Food Additives: Types and Concerns

Processed and mass-produced foods frequently incorporate food additives, which are substances added primarily for technical purposes. These additives serve various functions, such as improving safety, extending shelf life, or altering the sensory characteristics of food. Throughout history, substances like salt, spices, and sulfites have been employed to safeguard and enhance the flavor of foods.

It's noteworthy that many additives utilized by the food industry occur naturally in everyday foods. For example, MSG is found in higher quantities naturally in parmesan cheese, sardines, and tomatoes than when added as a food supplement.

Food additives can be broadly divided into three groups based on their functions: flavoring agents, enzyme preparations, and other additives that fulfill roles such as preservation, coloring, and sweetening.

Some of the most common food additives include monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial food coloring, sodium nitrite, guar gum, and high-fructose corn syrup. These additives play a pivotal role in the development of modern products like low-calorie options, snacks, and ready-to-eat convenience foods.

Nevertheless, specific individuals may encounter issues with particular additives. Examples include flavor enhancers like monosodium glutamate (MSG) 621, food colorings such as tartrazine 102, yellow 2G107, sunset yellow FCF110, and cochineal 120. Additionally, preservatives like benzoates (210, 211, 212, 213), nitrates (249, 250, 251, 252), and sulphites (220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 228), as well as the artificial sweetener aspartame (951), may cause problems for certain individuals.

In conclusion, while food additives play a crucial role in the production and preservation of a diverse range of food products, it's essential to be mindful of potential sensitivities or reactions that some individuals may experience with specific additives.
Food Additives: Types and Concerns

Understanding the Role of Texturizers in Food Products

Texturizers are food ingredients used to modify and enhance the texture and mouthfeel of various food products. These additives play a crucial role in the food industry by improving the sensory experience of foods and beverages, making them more appealing and enjoyable to consumers.

Definition and Purpose: Texturizers are approved direct additives incorporated into foods to provide structure, viscosity, stability, and other qualities, such as maintaining color and extending shelf life. Extracted primarily from natural substances such as plants, seaweed, or animal products, texturizers enhance the overall eating experience by improving the consistency and feel of food in the mouth. For instance, they can turn a watery soup into a creamy delight or help keep ice cream smooth and free of ice crystals.

Types and Functions: Texturizers come in various types, each serving specific functions in food production:

• Thickeners: These ingredients create stiffness, add body, and stabilize emulsions in food products. Thickeners range from flavorless powders like cornstarch to complex gums like xanthan gum and guar gum. For example, cornstarch is widely used to thicken soups, sauces, and gravies, giving them a rich, smooth consistency. Guar gum, on the other hand, is often used in gluten-free baking to replicate the texture that gluten provides.

• Stabilizers: Stabilizers increase the stability and thickness of food, helping ingredients to remain uniformly dispersed in an emulsion. Lecithin, a common stabilizer found in many processed foods, prevents the separation of oil and water in products like salad dressings. Agar-agar, derived from seaweed, is another popular stabilizer used in vegan-friendly products, offering a gelatin-like texture.

• Gelling Agents: Gelling agents form gels, providing structure to jellies, jams, desserts, and yogurts. Pectin, a natural carbohydrate found in fruits, is a well-known gelling agent used in the production of jams and jellies. Gelatin, derived from animal collagen, is another gelling agent that gives a firm texture to products like marshmallows and gummy candies.

Labeling and Usage: Food labels clearly indicate the function of the additive, such as “pectin (gelling agent),” ensuring transparency for consumers. Thickeners, stabilizers, and gelling agents are largely derived from polysaccharides (complex carbohydrates) or proteins, emphasizing their natural origin. These ingredients are carefully regulated to ensure they meet safety standards and are used within acceptable limits.

In summary, texturizers enhance both the physical properties and overall enjoyment of our favorite foods, playing a pivotal role in creating the desired consistency, texture, and stability that define many processed foods and beverages.
Understanding the Role of Texturizers in Food Products

Humectants

Humectants are hygroscopic (attracting moisture from the air) excipients such as propylene glycol or glycerine. The substances are incorporated in food to promote retention of moisture. It prevents food from drying out by counteracting the effect of a wetting agent atmosphere having low degree of humidity.

