Propellants

Propellants is a food additive that helps propel food from a container. Propellants is a ‘miscellaneous additive’ that is used or intended to be used primarily; but does not include use as a processing aid or any enzyme.

For example, nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is a permitted packaging gas, but is not used for general food-packaging applications. It is used as a propellant in aerosol creams.

A propellant gas is necessary to force the release liquid through the nozzle of the dispenser.

Butane and iso-butane can be used as propellants in vegetable oil pan sprays and water-based emulsion sprays. Propane can be used as a propellant in vegetable oil pan sprays and water-based emulsion sprays.

To produce a spray, the propellant must have sufficient dispersive energy to overcome the surface tension of the liquid mixture, plus the cohesive and adhesive forces.

The liquefied gases used as propellants are very effective in dispersing the active ingredients in to a fine mist or foam; depending on the form it is required. These are relatively inert and non-toxic and have the advantage that the pressure within the can remains constant.
Propellants

Food additive: Oxygen scavenger

Oxygen is necessary for life, but is also a major factor in food product degradation. Many reactions those lead food deterioration are caused by the presence of oxygen in the package headspace. This leads to a deterioration of quality characteristics like color, freshness and organoleptic properties.

Oxygen resence in food packages is mainly due to failures in the packaging process, such as mixture of gases containing oxygen residues, or inefficient vacuum.

Specifically, oxygen in foods triggers lipid oxidation, aerobic microorganism growth, enzymatic browning, and a loss of nutritional value, resulting in severe reductions in the shelf-life of oxygen-sensitive foods such as nuts, roasted coffee beans, bakery goods, oil, and meat products

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is often used as an alternative to reduce the O2 inside food packaging. The presence of oxygen scavengers inside polymeric matrixes can enhance gas-barrier properties of the package and simultaneously remove residual oxygen.

Oxygen scavengers are materials that remove oxygen from the packaging through a chemical reaction. Oxygen scavengers extend shelf life of products by eliminating oxygen without being a part of the food itself, i.e., they are not food additives and they work from the outside.

An appropriate oxygen scavenger is chosen depending on the O2-level in the headspace, how much oxygen is trapped in the food initially and the amount of oxygen that will be transported from the surrounding air into the package during storage.

The most effective and generally used oxygen scavengers are oxygen-scavenging sachets containing iron powder.

However, non-metallic oxygen scavengers have also been developed to alleviate the potential for metallic taints being imparted to food products and the detection of metal by in-line detectors.

There are 2 types of commercially available oxygen scavengers. The self-reactive type is a scavenger which is equipped with moisture or other necessary triggering systems, and the other type is a scavenger that needs to be triggered by moisture prior to the oxygen scavenging reaction.
Food additive: Oxygen scavenger

Nutritional value of food can be improved and maintained by additives

The use of additives can enhance the nutritive value of food. Food additives are utilized for the purpose of restoring nutrients lost or degraded during production, fortifying or enriching certain foods in order to correct dietary deficiencies, or adding nutrients to food substitutes.

Additive such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and amino acids derivatives are utilized to increase the nutritive value of food. Vitamins and minerals are added to many common foods such as milk, flour, cereal and margarine to make up for those likely to be lacking in a person’s diet or lost in processing. When foods are processed, there may be loss of some nutrients and additives may be added to restore the original value.

A particular diet may also require the use of thickening agents, emulsifiers, sweeteners, etc. The fortification of foods began in 1924 when iodine was added to table salt for the prevention of goitre. Vitamins are commonly added to many foods in order to enrich their nutritional value. They help to increase the shelf life of the food by maintaining product consistency, wholesomeness and freshness.
Nutritional value of food can be improved and maintained by additives

Sulfite in wine

The practice of adding sulfite to wine to preserve it from the decay of oxidation as the wine ages has been practice for at least 3000, years. The term 'sulfites' is an inclusive term for sulfur dioxide (SO2).

Sulfur dioxide is a preservative and it is widely used in because of its antioxidant and antibacterial properties. Sulfur dioxide plays a very important role in preventing oxidization and maintaining a wine's freshness.

