

Intense sweeteners provide sweetness, the amount supplied – i.e. the relative sweetness of all intense sweetness – will depend on application.

Intense sweeteners do not supply the mouth feel of sugar and in some cases, they may supply undesirable side tastes or prove to be incompatible with some flavors.

For these reasons, use of intense sweeteners in soft drinks is rarely a case of direct substation of sucrose in the regular product formulations; more often than not, total reformulation is necessary.

It may be necessary to adjust the acidity and use buffers to assist stability of some sweeteners.

Some adjustment of flavor system used is commonly required and the use of gums or small amounts of sugars can improve mouth feel and control fobbing during filling.

Use of ingredients that mask undesirable side tastes may also be required.

Increasing the carbonation of low calorie products may also help mask undesirable side tastes and give the illusion of better mouth feel.

Sweetness synergy occurs with many combinations of intense (and bulk) sweeteners. The effects can be twofold: a higher perceived sweetness than would be expected from the theoretical sum of the relative sweetness values of the individual used and in some cases, a marked improvement in taste quality of sweetness that have undesirable side tastes.

The optimum sweetener system will vary depending on the product and will not necessarily be a sweetener blend.

However if a sweetener blend is to be used , useful starting point often quoted for blends of two intense sweeteners is that sweeteners are used in an inverse ratio to their relative sweetness (to each other), so that each sweetener contributes 50% of the total sweetness.
Use of Intense Sweeteners in Soft Drinks

Glucose Syrups/High Fructose Syrups

2009-12-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

Glucose Syrups/High Fructose Syrups
Glucose syrups, also known as corn syrups in the United States, are defined by European Commission (EC) as ‘a refined, concentrated aqueous solution of D(+)-glucose, maltose and other polymers of D-glucose obtained by the controlled partial hydrolysis of starch.

Glucose syrups were first manufactured industrially in the nineteenth century by acid hydrolysis of starch.

Hydrochloric acid was normally used, because sulphuric acid cause haze in syrups due to insoluble sulphates.

The source of starch can vary; in United States corn is widely used, whereas in other part o the world wheat, potato and cassava starch also employed.

The method is non specific, but of conditions are tightly controlled, it is possible to make products with a reasonably consistent carbohydrate profile.

Enzymes are also use to hydrolyze starch to glucose syrups, and these give a greater degree of control over the sugar profile of the resulting syrup.

The availability of commercial isomerizes enzymes in the 1970s, which are capable of converting glucose to fructose, allowed significant development of the production of high-fructose corn syrups with fructose levels of 42% an a sweetness level equivalent to sucrose.

Use of separation technology allowed further refinement of these products to give 55% fructose syrups.

These types of syrups are used extensively in the soft drinks, particularly in the United States.

In soft drinks, glucose, syrups are used to provide sweetness and mouthfeel to products and occasionally specific physiological properties in sports and energy drinks.
Glucose Syrups/High Fructose Syrups

Food Colors

2009-11-04T15:43:00.000-08:00

Food Colors
A number of natural colors are available and used to adjust or correct food discoloration or color change to adjust processing or storage.

Carotenoids are used the most, followed by red beet pigment and brown colored caramels.

The number of approved synthetic dyes is low.

Yellow and red colors are used the most. Food products which are often colored are confections, beverages, dessert powders, cereals, ice cream, and dairy products.

Coloring won’t affect the nutrients, safety or state of food, but they make a nutritional contribution when they make food look more appealing to eat.

Cheese and margarine often get their yellow coloring from annatto, which comes from the tropical annatto tree.

Ice cream and many baked foods also are among the many foods with added coloring.

Food colors may be added to food for many reasons: to offset any color that’s lost from being exposed to light, air, temperature extremes, moisture and storage; to correct natural color variations; to enhance natural colors; to give color to fun or colorless foods.
Food Colors

Acetylated Monoglyceride

2009-10-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

Acetylated Monoglyceride
An emulsifier manufactured by the interesterification of edible fats with triacetin in the presence of catalysts or by the direct acetylation of edible monoglycerides with acetic anhydride without the use of catalysts.

It is characterized by sharp melting point, stability to oxidative rancidity, film forming, stabilizing and lubricating properties.

It is used as a protective coating for meat products, nuts and fruits to improve their appearance, texture and shelf life.

The coatings are applied by spraying, panning and dipping.

It is used in cake shortening and fats for whipped topping to enhance the aeration and improve foam stabilization. It is found in dry-mix whipped topping.
Acetylated Monoglyceride

Hypersensitivities Mechanisms

2009-10-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

Hypersensitivities Mechanisms
Adverse reactions to food additives are caused by several mechanisms.

Food additives are ingested irregularly and in small doses. Additives are usually low by molecular weight chemicals, unlike many high molecular weight proteins which are potent allergens.

There is very little evidence of an immunological basis in reactions caused by food additives.

Adverse effects due to a various pharmacological or other mechanisms are much more common.

Many authors avoid the use of the terms allergy and atopy in connection with food additive reactions and prefer hypersensitivity or tolerance instead.

Terms such as false allergies, allergomimetic, reactions, or pseudoallergy have been suggested.

All these titles emphasize the nonspecific, nonimmunological nature of these reactions.

It has been observed in several studies that there is a dose response relationship with these reactions. A small amount of the agent is harmless, but a larger amount causes symptoms.

This better suits the concept of intolerance than immunologic sensitization.

Many patient suffering from food additives reactions have an atopic constitution and symptoms such as eczema and asthma.

Atopic subjects are more sensitive to numerous irritating environmental factors, including food additives, than the nonatopic population.

Atopic subjects have a particular tendency to release histamine after certain foods and additives that posses a histamine releasing action.

There appear to be more reactions caused by additives in adults than in children. The reason is obscure, but cumulative or slow development of intolerance may occur.

On the other hand, adults often have psychosomatic symptoms and are influenced by television programs and articles in journal and newspapers dealing with the adverse effects of food additives.
Hypersensitivities Mechanisms

Hypersensitivity Reactions

2009-09-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hypersensitivity Reactions
Many people have uncomfortable reactions to various foods, and this is often considered to be due to food additives and other artificial chemicals such as pesticide residues, rather than to the food itself.

