Introduction

Food additives are substances that preserve flavor or improve the taste of a product. 

These additives are classified as:

 dye or coloring agents,

antioxidants

 emulsifiers or stabilizers

 flavoring or taste enhancers, or preservatives.

Food additives and preservatives have been used for thousands of years. For instance, it is believed that spices in curry seasonings were initially created to preserve the freshness of foods and conceal the taste of slightly spoiled foods.

Do food additives worry you? If yes, you’re not alone. Many Malaysians believe that additives such as preservatives are harmful to our health and that artificial colours cause behavioural and learning difficulties, such as ADHD. Yet the truth is while some adults and children are sensitive to food additives and will experience mild to severe side effects, most of us won’t.

As a general rule of thumb, the ones most likely to cause problems are those that are not essential. They “dress up” the food to make it more appealing, such as artificial colours, flavour enhancers and some preservatives. And the number of processed foods without these “chemical culprits” is growing significantly.

So, why were they added and what do they mean for your family’s health and wellbeing?

Few Examples of Food Additives #4

Last Saturday, Fazleen Anis, Hanis Suraya and Atikah Azhar went to the canteen to make a few surveys about food additives. And what we found out, most students and their visitors ate something which contains a lot of food additives.... which is not really good for health. These are a few examples of types of food additives that we managed to record about it.

And look at Atikah Azhar, she's very addicted with this food that contains a lot of food additives. Let's take a look at this gif picture.

This actually shows that excessive intake of food additives will not lead us to a healthy lifestyle.

Why use food additives?

Lots of people enjoy making bread, cakes, wine, beer, and ice cream at home. However, most of today's food is bought from shops and supermarkets. Food from supermarkets need to be in a good condition for a long period of time. Therefore, it contains food additives. Additives are used so that these foods still have a consistently high quality. In some products, they are so essential that additives are used even in certain organic foods.

Additives are used in a range of food

In some countries, many food is lost because it 'goes off' due to microbial growth before it can be eaten. Food poisoning also shows the dangers of contaminated food and without the use of preservatives, it would quite likely be more common. Preservatives, colours and flavours are the best known additives but in fact there are many categories of additives, each tailored to a specific purpose.

THE PURPOSE OF USING FOOD ADDITIVES.

PRESERVATIVES

1. Preservatives are substances added to food to slow down or to prevent the growth of microorganisms so that food can be kept for longer period of time.
2. Table below shows some examples of preservatives and how they work.

PRESERVATIVES	EXAMPLES	HOW IT WORKS
Salt sugar	Salted fish jam	Salt or sugar draws the water out of the cells of microorganisms and retards the growth of microorganism.
Vinegar	Pickled mango	Vinegar provides an acidic condotion that inhibits the growth of microorganism.
Sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate Benzoic acid or sodium benzoate Sulphur dioxide	Burger, sausage and luncheon meat Oyster sauce, tomato sauce, chili sauce and fruit sauce	These preservatives slow down the growth of microorganism

ANTIOXIDANTS

1. Food containing fats and oils can turn rancid, taht is, the fats and oils are oxidised to become unpleansent-smelling acids, on exposure to the air.
2. All foodstuff are vulnerable to oxidation. Examples are the browning of apples or potatoes exposed to the air.
3. Antioxidants are added to food to prevent oxidation that causes rancid fats and brown fruits.
4. Table below shows some examples of antioxidants.

ANTIOXIDANT	EXAMPLES	FUNCTION
Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)	Margarine	To retard rancidity in oils.
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)	Fruit juice	To preserve the colour of fruit juices
Alpha tocopherol (vitamin E)	Vegetables oils	To retard rancidity in oils
Sodium citrate	Cooked cured meat	To stop fats from turning rancid

5. The use of BHA and BHT has been controversial as it has produced adverse reaction in dogs. Thus, there is a restriction on the amount of this antioxidants used.
6. Vitamin C and E are among the safest antioxidants known.

1. Vitamin C inhibits the formation of carcinogenic nitrosimines , stimulate the immune system and protect against chromosome breakage.
2. Vitamin E neutralises free radical compounds before they can damage cell membranes and helps to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

FLAVOURINGS

1. Flavourings are used to improve the taste of food and restore taste loss due to processing.
2. Examples of flavouring are sugar, salt, vinegar, monosodium glutamate (MSG), aspartame and synthetic essences such as pentyl ethanoate.