Sulfite is added to the wine industry using o

ne of 3 simple methods:
*Sulfite powder (dissolved in water)
*Campden tablets (crushed and dissolved in water)
*3-10% dilute sulfite solution

In general, wines contain on average of about 80 ppm of sulfites. At levels approaching the maximum, the sulfur in the wine becomes noticeable and unpalatable.

The levels of sulfite in a wine decline gradually over the aging of the wine due to its oxygen scavenging. The rate of decline depends on the acidity and the type of wine and the amount in the wine before bottling.

In the United States, the maximum permissible concentration of sulfites is 350 ppm, and any wine domestic or imported with more than 10 ppm – must display the sulfites warning.
Sulfite in wine

Sodium lauryl sulfate as food additive

Functional use of sodium lauryl sulfate in foods including surface tension control agent, thickener, wetting agent, whipping agent, hog/poultry scald agent, and emulsifier.

Sodium lauryl sulfate found in many personal acre products such as soaps, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. It is inexpensive and very effective foamer. These aids are capable of giving the product whipping properties that are comparable to or even better than, then natural untreated product.

Sodium lauryl sulfate is a mixture of sodium alkyl sulfates, primarily sodium lauryl sulfate, containing not more than a total of 8% of sedum sulfate and sodium chloride. Formaldehyde may be included as a preservative in concentration of up to 0.1%.

It occurs as small, white or light yellow crystals having a slight, characteristics odor.
Sodium lauryl sulfate as food additive

Sodium chloride as food additive

Common salt or sodium chloride, is not only the most frequently used salt, but is also the most common food additive in food processing. When sufficient salt is added to food, it makes water unavailable to microorganisms.

Sodium chloride decreases the water activity of foods, thus helping to control the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Sodium chloride this used as a preservative in meats and is necessary to make fermented products.

Since microorganisms require water to survive, they cannot exist when their water requirement is diminished by the addition of salt. Amount of water can be reduced availability to microorganisms by lowering the water activity (aw).

Water activity is an excellent stability factor for microbial growth, because the creation of osmotic pressure difference between the hydrated microbial cell and the surrounding food leads to cessation of microbial growth.

Microorganisms require high levels aw.  Most bacteria require a minimum aw level of 0.96, although halophilic bacteria can grow at a aw of 0.75.

Most yeasts grow at aw levels of 0.90 and above, although a few can grow at a aw level of 0.81.  Mold grow at lower aw levels with some able to grow at a aw level of 0.62.  While salt preserves foods mainly by lowering the aw, the chloride ion is believed to inhibit bacterial growth independently.
Sodium chloride as food additive

Chlorophyll as food additive

Chlorophyll is the well known green pigment of plants. Higher plants and green algae contain chlorophyll A and chlorophyll B in the approx ration of 3:1. Chlorophyll C is found together with chlorophyll A in many types of marine algae.

Because of the light and acid sensitivity of there magnesium-chelated porphyrin structures, chlorophylls are the least useful food colours, The green colour is easily destroyed under even the mildest processing conditions.

Natural chlorophylls for the food colorant market have been extracted from an assortment of green leaves, but usually land plants such as several pasture grasses lucerne, and nettles. The choice of raw material must take into account high-yield producton, availability and convenience of harvesting and dying, chlorophyll comet facility of extraction, and desirability of low chlorophyllase activity. 

Chlorophyll extracts are not permitted for food use in the United States. However they may be added to foods in the form of green vegetables. In such cases, they are classified as food ingredients.
Chlorophyll as food additive

Food uses of ascorbic acid

Ascorbic acid is a widely used food additive with many functional roles, many of which are based upon its oxidation –reduction properties.

It is the naturally occurring L-ascorbic acid. It is freely soluble in water and sparingly soluble in ethanol.

Its functional roles include its uses as a nutritional food additive, antioxidant, browning inhibitor, reducing agent, flavor stabilizer, modifier and enhancer, color stabilizer, dough modifier and many other capacities.

