Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or
enhance its taste and appearance. Some additives have been used for
centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling with vinegar,
salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as in
some wines.
Sometimes additives are divided into two categories:
1. Intentional or direct
2. Incidental or indirect
Intentional or direct food additives are commonly those that have
been deliberately added for some special function by the food processor
(usually the company), while indirect additives are usually those that
may have drifted into food products in minute quantities due to e.g.
growing, processing, or packaging phase during the food production
process.
Intentional additives have been purposely added to foods to achieve
specific effects during production or processing or to impart or retain
desired characteristics.
Today, more than 2500 different additives are intentionally added to
foods to produce a desired effect. The use of these additives is a
well-accepted practice but is not without controversy.
A food additive may only be authorized if:
• Its safety has been evaluated on the basis of the available scientific evidence
• On the basis of this evaluation, it is considered to present no
hazard to the health of the consumer at the level of use proposed
• There is a technological need for its use that cannot be achieved by
other economically and technologically practicable means
Intentional food additive
What are food additives? Food additives can be defined as chemical substances deliberately added in foods, directly or indirectly, in known and regulated quantities, for purposes of assisting in the processing of foods, preservation of foods, or in improving the flavor, texture, or appearance of foods.
The most popular articles
-
Buffering agent can be defined as a chemical, such as lactic, citric, or acetic acid or the sodium salts of various acids, added to processe...
-
Chelating agents have acquired greater importance in food processing. Their ability to bind metal ions has contributed significantly to stab...
-
Propellants is a food additive that helps propel food from a container. Propellants is a ‘miscellaneous additive’ that is used or intended t...
-
Texturing agent Texturing agents are used to add or modify the overall texture or mouthfeel of food products. Emulsifiers and stabilizers ar...
-
Food binders are food additives that are added to the food products in order to improves the texture by binding or thickening or the ingredi...
-
Apart from the food components that trigger the taste, odor and trigeminal impressions, there are some components that are capable of supple...
-
Alkaline Compounds as Food Additive Alkaline compounds are compounds that raise the pH. Alkaline compounds, such as sodium hydroxide or pota...
-
At the turn of the century, changes in population from agriculture to industrial had resulted in a need to establish distribution systems to...