This discomfort is usually called allergy by nonmedical persons, but there are also nurses and doctors who use the term allergy when they mean various kinds of untoward reactions to foods without knowing the mechanisms of such reactions.

Strictly, an allergy is a harmful physiological reaction reaction caused by an immunologic mechanism.

If the mechanism is not allergic one but the reaction resembles allergic reaction, the term intolerance is often used.

The symptoms mimic those seen in allergic reactions, but the amount of agent producing the reaction is small enough not to cause a toxic reaction.

When the mechanism is not known, it is better to talk about hypersensitivity, which can mean both allergic and intolerance.

There are several foods and food additive that can cause both immunologic and non immunologic reactions indistinguishable form each other.

For example, fish can act both as nonspecific histamine liberators and as true allergen.

Tuna, mackerel and certain cheeses contain histidine and tyrosine to such an extent that histamine and tyramine produced by decarboxylation from them can cause allergic type symptoms in atopic people.

Among food additives, cinnamon and nitrogen mustard are the most well-known cause of both allergic and nonallergic reactions.

Terminology of Hypersensitivity Reactions
Hypersensitivity
A small amount of a substance produces symptoms that can be objectively verified and repeated.

Allergy
Immunologic mechanism are involved in the pathogenesis of symptoms.

Atopic allergy
The reaction is mediated by immunoglobulin E.

Intolerance
A small amount of substance produces a reaction similar to or closely resembling a true allergic reaction, but immunologic mechanisms not involved.

Hypersensitivity Reactions

Legal Considerations of Food Additive

2009-08-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

Legal Considerations of Food Additive
The term “food additive” is an unfortunate one. It is innately pejorative. Intrinsically, it designates something added to food.

Logically, if it is something added to food, it is not itself food. If it is not food, why should it be added?

The characterization of an ingredient as a food additive immediately stimulates suspicion. As a consequence, most people reserve the term for those ingredients of food that they consider unnecessary and at least possibly harmful.

In extension of this concept, many countries, including a number of the major ones, classify food ingredients as:

Normal ingredients
Processing aids
Food Additives
Contaminants

Normal ingredients are often categorized as such if they can be consumed alone as food. The nature of processing aids is fairly obvious form the name.

The presumption is that these aids will be totally or almost totally lost in processing, thereby not adversely affecting the properties of the food, since as color, flavor, etc., and not presenting problems of safety.

Contaminants are such things as pesticide residues, substances transferred in from packaging or other food transfer surfaces and substances produced by invading organisms, e.g. mycotoxins.

Now considers the applications of this system of flavored ice cream. The strawberries in strawberry ice cream are normal ingredients, because strawberries are eaten as food.

The chocolate in chocolate ice ream is a normal ingredient, because chocolate is sometime eaten as food.

The vanilla in vanilla ice cream, however, and he oil of peppermint in peppermint ice cream are food additives, because these flavorings are not eaten alone.

Another example of the application of this system occurs with leavenings. Yeasts used in making bread is a normal ingredient, because it can be and sometime is consumed alone as food.

The baking powder used in biscuits, however is a food additive, because it would not be consumed alone.
Legal Considerations of Food Additive

Aspartame

2009-08-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Aspartame
A dipeptide, L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (L-Asp-L-Phe-OMe), has recently been approved for use as a sweetener in North America (aspartame, “NutraSweet”).

It is as sweet as a number of other dipeptide esters of L-aspartame acid and D,L –aminomalonic acid.

The sweetening strength relative to saccharose is concentration dependent. Aspartame is used worldwide, though its stability is not always satisfactory.

Unlike sweetening of drinks (coffee or tea) which are drunk immediately, problems arise in the use of aspartame on food which has to be heated or in sweetened drinks which have to be stored for longer periods of time.

Possible degradation reactions involve alpha/beta rearrangement, hydrolysis into amino acid constitutions and cyclization to the 2,5 dioxopiperazine.
Aspartame

Risks of Food Additive

2009-06-30T08:30:00.001-07:00

Risks of Food Additive
Food additives, especially vitamins and minerals the quantity added to a finished food product may not be sufficient to achieve an intended health benefit.

Some foods that are commonly consumed by the majority of the population may be supplemented with various vitamins or minerals.

A single serving of a fortified food may not provide the same health benefit as regular consumption of a fortified food.

For example, iodine is added to table salt to provide a regular source of this important mineral.

Table salt is regularly consumed by most Americans, and iodine is often lacking in typical diets.

The determination of a beneficial, yet safe, quality of iodine to add to table s at must consider the typical consumption of salt over the lifetime of the consumer.

While food additive may provide a benefit to a processor or a consumer when used as intended, the use of an inappropriate quantity may be deleterious to the food or to the consumer.

If an additive is used in excess to process a product, then the desired effect may not be achieved, or else there may be an undesirable quality defect attributed to the product.

For example, of an artificial sweetener such as aspartame is added to a beverage in a high concentration, then the product may be too sweet and rejected by the consumers.

Or an excessively high concentration of a chemical additive may lead to an acute illness or injury to the consumer, such as can occur with sulfiting agents.

People who are sensitive to additive s containing sulfur, especially those with asthma, are at a greater risk to suffer am allergic reaction to high levels of sulfites.

Safety determination of additive use should consider the effects of accidental or intentional consumption of a high quantity of an additive that is beyond its prescribed used level.

Also additive may be injuries to health when consumed in moderate doses over extended time periods.

When the risks or benefits of food additive use are considered, estimation must be made of the long term or lifetime consumption of the additive.

These substances may have cumulative effects in health may interact with other biological or chemical compounds in the body, or may elicit different responses in consumers of different ages or health status.
Risks of Food Additive

Cyclamate

2009-06-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

Cyclamate
Cyclamate was a serendipitous discovery at the University of Illinois in 1937. A patent was obtained, which became property of Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, Illinois.

After toxicological studies were completed, sodium cyclamate was given GRAS approval by the FDA in 1949. Approval of calcium cyclamate followed a few years later.

Initially, cyclamate was available only in tablet form as a product for diabetics.

Consumption was expanded greatly when cyclamate-saccharin blends became widely available as special dietary foods.

Cyclamate is the generic term for the cyclohexylsulfamates. The two commercially available salts, sodium cyclamate and calcium cyclamate, are both noncaloric, white crystalline powders.

