Food Additives Chapter 24

Any substance a food producer intentionally adds to a food for a specific purpose. Producers use around 3,000 additives to preserve and improve foods. What is a Food Additive?

Natural: occur naturally in food or specific parts of plants. Ex Natural: occur naturally in food or specific parts of plants. Ex. Salt and sugars Synthetic: additives made in a laboratory. Their chemical “ingredients” are the same as any that occur in nature, but the chemicals are joined or modified in the food science lab. Natural & Synthetic

Food & Drug Administration (FDA) – responsible for making sure food is safe to eat, nutritious, and honestly represented. Delaney Clause –. states that no substance shown to cause cancer in humans or animals may be added to food GRAS list (about 670 items) – “generally recognized as safe” – contains substances such as spices, natural seasonings, and flavorings that are considered safe for human consumption and not regulated as additives. GRAS list Regulating Additives

FDA uses food labeling to hold manufacturers accountable for additives used. There are strict rules on how additives are identified on labels “flavored” means natural flavorings; “artificially flavored” contains some, and possibly only synthetic flavorings. Food labeling

How additives are used To improve storage properties Increase healthfulness Make food more appealing Improve processing and preparation How additives are used

Improving storage properties Food suppliers need to get food items to consumers before mold and contamination ruin the product. Common chemical preservatives include sodium nitrite, sorbic acid, sodium bisulfite, and sodium nitrate Some natural substances that can be used as preservatives are salt, acetic acid (vinegar), sugar and spices (none are considered additives). Improving storage properties

Increasing Healthfulness Fortification: adding nutrients that are not normally found in a food. Restoration: nutrients lost in processing are returned to the food. Enrichment: similar to restoration, but add more nutrients than the food had before processing Nutrification: process that adds nutrients to a food with a low nutrient/kcalorie ratio so the food can replace a nutritionally balanced meal. Increasing Healthfulness

Making food more appealing Color – some color is made from food, but most are made artificially (identified by number) affect of food dyes on children danger of food dyes Flavor – most added flavors are artificial Flavor enhancers – impart no flavor of their own, but enhance the flavor already in food Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is an enhancer that react allergically in some people Making food more appealing

Nutritive sweeteners: metabolize to produce calories, i. e Nutritive sweeteners: metabolize to produce calories, i.e. sucrose, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses and honey Sorbitol – glucose based, sugar alcohol has as many calories as sucrose, but tastes only half as sweet. Used by dieters; doesn’t metabolize as well as sucrose (used in sugarless gum) Sweeteners

Sweeteners Nonnutritive sweeteners – artificial sweeteners Sucralose – made from sugar, but is 600 times sweeter – no calories – suitable for baking Saccharin – made from petroleum products – 300 times as sweet as sucrose – no calories - may leave bitter taste Aspartame – 200 times sweeter than sugar – no calories – can’t be used in baked goods – loses sweetness in beverages (use-by-date) affects of aspertame more dangers of aspartame Acesulfame potassium (acesulfame K) – highly stable, crystalline, calorie-free sweetener – 200 times sweeter than sugar; used in baked goods. Sweeteners

Improving Processing and Preparation Stabilizer – substance that keeps a compound, mixture, or solution from changing its form or chemical nature. Thickeners are stabilizers that contribute smoothness or body to a food. Both are usually natural additives Starch based – pectin, casein, sodium caseinate, gelatin Gum based – extracted from bushes, trees and seaweed Buffers – used to achieve desired pH in preparing and preserving foods (citric acid, sodium citrate, lactic acid) Improving Processing and Preparation

Concerns about Food Additives Not enough is known about long-term effects of using additives Nitrites (and nitrates)– used for centuries in cured meats; but under intense heat, react with meat to form nitrosamines which are suspected of causing cancer. However, nitrites prevent botulism (which kills) Saccharin – “could” produce cancer in lab animals Some have allergies to such preservatives as sulfites, MSG, and BHT Concerns about Food Additives

Some fruits and vegetables are treated with a light coat of oil-based waxes – FDA approved – seals in moisture Unnatural standards encourage people from eating what’s really good for them. Artificial flavors may be preferred over the real thing Unneeded Additives

Value of Food Additives Safety – consumers and producers rely on additives to help ensure a safe food supply Calcium propionate – mold inhibitor BHT – keeps fats from going rancid EDTA (ethylenediamine tretraacetic acid) helps prevent rancidity Value of Food Additives

Value of Food Additives Improved Nutrition – additives prevent diseases caused by malnutrition Goiter – an enlargement of the thyroid gland caused by a lack of iodine – iodine added to table salt in 1924 to eliminate goiter Adding Vitamin D to milk to combat rickets Fortifying flour and cornmeal with iron and niacin reduces pellagra Value of Food Additives

Value of Food Additives Additives allow people to enjoy a more varied diet More food is available to the people who need it Used responsibly, chemical additives are no more dangerous than the food itself additives allowed in organic foods What is Xanthan Gum? Agar Agar Use for Agar-AgarTapioca Maltodextrin Value of Food Additives