Flavouring	Example	Function
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) It is the sodium salt of glutamic acid	Frozen food,spice mixes, canned and dry soups, salad dressings and meat or fish based-product	To bring out the flavour in many types of food.
Aspartame It is non-sugar sweetener. It is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar. It has fewer calories than sugar. It is stable when dry or frozen but it breaks down and loses it sweetness over time when stored in liquids at temperature above 30 celcius.	Diet drinks, low-calorie frozen desserts and some soft drinks.	To sweeten food
Synthetic essences It contains compaunds belongings to the homologous series of esters. It is cheaper to use these artificial flavours than to use real fruits.	Pentyl ethanoate (banana flavour), ethyl butanoate (pineapple flavour), methyl butanoate (apple flavour) and octyl ethanoate (orange flavour)	To produce artificial flavours which resemble natural flavours.

STABILISERS

1. Many food are actually emulsions. Emulsions are either oil droplets suspended in water or water droplets susupended in oil.
2. Stabilisers are substances which help to prevent an emulsion from separating out.
3. Stabilisers are used in food which contain oil and water. Examples of these foods are margarine,butter, ice cream and salad cream such as mayonnaise.
4. Examples of stabilisers are lecithin, mono and di-glycerides of fatty acids.

THICKENERS

1. Thickeners are used to thicken food.
2. Acacia gum can act as a thickener as well as a stabilisers.
3. Table below shows some examples of thickeners.

THICKENER	EXAMPLE
Modified starch	Instant soups and puddings.
Pectin	Jam
Acacia gum	Chewing gum, jelly and wine
Gelatine	Yogurt
Xanthan gum	Sauce, salad dressing

DYES

1. Food colourings are dyes.
2. Food processing often leads to a loss of colour.
3. Food dyes are used to add or restore the colour in food in order to enhance its visual appeal and to maych consumers’s expectations.
4. Food dyes can be classified into natural and artificial food dyes.
5. Artificial food dyes are usually used because they are more uniform, less expensive and have brighter colour than natural food dyes.
6. Many food dyes are azo compounds or triphenyl compounds.
7. Azo dye have colours such as red, orange and yellow, whereas triphenyl dyes have colours such as blue and green.
8. Tartrazine, a yellow azo dye, is used in orange drinks,custard powder,sweets and apricot jam. Tartrazine is believed to cause hyperactivity in children.
9. Brilliant blue FCF, a blue triphenyl dye, is found in beverages, jellies, confections and syrups. It can be combined with tartrazine to produce various shades of green.

RATIONALE FOR THE USE OF FOOD ADDITIVES

Make sure that certain food remains edible throughout the year.


A considerable number of food is harvested seasonally. Preservatives are added to make sure that they do not spoilt and remains edible after a long time.

Additives such as vitamin B, C and D and minerals such as iron is added to improve the nutritional value of foods which may destroyed during food processing.

Used as artificial sweeteners for diabetic patients.

Potassium iodide in table salt is used to reduce the incidence of goitre.

Vitamin C in fruit juices prevents scurvy, vitamin D in milk and vitamin A in margerine prevent rickets.

Experiment #2 on food additives

Researchers found that almost all the teenagers all over the world tend to craze and fall in love with fast food. As in Malaysia, Mc Donalds become the favourite fast food among the youngsters. But dear friends, did you know that fast food which you were crazed at contains a lot of food additives which are very dangerous to our health and also our growth.
Did you know that, to improve the appearance and shelf life of foods, many fast food menu items contain stabilizers. These ingredients keep foods from separating. Common stabilizers include xanthan gum and soy lecithin. For manufacturers, soy lecithin offers an affordable way to maintain food quality. However, this ingredient may pose health risks for those who have soy allergies. If you have food sensitivities, research fast food restaurants' nutritional information to identify unsafe ingredients.
Besides that, a common additive in processed meats is sodium nitrite. This ingredient has both beneficial and harmful characteristics. On the one hand, it prolongs the shelf life of foods, keeping them safe for you to eat. On the down side, eating processed foods with sodium nitrite increases your intake of sodium and increases your risk for high blood pressure. A study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, published in the May 2010 issue of “Circulation,” found that consumption of processed red meats increases your risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.
Another common ingredient in fast food items is saturated fat. Whether it is from the french fries or the burger, a diet high in saturated fat increases your risk of developing atherosclerosis, a major risk factor for heart disease. Saturated fat content shows the dilemma that fast food restaurants face. Ground beef with higher amounts of fat is less expensive than lean choices. To keep costs down, some restaurants may buy higher fat varieties.
 Let us change our lifestyle by avoid from eating fast food as the ingredients of it are now revealed. Make a good choice for the sake of your life. So now, do you think you still want to eat Mc Donalds? Think twice and makes your decision wisely dear readers :)

Learn about FD(Food Additives)!!

From my previous post, I wrote a lot about Food Additives. So, lets learn about Food Additives !!

According to Wikipedia, 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. With the advent of processed foods in the second half of the 20th century, many more additives have been introduced, of both natural and artificial origin.

Categories
Below is the animation of categories of food additives:-