They readily dissolve in water to form solutions stable to light, heat, and air throughout the pH range of 2 to 12.

Cyclamate is the least intense of the widely used alternative sweeteners.

Cyclamate is approximately thirty times as sweet as sugar. At high concentrations it has a significant bitter-sour off-taste.

A blend of ten parts cyclamate to one part saccharin provides a synergistic sweetening effect while masking off-taste problems inherent to both components when used separately.
Cyclamate

PH Control Substances

2009-05-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

PH Control Substances
Natural or synthetic acid or alkali ingredients change or maintain the initial pH of a product.

For example, acidulents flavor, preserve and regulate pH.

The acid ingredients regulate by lowering the pH and preserve foods by inhibiting microbial growth.

Regardless of the acid level of food ingredients, food acids are incorporated into foods in order maintain a constant acid level.

Natural acids include the following acetic acid or vinegar and citric acid from citrus, which control unwanted trace metals otherwise catalyzing oxidation reactions; malic acid (an organic acid from apples and figs); and tartaric acid (a weak acid).

These acids may be added to foods to impart flavor and control tartness.

Lactic acid present in almost all living organisms, is an acidity regulator and is used in balancing the acidity in cheese making, as well as adding tartness to many other foods.

The acid salt calcium propionate is added to control pH of breads.

Sodium lactate (the salt of lactic acid) may be used in processed meat and poultry products.

Examples of alkaline ingredients include sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), an ingredient that balances the acid component of baking powder, sodium hydroxide, used in modified starches, and potassium hydroxide.

Alkaline compounds are used to neutralize excess acid that otherwise could produce unwelcome flavors. In food they leaven and soften hard water.
PH Control Substances

Sweeteners

2009-04-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

Sweeteners
Lactose
Lactose the sugar component of mammalian milks is less sweet and less water-soluble than sucrose.

While babies and young children generally are able to metabolize this sugar some are unable to do so.

The ability to metabolize the sugar appears to decrease with age. When a person is unable to metabolize lactose, the ingestion of milk may cause intestinal discomfort, cramps and diarrhea.

The major source of lactose is whey, a cheese by-product.

Because lactose is not sweet as sucrose, larger amounts can be used in those foods in which the texture benefits from a high solids content.

Maltose
Maltose or malt sugar is produced during the malting process in brewing (enzyme conversion of starch).

It is converted to alcohol by the action of yeast through an intermediate conversion to dextrose.

This sugar is much less sweet than sucrose, and it is used mainly in the manufactured to baked and infants foods.

Saccharin
Saccharin, the imide of o-benzosulfonic acid, is used as a sodium or calcium salt. It is about 300 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar).

It may leave a bitter after taste and its safety has been questioned as a result of some animal feeding tests.

As an intense sweetener it is useful for diabetes and it reduces the incidence of dental caries.

Cyclamate
In many cases it was used together with saccharin. Cyclamate is not as sweet as saccharin by weight, but it is about 30 times sweeter than sucrose. Like saccharin, it has been used as sodium or calcium salt.
Sweeteners

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

2009-04-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
Glutamic acid was isolated by Ritthausen.

In 1098 Ikeda found that MSG is the beneficial active component of the algae Lamniria japonica, used for a long time in Japan as a flavor improver of soup and similarly prepared soup.

The taste of MSG cannot be explained by a combination of sweet, salty, sour and bitter tastes.

It is, as the fifth quality, of an elementary nature. This assumption, which was made as early as 1908 by a Japanese researcher to explain the special taste called umami, was recently confirmed by the identification of a taste receptor for MSG.

Indeed MSG is one of the most important taste-bearing substances in meat and ripened for longer periods of time.

Reports by Japanese researchers that glutamyl peptides, e.g., Glu-Glu, also taste like MSG have not been confirmed.

The taste of MSG is intensified by certain nucleotides. Glutamate promotes sensory perception particularly of meat like aroma notes, and is frequently used as an additive in frozen, dehydrated or canned fish and meat products.

MSG is added in the concentration range of 0.2 – 0.8%.

The intake of larger amount of MSG by some hypersensitivity persons can trigger a “Chinese restaurant syndrome”, which is characterized by temporary disorders such as drowsiness, headache, and stomach ache and stiffening of joints. These disappear after a short time.
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

Labeling of Food Additive

2009-03-10T11:03:00.001-07:00

Labeling of Food Additive
The risks or benefits of food additive and ingredients must be clearly displayed for consumers. The FD&C Act requires, in virtually all cases, a complete of all the ingredients of a food.

The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act which amended the FD&C Act requires most foods to bear labeling and requires food labels that bear nutrient content claims and certain health massages to comply with specific requirements.

Two of the exemptions from ingredients labeling requirements have resulted in special product labeling efforts to protect the health of consumers.

First, the act provides that species, flavorings, and colorings may be declared collectively without naming each one.

One exception is the artificial color additive FD&C Yellow #5. This chemical must be specifically identified in the ingredients statement of finished foods because a small percentage of the population may be allergic or sensitive to the additive.

Second, FDA regulations exempt from ingredient declaration incidental additives, such as processing aids, that are present in a food at insignificant levels and that do no have a technical or functional effect in the finished food.

One of important example of an incidental additive is peanuts. An increasing number of products are identified that they “may contain peanuts.”

While peanut-derived ingredients were not intentionally added to these products, residues from peanut use in processing on nearby equipment or previous production runs may have contaminated these products with peanut residues.

Since peanuts are one of the leading causes of allergic responses to foods, many companies have chosen to label some product with “may contain peanuts.”

Some foods may be identified or labeled to contain additives that can improve public or individual health.

Many ready to eat breakfast cereal products are fortified with several vitamins and minerals.

A quantity of these substances is added to the cereal so that a consumer may expect to consume 25 to 100% of the recommended daily intake of that nutrient from a defined size serving.

Additives that can improve human health are sometimes advertised elsewhere in finished product packaging besides the ingredients list and nutrition label.
Labeling of Food Additive

Fructose

2009-02-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

Fructose
Of the other sugars used by humans, fructose (also known as levulose), a monosaccharide (C6H12O6), is the sweetest (nearly twice as sweet as the table sugar, sucrose); and it is the most water soluble of the sugars.