Ascorbic acid is used as an antimicrobial and antioxidant in foods. It is preferentially oxidized in place of other substrates and complements very well as a synergist to other antioxidants, such as BHA and BHT in polyphase food systems.

Ascorbic and its sodium and calcium salts are used as nutritive additives. Whenever there is a need to preserve the vitamin content in fortified foods, the D isomer of ascorbic acid, isoascorbate or eyrthrobate, is incorporated with ascorbic acid.

Ascorbic acid is very widely used in bread making, where it is present as a ‘flour improver’. In practice, this means that the addition of ascorbic acid improves the bread texture and the size of the resulting loaf, the dough has greater elasticity, increased gas retention, and improved water absorption.
Food uses of ascorbic acid

Nutritional food additives

Nutrients functions are to improve or maintain the nutritional quality of foods. Many food additives, including vitamins and minerals, serve nutritional functions. Other nutritional additives include amino acids, fatty acids as well as other pure chemical compounds.

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

Most salt contains iodine to prevent goiter a condition resulting for iodine deficiency. It was one of the earliest used of nutritional additives to correct dietary deficiencies. In 1833, the French chemist Boussingault recommended the addition of iodine to table salt to prevent goiter.

Nutritional additives can be used to restore nutrients to levels found in the food before storage, packaging, handling and processing.

Other example of nutritional additives is fluoride may be added to drinking water to supply the mineral fluorine, required for normal tooth development in children.

Margarine, for example, is used as substitute for butter for economic reasons, Vitamin A and D thus need to be added to margarine to raise it nutritional value equal to that of the butter.
Nutritional food additives

Sugar as food additive

There are thousands of food additives approved for use in foods. Sugar, high fructose corn sweeteners, salt, citric acid, pepper, vegetable colors, mustard, yeast and baking soda account for the vast majority - some 98% of total amount of food additive consumed.

Sugar is an important source of metabolite energy in foods and its formation in plants is an essential factor in the life process. Sugar typically made from sugar beet or sugar cane is not harmful unless large amounts are consumed over time.

Refined sugar means the white crystallized sugar obtained by refining of plantation white sugar. It shall b be free from dirt, filth, iron filings, and added coloring matter.

It has many uses as a food additive other than just sweetening. It acts as a tenderizer by absorbing water and inhibiting flour gluten development, as well as slowing down starch gelling.

It mixes air into shortening in the creaming process and caramelizes under heat, to provide cooked and baked foods with pleasing color and aroma.

Within a few years, the food industry began replacing some of the sugar it used with the new product, HFCS.

Though scientists can alter the fructose content of HFCS to vary its sweetness, the most common versions of this food additive in manufacturing taste is about as sweet as refined sugar.
Sugar as food additive 

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.

The importance of additive in food

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.

Additives are substances, or a mixture of substances, other than basic foodstuffs, that are present in food as a result of any aspect of production, processing, storage or packaging.

The importance of food additive includes:
*To maintain product consistency
*To improve or maintain nutritional value
*To maintain palatability and wholesomeness
*To provide leavening or control acidity/alkalinity
*To enhance flavor or impart desired color

Food additives has important role in the production of processed meats and sausages, where it solubilizes muscle protein, which contribute to meta binding, moisture and fat retention and the formation of desirable gel texture upon cooking.

Coloring and dyes, preservatives, emulsifying and stabilizing agents, antioxidants, synthetic, a natural flavoring agents, additives improving specific sensory characteristics, bleaching agents are among the most popular food additives.

Before World War II there were relatively few food additives for functional purpose. The revolution in food technology in the 1940s and 1950s brought proliferation of new additives.

Moreover changes in demographics, particularly the migration of the population from farms to the cities fueled a growing need for additives such as preservatives.
The importance of additive in food

Nutritional Supplements

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

Legal Background History of Food Additives

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

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

Find out about Food Additive

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

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

Enzymes as Food Additive

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

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

Alkaline Compounds as Food Additive

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