Types of food additives
What is a food additive?
The definition of food additives varies among countries around the world. The Joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) Food Regulations Committee defines food additives as non nutritive substances intentionally added to food in small amounts to improve its appearance, flavor, tissue structure, or storage properties.
Characteristics of food additives
According to the definition of food additives, they have the following three characteristics.
Firstly, it is a substance added to food, therefore, it is generally not consumed as food alone;
Secondly, it includes both artificially synthesized substances and natural substances;
The third purpose of adding it to food is to improve food quality, color, aroma, taste, as well as to meet the needs of preservation, freshness, and processing technology.
The role of food additives
Food additives have greatly promoted the development of the food industry and are known as the soul of modern food industry. This is mainly because they bring many benefits to the food industry, and their main functions are roughly as follows:
Prevent deterioration
For example, preservatives can prevent food spoilage caused by microorganisms, extend the shelf life of food, and also prevent food poisoning caused by microbial contamination. For example, antioxidants can prevent or delay the oxidation and spoilage of food, providing stability and shelf life, while also preventing the formation of potentially harmful lipid auto oxidizing substances. In addition, it can also be used to prevent enzymatic and non enzymatic browning of food, especially fruits and vegetables. These have certain significance for the preservation of food.
Improving sensory characteristics of food
Proper use of coloring agents, color protectants, bleaching agents, edible flavors, emulsifiers, thickeners and other food additives can significantly improve the sensory quality of food and meet people’s different needs.
Maintain and improve the nutritional value of food
Properly adding certain natural nutritional fortifiers during food processing can greatly enhance the nutritional value of food, which is of great significance in preventing malnutrition and nutrient deficiency, promoting nutritional balance, and improving people’s health levels.
Convenient supply, increased variety and convenience
There are over 20000 types of food available for consumers to choose from in the market. Although most of these foods are produced through certain packaging and different processing methods, in the production process, some products that have a perfect combination of color, aroma, and taste are mostly added with coloring, aroma enhancement, seasoning, and other food additives to varying degrees. It is precisely these numerous foods, especially the supply of convenience foods, that bring great convenience to people’s lives and work.
Convenient food processing
The use of defoamers, filter aids, stabilizers, and coagulants in food processing can be beneficial for food processing operations. For example, when using gluconic acid delta lactone as a tofu coagulant, it can facilitate the mechanization and automation of tofu production.
Other special needs
Food should meet people’s different needs as much as possible. For example, if diabetics cannot eat sugar, they can use non nutritional sweeteners or low calorie sweeteners, such as sucralose or aspartate phenylalanine methyl ester, to make sugar free food supplies.