It is hygroscopic, making it an excellent humectant when used in baked goods. The value of a humectant in baked goods is that it retards their dehydration.

Solution of fructose have a low viscosity that results in lower ‘body’ feel than sucrose but in greater flexibility of use over a wide range of temperatures.

Because of its greater solubility and more effective sweetness than sucrose, fructose is better alternative to sucrose when very sweet solutions are required, as fructose will not crystallize out of solution, whereas sucrose will.

Fructose has sometimes been called the fruit sugar, since it occurs in many fruits and berries. It also occurs as a major component in honey, corn syrup, cane sugar and beet sugar.

In fact sucrose, a disaccharide, is composed of glucose and fructose. Of these tow components, the glucose moiety cannot be monopolized by diabetics and it is for this reason that the ingestion of sucrose cannot be tolerated by diabetics.

Fructose, on the other hand, does not require insulin for its metabolism and can be used by diabetics with no concern. When used with saccharin it tends to mask the bitter aftertaste of saccharin. As its apparently accelerates the metabolism of alcohol, it has been used to treat those suffering from overdoses of alcohol.

It has been recommended as a rapid source of energy for athletes and in combination with gluconate and saccharin, as an economic, effective, safe, low calorie sweetener for beverages.
Fructose

Food Additive in General

2009-01-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

Food Additive in General
A food additive is a substance (or a mixture of substance) which is added to food and is involved in its production, processing, packaging and/or storage without being a major ingredient.

Additives or their degradation products generally remain in food, but in some case they may be removed during processing.

The following examples illustrate and support the use of additives to enhance the:

Nutritive Value of food
Additive such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and amino acids derivatives are utilized to increase the nutritive value of food. A particular diet may also require the use of thickening agents, emulsifiers, sweeteners, etc.

Sensory Value of Food
Color, odor, taste and consistency or texture, which are important for the sensory value of food, may decreases during processing and storage. Such decreases can be corrected or readjusted by additives such as pigment aroma compounds or flavor enhancers.
Development of “off flavor” for instance, derived from fat or oil oxidation, can be suppressed by antioxidants. Food texture can be stabilized by adding minerals or polysaccharides, and by many other means.

Shelf Life of Food
The current forms of food production and distribution, as well as the trend towards convenient foods, have increased the demand for longer shelf life. Furthermore, the world food supply situation requires preservation by avoiding deterioration as much as possible.
The extension of shelf life involves protection against microbial spoilage, for example, by using anti-microbial additives and by using active agents which suppress and retard undesired chemical and physical changes in food.
The latter is achieved by stabilization of pH using buffering additives or stabilization of texture with thickening or gelling agents which are polysaccharides.

It is implicitly understood that food additives and their degradation products should be non toxic at their recommend levels of use. This applies equally to acute and to chronic toxicity, particularly the potential carcinogenic, teratogenic (causing a malformed fetus) and mutagenic (causing a malformed fetus) and mutagenic effects.

It is generally recognized that additives are applied only when required for then nutritive or sensory value of food, or for its processing or handling.
Food Additive in General

Functions of Food Additives

2009-01-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

Functions of Food Additives
Hundreds of chemical additives are incorporated into foods directly or migrate into foods from the environment or packaging materials. A food additive can be sometimes defined as a substance whose intended use will lead to its incorporation into the food or will affect the characteristics of the foods.

These additives generally provide some types of benefits to the food producer, processor or consumer. For the consumer, additives can improve organoleptic qualities of foods, improve the nutritive value, or ease the preparation of ingredients and meals. Typical additive benefits to the food producer or processor include improving product quality, safety and variety.

Additive may found in varying quantities in foods, perform different functions in foods and ingredients, and function synergistically with other additives. Their functions can usually be classified as one of the following:

To maintaining or improve nutritional quality

To maintain or improve product safety or quality

To aid in processing or preparations

To enhance sensory characteristics

Additives that affect nutritional quality are primarily vitamins and minerals. In some foods, these may be added to enrich the food or replace nutrients that may have been lost during processing. In other foods, vitamins and minerals may be added for fortification in order to supplement nutrients that may often be lacking in human diets.

Preservatives or antimicrobial substances are used to prevent bacterial and fungal growth in foods. These additives can delay spoilage or extend the shelf life of the finished product. Antioxidants are additives that also can extend the shelf life of foods by delaying rancidity or lipid oxidation.

Additives that maintain product quality may also ensure food product safety for the consumer. For, example, acids that may be added to prevent the growth of microorganisms that cause spoilage may also prevent the growth of microorganisms that can cause foodborne illness.

Additives that are used as processing or preparation aids, usually affect the texture of ingredients and finished foods. Some of these are classified as emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, leavening agents, humectants and anti-caking agents. Chemical in this group of food additives are also used to adjust the homogeneity, stability and volume of foods.

The fourth major, function of food additives is to enhance the flavor or color of foods to make them more appealing to the consumer. Flavoring chemicals may be used to magnify the original taste or aroma of food ingredients or to restore flavors lost during processing. Natural and artificial coloring substances are added to increase the visual appeal of foods, to distinguish flavors or foods, to increase the intensity of naturally occurring color or to restore color lost during processing.
Functions of Food Additives

Flavoring Agents

2008-12-18T01:15:00.000-08:00

Flavoring Agents
Flavoring agents are the largest single group of food additives. Food and beverage applications of flavors include dairy, fruit, nut, seafood, spice blends, vegetables and wine flavoring agents. They may complement, magnify, or modify the taste and aroma of the foods.

There are over 1200 different flavoring agents used in foods to create flavor or replenish flavors lost or diminished in processing, and hundreds of chemicals may be used to simulate nature flavors. Alcohols, esters, aldehydes, ketones, protein hydrolysates and MSG are examples of flavoring agents.

Natural flavoring substances are extracted from plants, herbs and spices, animals, or microbial fermentations. They also include essential oils and oleoresins (created by solvent extract with solvent removed), herbs, spices and sweetness.

Synthetic flavoring agents are chemically similar to natural flavorings, and offer increased consistency in use and availability. They may be less expensive and more readily available than the natural counterpart although they may not adequately simulate the natural flavor. Some examples of synthetic flavoring agents include amyl acetate, used as banana flavoring benzaldehyde, used to create cherry or almond flavor, ethyl butyrate for pineapple, methyl anthranilate for grape, methyl salicylate for wintergreen flavor, and fumaric acid, which is an ideal source of tartness and acidity in dry foods.