Humectants are additives that bind water and control water activity (aw). They are believed to reduce water activity of a product due to the presence of hydrophilic group such as hydroxyl groups, which have affinity to form hydrogen bonds with molecules of water, thus decreasing the availability of free water.

Water activity reduction achieved by adding humectants to food enhances stability, maintains texture, and reduces microbial activity.

Salt and sugar are the oldest, most widely used humectants. Other commonly used humectants include sorbitol, glycerol and propylene glycol.

They can be added to the food system to develop more favorable conditions, without adversely affecting flavor and texture.

Propylene glycol is used to maintain moisture within a narrow range in certain food products, such as coconut and marshmallows, in certain medicines and cosmetics as well as in tobacco, and is a solvent for food colors and flavors.

Glycerol is used as a solvent for flavors and food colors. It is also used as a humectant, plasticizer, emollient, sweetener, and filler in low-fat food products such as cookies. Glycerol is a common energy yielding food and is widely distributed in food, both as a natural constituent and as a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) additive.

Sorbitol is widely present in nature, particularly as a constituent of many fruits and berries. Sorbitol syrup is used as an efficient humectant, and as a sequestering and emulsifying agent in confectionery and bakery products, as well as in mayonnaise, creams and sauces.
Humectants

Definition of flavor potentiators

Flavor potentiators have been used for centuries to improve food flavor. It is a substance which when present in a food accentuates the taste of the food without contributing any flavor of its own. By definition, it is a substance which increases the "perceived intensity" of a flavor of another substance.

The effect of flavor potentiators is accompanied by changes in the mouth feel or the product thereby inducing a sensation of fullness or satisfaction.

Naturally occurring flavor potentiators in food: beef, cheese, cod, scallop
Compounds used as flavor potentiators in food: monosodium glutamate, monopotassium glutamate, monoammonium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate can intensify the flavor of foods to which it is added, and also can provide its own taste, including a sensation of fullness in the mouth. MSG is normally effective in terms of a relatively few parts per thousand but far less powerful than the newer potentiators.

Monopotassium glutamate: Potassium salt from glutamic acid (E620), a natural amino acid (building block of protein). Commercially prepared from same source as that for Glutamic acid. Less used and not as salty, low sodium salt substitute.
Definition of flavor potentiators

Antioxidant additives in food

Oxidation is a not a process exclusive to the human body. It occurs in every living organism and biological system, such as food products. Food oxidation may result in altered flavor, color, nutritional value, and texture, as well as create toxic compounds.

Therefore, antioxidant compounds are one of the most important conservation technologies used by the food industry with their main function being the prevention of oxidative induced degradation of foods.

Antioxidant is a molecule stable enough to donate an electron to a rampaging free radical and neutralize it, thus reducing its capacity to damage. These antioxidants delay or inhibit cellular damage mainly through their free radical scavenging property. The applications of antioxidants have been widespread in the food industry for decades; and are in use in preventing lipids from oxidative degradation. Antioxidants protect cells against the effects of harmful free radicals.

Retarding autoxidation delays the appearance of such undesirable qualities as rancidity in foods, loss of elasticity in rubbers, and formation of gums in gasolines. Antioxidants most commonly used are such organic compounds as aromatic amines, phenols, and aminophenols.

Phenolic compounds, besides being associated with antimicrobial activity, are known for their high antioxidant capacity. They are ubiquitous to plants and therefore present one interesting class of antioxidant compounds to be exploited, although other compounds with a strong antioxidant capacity can also be found, such as some vitamins (vitamin C, E, and A), bioactive peptides, polysaccharides, some minerals, and enzymes.
Antioxidant additives in food

Definition of Food Additive

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.

Food Additives in General

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

Definition of Food Additive

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

What is Food Additive?

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?

The Term of Food Additive

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

Legal Considerations of Food Additive

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:

1. Normal ingredients
2. Processing aids
3. Food Additives
4. 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

Definition of Food Additive

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