Video Transcript
Look at the ingredient declaration on just about any product in the grocery store. Chances are you probably recognize the first few ingredients - flour, sugar, salt - because they are pretty basic ingredients that you probably have in your own kitchen. Yet as you go further down the list you start noticing some things that you don't recognize, such as monoglycerides, sorbic acid, and sodium benzoate. You may wonder what these ingredients are, what they are doing in your food, and whether or not they are safe. These types of ingredients are food additives.
A food additive is anything that affects food (directly or indirectly) or is a component of food. Legally, a food additive is anything added to food, or used in food preparation, that is not on the 'Generally Recognized as Safe' (GRAS) list. The GRAS list includes products such as flour, sugar, and salt - any ingredient that has been used for a long time and has shown no adverse effects; so food additives are ingredients that need government approval before they can be added to food.
Some foods, such as sugar, are included on the GRAS list because they have been used for years with no adverse effects seenWhen it comes to food additives, there is a lot of controversy over how safe they are and if they should be used. Before the government will approve a food additive, it needs to be proven not only that the additive is safe, but also that it doesn't cause any adverse effects. If further research ever shows a food additive to have adverse effects, then the government has the right to remove that additive from the approved list.
Frequently, food companies use food additives in order to ensure that their products are stable and uniform. Most food we buy at the grocery store isn't very fresh, and one thing about food is that it never stays good for very long; so in this day and age where most of the food we eat isn't fresh, food additives are added abundantly. There are many other reasons for food additives being used as well.
Food additives can be used as a preservative, no-calorie sweetener, color, flavor, fat replacer, nutrient addition, emulsifier, stabilizer, thickener, pH control, leavening, anti-caking agent, humectant (to hold in moisture), dough strengthener, and enzyme preparation.
There are many food additives that are used as a preservative, such as ascorbic acid, potassium sorbate, sodium nitrite, and calcium sorbate. These food additives can prevent oxidation of fats, which cause an off-flavor to develop; prevent the growth of microbes by changing the acidity; and prevent other changes in flavor. Preservative-type food additives can be found in anything from canned fruits and vegetables to breads and meats.
Nutrients are frequently added to food, such as adding iron and thiamine into flour. Sometimes these nutrients are even mandated by law to be added. Since most nutrients are removed from flour in the processing, the government requires producers to add many of the nutrients back into the flour. Other times nutrients are added simply to increase the nutritional value of the product.
Here are some different types of food additives:
This is not a comprehensive list of all approved food additives, just an example of the uses of some of the food additives you may see on an ingredients list.
Food additives can also be indirect food additives. While these food additives are not listed on an ingredient declaration, they still need to be approved by the government before they can be used. This includes packaging products, processing equipment, and storage conditions; so even the glue used to attach a label to a water bottle needs to be approved by the government. This is done because trace amounts of the product might end up in the food, so the government wants to ensure the product is safe.
For many centuries, color has been added to enhance the desirability of food. In the past, anything from petal extractions and paprika to mercury and lead have been used to color food. Today, some plant extractions are still used to color food, but the colorants that we now know to be dangerous have been banned. New colorants have been developed that are simply named based on the color they produce, such as yellow 5 and blue 2. These are chemicals that have a specific hue, and when they are added to food they impart that hue to the food as well.
The safety of some of these colorants is still debated. For example, yellow 5 has been banned in some European countries. The European Food Standards Agency has not banned it completely, but has encouraged companies to remove it (and other artificial colorants) from their products. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - the government agency in charge of food in the United States - has not banned its use.
Yellow 5 has been shown by some studies to increase hyperactivity in children, yet other studies have shown that it does not. It has also been shown to aggravate asthma in some studies but not in others. Since there are still mixed results in the studies, many government agencies have still not completely banned colorants from products, because they feel that the studies that do show adverse effects may have a compounding factor (a factor not being studied) causing the results.
The most common flavor enhancer is monosodium glutamate (MSG). MSG gives a savory, meaty flavor to products. Many people feel that they have a sensitivity to MSG, causing them to have an allergic-type reaction. Most studies show that it is extremely rare for someone to have a sensitivity to MSG, yet many people continue to think they have a sensitivity to it. This has caused many people to want it removed from food, but since scientific experiments have not shown MSG to be harmful, the government hasn't removed it from the list of acceptable additives. So those who feel they have a sensitivity to MSG need to check food labels before eating anything.
Food additives are anything that is added to food or can affect food. Most food that you find in your own cupboard will be on the GRAS list, yet any other product needs to be approved by the government before it can be used. This includes direct and indirect food additives. Food additives can be used as a preservative, nutrient, color, flavor, emulsifier, stabilizer, or for many other reasons. Several of these food additives are controversial due to mixed results in studies suggesting that they may be dangerous.
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