Flavor enhancers such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) intensify or “bring out,” enhance or supplement the flavor of other compounds in food; they have a taste outside of the basic sweet, sour, salty or bitter. Monosodium glutamate was chemically derived from seaweed in the early 1900s, but is manufactured commercially by the fermentation of starch, molasses, or sugar.
Flavoring Agents

Sweeteners as Food Additive

2008-12-09T01:09:00.000-08:00

Sweeteners as Food Additive
Sweetening agents are added to a large number of foods and beverages. Table sugar (sucrose), the most commonly used sweetener in United States, including corn sugar and syrup. Sweeteners include other sugars, as well as an abundance of natural and synthetic agents of varying strengths and caloric values.

Many sweeteners are classified as nonnutritive sweeteners. While this classifications might imply a lack of nutritional value, the implication is correct only in relative sense, That is, the caloric value of a nonnutritive sweetener, like aspartame, for example, is about 4 Cal/g as it is for sugar; however, since it takes only 1 g aspartame to provide the same sweetness level as about 180 g of sugar (sucrose), it can be seen that the caloric contribution of aspartame is only about 0.5% that 0f sucrose. It is on this basis that nonnutritive sweeteners are classified.

The presently approved sweetness are saccharin, fructose, glycyrrhizin, xylitol, mannitol, sorbitol, acessulfame and aspartame.
Sweeteners as Food Additive

Safety of Food Additives

2008-12-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Safety of Food Additives
Concern regarding the safety of food additives has declined in the United States since the enactment of the saccharin moratorium. The study indicates that only 21% of the supermarket shoppers were concern about additives and preservatives, a significant decline from the earlier study. Reduced consumer concerns plus a changing political environment away from consumerism and a move toward more responsible use of additives by manufacturers have lessened the controversy over additive use. The potential risks of additives are well recognized, but the beneficial role these additives play in food production, processing, and utilization are also felt to be essential to the maintenance of our current food systems. With the convenient, tasty and nutritious foods demanded, or at least, desired, by consumers and the increasing overall demand for foods as population increase, food additive will continue to play an important and essential role in food production.

New technology is likely to have a profound impact on the use of food additives in the future. Of these, recombinant DNA technology may have the greatest effect on the future development and use of food additives. Recombinant DNA technology is already routinely used for production of additives through bioprocessing, including organic acids, bacteriocin preservative, enzymes microorganisms, vitamins and minerals. Biotechnology may also decrease the need for food additives, plants have been produced through recombinant DNA worth increased shelf life and nutritional value, thus decreasing the need for a variety of additive. Although it is expected these recombinant DNA method will be accepted in the future, there are currently several questions being raised regarding the risks and benefits of these products as well.
Safety of Food Additives

Risks of Food Additives

2008-11-10T23:05:00.000-08:00

Risks of Food Additives
Despite the benefits attributed to food additives for several years there have also been a number of concerns regarding the potential short and long term risks of consuming food additives. Critics of additives are concerned with both indirect and direct impacts of using additives. As for many of the benefits mentioned, there is not always adequate scientific proof of whether or not a particular additive is safe. Little or no data are available concerning the health risks or joints effects of an additive cocktail of us consumes daily.

The indirect risks that have been described for additives are the c0nverse of some of benefits attributed to their use. While it is accepted that though additives a greater choice and variety of foods have been made available, there is no question that additives have also resulted in the increased availability of food products with a low density of nutrients. These so called junk foods, which include many snack items, can in fact be used as substitutes in the diet for more nutritious foods.

Of greater concern than the indirect risks are the potential direct toxicological effects of additives. Short terms acute effects from additives are unlikely. Few additives are used at levels that will cause a direct toxicological impact, although there have been incidents where this has happened. Of particular concern are the hypersensitivity reactions to some additives that can have a direct and severe impact on sensitive individual even when the chemical are used at legally acceptable levels. The reactions to sulfites and other additives are examples of such a problem. With proper labeling, however, sensitive individuals should be able to avoid potential problem.

Toxicological problems resulting from the long term consumption of additive are not well documented. Cancer and reproductive problems are of primary concern, although there is no direct evidence linking additive consumption with their occurrence in humans. There are however, animal studies that have indicated potential problems with some additives, although most of these additives have been banned, some continues to be used, the most notable being saccharin.
Risks of Food Additives

Texturing agent

2008-10-31T21:14:00.001-07:00

Texturing agent
Texturing agents are used to add or modify the overall texture or mouthfeel of food products. Emulsifiers and stabilizers are the primary additive in this category. Phosphates and dough conditioners are other chemicals that play a major role in modifying food texture. Phosphates are some of the most widely used and serve a number of functions in foods.

Emulsifiers include natural substances such as lecithin and mono- and diglycerides as well as several synthetic derivatives. The primary role of these agents is to allow flavors and oils to be dispersed throughout food products.

Stabilizers include several natural gums such as carrageenan as well as natural and modified starches. These additives have been used for several years to provide the desired texture in products such as ice-cream and are now also finding use in both dry and liquid products. They also are used to prevent evaporation and deterioration of volatile flavor oils.

Phosphates are often used to modify the texture of foods containing protein or starch. These chemicals are especially useful in stabilizing various dairy and meat products. The phosphates apparently react with protein and/or starch and modify the water-holding capacity of these natural food components.
Texturing agent

Enzymes as Food Additive

2008-10-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

Enzymes as Food Additive
Enzymes are nontoxic protein substances that occur naturally in foods or may be produced by microorganisms or biotechnology to catalyze various reactions. They are early inactivated by a specific PH and temperature. Although the presence of some enzymes may produce negative quality changes, other enzymes are often intentionally added to foods for their beneficial effect. Microorganisms are responsible for producing some of the enzymes desired in foods; thus, the microbes may be intentionally added to food.

