Food Additives
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives have been used for centuries as part of an effort to preserve food, for example vinegar, salt, smoke, sugar, etc. This allows for longer-lasting foods such as bacon, sweets or wines.Â
- Acidulents give certain foods an acidic (sour) taste and are often natural, such as with vinegar, citric acid, and more.
- Acidity regulators balance the pH (acid/alkaline levels) of foods and are sometimes used to activate a food’s enzymes.
- Anticaking agents inhibit powders from clumping, caking, or sticking.
- Antifoaming agents are added to foods to prevent them from foaming. Contrast that with foaming agents which help food foam.
- Antioxidants are often used as preservatives, inhibiting oxygen from degrading food quality. Vitamin C (absolutely essential to our wellbeing) is a natural example.
- Bulking agents increase the mass of food without changing its taste. Starch is a popular bulking agent.
- Fortifying agents such as vitamins, minerals, and certain dietary supplements increase the nutritional value of certain foods, such as B vitamins or iron in cereal, and vitamin D in almond milk.
- Food coloring replace colors lost during preparation or are added to increase the appeal of food.
- Color retention agents preserve a food’s natural color.
- Emulsifiers allow water and oils—which normally don’t mix well—to stay together. Emulsifiers are used a lot in mayonnaise, ice cream, milk, salad dressings, and lots more.
- Flavors, which can be natural or artificial, give food a desired taste or smell.
- Flavor enhancers (adjuvants) artificially enhance foods’ taste. Salt, sugar, and MSG are more naturally occurring food enhancers.
- Flour treatment agents improve the color and/or baking ability of flour.
- Glazing agents make foods shiny in appearance and give a protective look that enhances their shelf appeal. Apples are often covered with the glazing agent shellac, which is used in things like nail polish and wood finishing.
- Humectants stop food from drying out and looking or going bad.
- Tracer gas makes it easy to test whether certain foods have been properly packaged to ensure shelf life. Potato chips use tracer gas.
- Preservatives extend the shelf-life of food. Some are natural like salt while others are artificial.
- Stabilizers stabilize emulsions and give certain foods a firmer texture. Pectin is a popular stabilizer in jam.
- Sweeteners are some of the most well-known additives, and have become popular alternatives to sugar.
- Thickening agents increase the viscosity of foods like soups and other water-based recipes.
- Packaging: bisphenols (such as Bisphenols A, or BPA), phthalates, and perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) are indirect additives found in food packaging or manufacturing. Their use has raised lots of red flags in recent years because of their association with cancer.
The following figure illustrates the numerous food additives that are present in regular food.
Clearly there are a lot of food additives in food. In the following tables we will highlight some of these as well as the risk to our health associated with their continued ingestion.
Clearly there is much to be careful about. We end this topic with a relevant YouTube video from EWG. I encourage everyone to subscribe to their YouTube channel and frequent their website as this non-profit provides a wealth of information that is beneficial to all consumers.