Some examples of enzymes that are additions to other foods include bromelain (from pineapples), ficin (from figs), and papain (from papaya). The enzymes act as meat tenderizers of muscle tissue or connective tissue. Amylases hydrolyze starch in flour and are used along with acids in the production of corn syrup. Invertase used to hydrolyze sucrose and prevent its crystallization. Pectinases clarify pectin-containing jellies or juices; proteases may be used a meat tenderizers, to create cheeses from milk (rennin), and to produce soy sauce. Glucose oxidase is added to foods such as egg whites in order to prevent the Maillard browning.
Enzymes as Food Additive

Coloring Agents as Food Additive

2008-10-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

Coloring Agents as Food Additive
A color additive is any die, pigment, or substance that imparts color when added or applied to a food, drug, cosmetic, or human body. The term “FD&C” is applied to ‘food color additive’ approved by the FDA for food, drug and cosmetic usage, “D&C” is used for approved ‘drug and cosmetic coloring agents’, and “external D&C” is granted to approved ‘color additive applied externally.’ The synthetic coloring agents are assigned FD&C classifications by initials, the shade and a number, for example, FD&C Red#40, and FD&C Yellow #5.

Coloring agents are added to foods because of the sensory appeal they provide, for the purpose of making processed foods look more appetizing. For example, colors are used in baked products, candies, dairy products such as butter, margarine and ice cream, gelatin desserts, jams and jellies in order to improve their appearance. It has been said that people “eat with their eyes” as well as their plates.

There are thousands of foods that use colors to maker them looks appetizing and attractive. The primary reasons for adding coloring agents include the following:

Offsetting color loss due to exposure to air, light, moisture and storage
To correct natural variations in color or enhance color
To provide visual appeal to wholesome and nutritious foods
To provide color to foods that would otherwise be colorless, including “fun foods” and special foods for various holidays

Pigment may be derived from natural sources such as plant, mineral or animal sources primarily the former. Some of the same ingredients added to foods for their health benefits, also offer “natural” coloring. These includes anthocyanins, carotenoids, chlorophylls, foods such as beets (betalains), cabbage, tomatoes (lycopene), and number of other flowers, fruits and vegetables.

Synthetic coloring agents are generally less expensive than the natural colorants, are more intense, and have better coloring power, uniformity, and stability when exposed to environmental conditions such as heat and light. They may be water soluble or made water insoluble by the addition of aluminum hydroxide. Only small quantities of granules, a paste, a power or solution are needed in foods to achieve the desired color effects.
Coloring Agents as Food Additive

Food Additive: Acidulants

2008-10-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

Food Additive: Acidulants
From the root word, acid, in acidulants, one can conclude that this class of compounds tends to lower pH of any food in which the compounds are incorporated. They also enhance desirable flavors, and in many cases, such as in pickled products, are the major taste component. Vinegar (acetic acid) is added to relishes, chili sauce, ketchup and condiments as a flavor component and to aid in the preservation of these products. Since the microbial spoilage of food is inhibited as the pH of a food is lowered, acidulants are used for that purpose in many cases. Many acidulants occur naturally in foods (e.g., citric acid in citrus fruits, malic acid in apples, acetic acid – the major component of vinegar). Tartaric acid is widely used to lend tartness and enhance flavor. Citric acid is widely used in carbonated soft drinks. Phosphoric acid is one of the very few inorganic acids used as an acidulants in foods. Citric acid accounts for 60% of all acidulants used in foods.

In addition to their preservative and flavor enhancing effects, acidulants are used to improve gelling properties and texture. Acidulants are also used as cleaners of dairy equipment.

Acidulants may be used in the manufacturer of processed cheese and cheese spread for the purpose of emulsifications as well as to provide a desirable tartness.

Acid salts may be added to soft drinks to provide a buffering action to prevent excess tartness. In some cases, acid salts are used to inhibit mold growth.
Food Additive: Acidulants

Definition of Food Additive

2008-09-26T00:18:00.000-07:00

Definition of Food Additive
Food Additive legally defined as “A substance or a mixture of substance, other than a basic foodstuff, that is present in a food as a result of an aspect of production, processing, storage or packaging”

A food additive in it broadest sense is any substance added to food. Legally additives are classified as direct if they are intentionally or purposely added to foods, in which case they must be named on food labels, or indirect if they are incidentally added to food in very small amounts during some phase of production, processing, storage, packaging or transportation.

According to FDA, food additives are substance added to foods for specific physical or technical effects. They may not used to disguise poor quality but may aid in preservation and processing, or improve the quality factors of appearance, flavor, nutritional value and texture.

Although consumer may be skeptical of, or perhaps in opposition to, an uncommon or unfamiliar chemical name of a food additive, in fact, all additives, including GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) substance, such as salt, are chemicals. Food additive undergo rigorous toxicological analysis before their approval and use in foods.
Definition of Food Additive

Alkaline Compounds as Food Additive

2008-09-16T22:07:00.000-07:00

Alkaline Compounds as Food Additive
Alkaline compounds are compounds that raise the pH. Alkaline compounds, such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, may be used to neutralize excess acid that can develop in natural or cultured fermented foods. Thus, the acid in cream may partially neutralized prior to churning in the manufacture of butter. If this were not done, the excess acid would result on the development of undesirable flavors.

Sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate are used to refine rendered fats. Alkaline compounds are also added to chlorinated drinking water to adjust the pH to high enough levels to control the corrosive effects of chlorine on pipes, equipment, and so forth. Sodium carbonate is also used in conjunction with other compounds to reduce the amount of hardness in drinking water.

Sodium hydroxide is used to modify starch and in the production of caramel. Sodium bicarbonate is used as an ingredient of baking powder, which is used for baked products. It is also a common household item used in a variety of cooking recipe. Alkaline compounds are used in the production of chocolate and in the adjusting of acidity levels in grape juice and other fruit juices that are to be fermented in the production of wine.

Some alkaline compounds, such as sodium bicarbonate are relatively mild and safe to use, while others, such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, are relatively powerful reagents and should, not be handled by inexperienced people.
Alkaline Compounds as Food Additive

Flavor Enhancers

2008-09-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

Flavor Enhancers
Flavorings either a particular flavor to foods or modify flavors already present. Flavor enhancers intensify flavors already present, especially when the desirable flavors are relatively weak. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is one of the best known and most widely used flavor enhancers. This compound occurs naturally in many foods and in certain seaweed that was used for centuries as a flavor enhancer for soups and other foods.

It is only within the last hundred years that the reason for the effectiveness of the seaweed was discovered to be MSG. The way in which MSG enhances flavor is not yet fully understood. While it is effective at relatively low levels (part per thousands), there are other compounds called flavor potentiators that also enhance flavors but are extremely powerful, effective in parts per million and even per billion. These compounds have been identified as nucleotides, and their effect is attributed to their synergies properties (properties that intensify that effect of natural flavor components).
Flavor Enhancers

Flavoring as Food Additive

2008-08-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

Flavoring as Food Additive
Flavorings are compound, many of which are natural, although there are also many synthetic ones that are added to foods to produce flavors or to modify existing flavors. In early days of human existence, salt, sugar, vinegar, herbs, spices, smoke, honey and berries were added to foods to improve their taste or to produce a special, desirable taste.

The range of natural and synthetic flavoring available to the modern food technology is very large. Essential oils form a major source of flavorings. Essential oils are odorous component of plants and plant material that are characteristic odors of the material from which they are extracted, because of the large production of orange juice, quantities of essential oil or orange are produced as by products. For this reason there is little need for the production of synthetic orange flavoring.

Fruits extract have been used as flavorings, but these are relatively weak when compared to essential oils and oleoresins. An oleoresin is a solvent extract of spices from which the solvent, usually a hydrocarbon, has been removed by distillation. Because of their weak effects, fruit extracts may be intensified by combining them with other flavorings.
Flavoring as Food Additive

Vitamins as Food Additive

2008-08-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

Vitamins as Food Additive
Oxidation, a series of chemical reactions yielding undesirable and products (off odors, colors, and flavors), may occur in many fruits and vegetables and foods high in fat and oil during exposure to air, light, heat, heavy metals, certain pigments or alkaline conditions. Enzymatic browning may occur in some fruits and vegetables, particularly apples, banana, peaches, pear, and potatoes, which contain phenolase enzymes. When these fruits and vegetables are cut or sliced and exposed to air, the phenolases catalyze oxidation of phenolics compounds to ortho-quinone compounds, which then polymerize, forming brown pigments.

Oxidation in lipids (autoxidation) and in fat and oil containing foods, on the other hand, occurs as a result of the susceptibility of fatty acids (building blocks of fats and oils) to oxidations and subsequent formation of reactive compounds referred to as “free radicals”.

The free radicals promote the development of a series of chemical reactions which lead to the production of off-flavors, colors, odors, and rancidity. While both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids are susceptible to oxidation, unsaturated fatty acids are significantly more susceptible than their saturated counterparts at room temperatures and at elevated temperatures.

Antioxidants, as defined by Food and Drug Administration are “substances used to preserve food by retarding deterioration, rancidity or discoloration due to oxidation.” Some oxidations have more than one function. For example, Ascorbic acids may function as a free-radical chain terminator, and oxygen scavenger, or a metal chelator. Under certain conditions, it may act as a promoter for oxidation.
Vitamins as Food Additive

Nutrients Additive

2008-08-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

Nutrients Additive
The need for a balanced and ample nutrient intake by the human body is well known. Although nutrients are available in foods, losses of fractional amounts of some of them through processing, and increasing frequencies of improper dieting, have led to the practice of adding minimum daily requirements nutrients to popular foods, such as breakfast cereals, baked goods, pasta products, and low calorie breakfast drinks. Nutrients additives include mainly vitamins, proteins, and minerals.

Vitamin D is an exceptional example of the value of the food additive concept. The major source of vitamin D for human lies in the existence of a precursor compound lying just under the skin that converts to the vitamin form when we are exposed to the radiant energy of the sun. However, in many cases, exposure to the sun is sporadic and insufficient, especially in areas where there is normally insufficient sunshine or in cases where outdoor activities are of sufficient duration. Thus, vitamin D is added to nearly all commercial milk in a ration of 400 U.S.P units per qt (0.95).

The additive of protein concentrate to components of diet of inhabitants of underdeveloped countries has been used successfully to remedy the high incidence of protein malnutrition. It should be noted that soybean is incomplete and requires the addition of some amino acids in which it is deficient. Children, especially, succumb in large numbers to the disease, kwashiorkor that results from insufficient protein intake.

Among minerals, iron has received major attention as a food additive, mainly because of its role in preventing certain anemias.
Nutrients Additive

The Effectiveness of Antioxidants

2008-07-21T03:16:00.000-07:00

The Effectiveness of Antioxidants
Some antioxidants lose their effectiveness when they combine with oxygen; therefore, there is no advantages to using this type of antioxidant unless the food is enclosed in a system from oxygen or air can be excluded. In the use of antioxidants, it should be kept in mind that other precautions are necessary to minimize oxidation since heat, light, and metals are prooxidants, that is, their presence favors oxidative reactions.

Many of the antioxidants used in commerce occur naturally in foods (e.g., vitamin C, citric acid, amines, and certain phenolics compounds). However, the amines and the phenolics compounds can be toxic to human in low concentrations; therefore, they and the synthetic antioxidants require strict regulations of their use in foods. It should be pointed that the potency of the naturally occurring antioxidants is not as great as that of the commonly used synthetic antioxidants. The antioxidants that are considered to be the most effective and therefore are most widely used are butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and propylgallate. These are usually used in formulations that contain combinations of two or all three of them, and often in combination with even fourth component, very often citric acid. The main purpose in adding citric acid is for its action as a chelator.

Fats and shortening, especially those used in bakery goods and fried foods, are subject to oxidation and the development of rancidity after cooking. To prevent this, chemical antioxidants in concentrations up to 0.02% of the fat components may be added.
The Effectiveness of Antioxidants

Antioxidants as food additive

2008-07-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

Antioxidants as food additive
Antioxidants are food additives used, since about 1947, to stabilize foods that by their composition would otherwise undergo significant loss in quality in the presence of oxygen. Oxidative quality changes in foods include the development of rancidity from oxidation of unsaturated fats resulting in off-odors and off-flavors and discoloration from oxidation of pigments or other components of the food.

Although it would seem relatively simple to prevent oxidation of foods by proper packaging and precaution during handling, the facts are that oxygen is difficult to exclude from food systems, especially since it is often closely associated with the food and that only minute amounts of oxygen are sufficient to degrade the food.

There are a large number of antioxidants, and although they may function in different ways, the net effect of each is to prevent, delay, or minimize the oxidation of foods to which they are added. One other ways by which some antioxidants function involves their combination with oxygen. Others prevent oxygen from reacting with components of the food. When only a limited amount of oxygen is present, as in a hermetically sealed container, it is possible for some antioxidants to use up all of the available free oxygen, because they have a relatively great affinity for it.

Antioxidants as food additive

Salt, acids and nitrites

2008-06-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Salt, acids and nitrites
Salt is an excellent microbial inhibitor, mainly due to its suppression of the water activity of the material to which it is added. Its effectiveness is enhanced when the food is also dried or smoked or both. Smoking also imparts a partial preservative effect.

Weak acids, such as sorbic acid, or salt of weak acids, benzoates, propionates, nitrites, certain chelating agents (chemicals that tie up metals and prevent the catalytic action of metals), and other chemical additives are effective preservatives.

Natural spices also have antimicrobial properties. Antibiotics, relatively new antimicrobial agents, have been used as food additives and are still used to preserve animal feeds and human foods in some countries. Their use in human foods is banned in the United States and in some other countries.

Since many antimicrobial agents are generally toxic to humans, their use must be regulated no to exceed established levels beyond which they are hazardous to human health.

Nitrites, proven inhibitors of Clostridium botulinum, and nitrates are added to cured meats, not only to prevent botulism, but also to conserve the desirable color as well as add to the flavor of the products.
Salt, acids and nitrites

Antispoilage agent in food

2008-05-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Antispoilage agent in food
Although foods can be sterilized (as by heat processing)and contained in such a way as to prevent contamination by microbes during storage, it still is often necessary in some cases to forego sterilization, thus making it necessary to take other steps to prevent microbial degradation of the food. Foods can be protected against microbial attack for long periods (months to years) by holding them at temperatures blow freezing. They can be preserved for shorter periods by several days by holding them in ice or in a refrigerator at temperatures in the range 32 – 46 F (0 – 7.8 C). Foods can also be preserved by altering them to make them incapable of supporting microbial growth. Drying is an example f this type of preservation. Food must be preserved against color and texture changes.

Quite often it is either impossible or undesirable to employ conventional preservation methods, and a large variety of food additives is available for use, alone or in combination with other additives or with mild forms of concentrations 0f 0.1% or less. Sodium diacetate and sodium or calcium propionate are used in breads to prevent mold growth and the development of bacteria that may produce a slimy material known as rope. Sorbic acid and its salts may be used in bakery products, cheeses, syrups, and pie fillings to prevent mold growth. Sulfur dioxide is used to prevent browning in certain dried fruits and to prevent wild yeast growth in wines used to make vinegar. Benzoic acid and sodium benzoate may be used to inhibit mold and bacterial growth in some fruit juices, oleomargarines, pickles, and condiments. It also be noted that benzoic acid is a natural component of cranberries.
Antispoilage agent in food

Food Radiation

2008-04-03T03:18:00.000-07:00

Food Radiation
The use of radiation for preserving foods has been declared an additive, and whether or not it should be approved by the FDA makes it the prime example of extreme opposition and extreme favor. Quite often, the tendency to take strong position for the use of an additive might make a proponent overlook or rationalize undesirable investigative facts concerning the additive. On the other hand, opponents tend to make irrational demands of investigators to prove safety of an additive: for example, opponents to the use of radiation for preserving foods have suggested that radiation should not approved for preserving foods until all possible chemical effects of the process have been identified. This without going into detail is an impossible task. It would be just as impossible to identify all the chemical effects of frying foods and of baking food.

Given present capabilities, our most reasonable evaluation of an additive for safety can be made through conventional animal feeding studies. The overall physiological effects that an additive may have on animals of two of three different species over a specific number of generations is the most comprehensive, as well as the most reliable, way to evaluate the safety of a food additive.
Food Radiation

Philosophy of Food Additive II

2008-01-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

A large number of chemical additives are familiar, and there is a need for regulatory agencies to question their use from stand point of safety. Obviously then, we should not fear the use of chemicals, but we do need to screen them for safety when their effects on human health are not known. Some lessons have been learned along these lines. For example, indiscreet use of certain additives used for coloring candy and popcorn was reported to have caused diarrhea in children resulting I n the removal of these dyes from the FDA approved list of additives. There are a number if related ideas that must be remembered when dealing with food additives:

*All food are composed of chemical compound s, many of which can be extracted and added to other foods, in which case they are classified as additives.

*Any particular or chemical compound can be injuries to health when particularly high levels of that compound are added to foods.

*Any additives or chemical compound can be safe to use when particularly low levels of that compound are added to foods.

*It is necessary to evaluate each additive for its usefulness and toxicity in a sensible, scientific way, regardless of how safe its proponents say it is and how toxic its opponents say it is.

The Philosophy of food additive

2007-11-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

Foods are made entirely if substances that, in pure form, can be describe as chemicals or chemical compounds. It is important to note that our knowledge of the composition of foods, because of their complexity, is by no means complete.

For instance, it is reported that one of the most important of humans’ natural foods, human milk, contains several hundreds chemical compounds. Unfortunately, the interpretation of the word chemical is too often inaccurate.

Thus, some consumers are apprehensive about purchasing food that is preserve by treating it with a chemical which they are unfamiliar. However, a number of foods may be preserved with a table salt, which is a chemical.

Consumers are not apprehensive about using as a preservative, because they are familiar with it, at least for adding taste and sometimes for bringing out the flavor in foods, yet table salt is definitely a chemical, having the name, sodium chloride, and the formula, NACL. Refined sugar, vinegar, spices, and other substances that are routinely added to foods are also chemicals, or mixtures of chemicals, and we do not question the use of these, either.

The characteristics of chemicals that we use with confidence are:
1. Familiarity
2. Frequent use
The characteristics of chemicals that are rouse skepticism in consumers are that they are uncommon and unfamiliar.

Food Additive

2007-11-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

The term does not include chance contaminants. An additive may be reactive or inactive; it may be nutritive or nonnutritive; it should be neither toxic nor hazardous.

Some substances, such as pesticides and packaging components, are added to foods unintentionally, and these are, of course, undesirable, and may be hazardous to health.

Because of their toxicity, their presence is closely regulated by strict government tolerance.