All about Food Additives

Since centuries, people have been using additives for enhancing the texture or flavour of food. Food has been preserved or made more delicious by adding certain special ingredients. Today, there is a demand for nutritious, colourful and long lasting food in the market.

But some customers have a problem with additives listed on labels of food items as they seem unfamiliar. But additives do provide convenient, aesthetic and technological benefits.

The following are reasons why special ingredients are added to food:

• For maintenance and enhancement of freshness and safety: preservatives help reduce spoilage of food by bacteria, mould and air. They help prevent contamination, which can cause food borne diseases. For instance, they help retain freshness of cake during cake delivery.

• To enhance or retain nutritional value: fibre, minerals and vitamins are added to many foods to make them more nutritious. But care must be taken that all food items containing nutrients be properly labelled

• Enhance appearance, texture and taste: Appearance and taste are enhanced by adding sweeteners, artificial and natural flavours. Thickeners, stabilizers and emulsifiers add consistency and texture to food items, particularly while baking. Some additives may also help control the alkalinity and acidity of foods.

Additives are divided into direct and indirect additives:

• Direct additives are added to the food for a specific purpose. For instance, xanthan gum is added to puddings, bakery fillings etc to enhance texture.

• Indirect food additives are those that are found in foods in trace amounts during its storing and packaging.

Some of the types of additives are as follows:

• Preservatives: They prevent decay of food from yeast, fungi, mould or bacteria and help enhance flavour and texture.

• Sweeteners: They are low calorie sweet enhancing additives. Used in baked goods like cake gifts, beverages, etc.

• Colour additives: They compensate for loss of colour by exposure to extremes of moisture, temperature, and light. In some cases, they are used to enhance natural colours, and in others, give colour to colourless food items.

•  Flavours and spices: Add natural or synthetic flavours.

• Flavour enhancers: These enhance the already present flavours in food items.

• Fat replacers: Add creamy texture to fat reduced foods.

• Nutrients: They fortify food with nutrients and replace nutrients like minerals and vitamins lost during processing of food.

• Emulsifiers: They help in smooth mixing of ingredients and avoid separation. They ensure stability of emulsified products, control formation of crystals, reduce stickiness and smoothens the process of dissolving.

• Binders, thickeners and stabilizers: Help produce a uniform texture.

• Leavening agents: Help in rising of baked goods.

• Humectants: Help retain moisture

•  Anti-caking agents: Help powdered food to remain free flowing.

• Dough conditioners: Make dough more stable

•  Yeast nutrients: Help in growth of yeast.

• Gases: Help in aeration or  carbonation

• Firming agents:  Maintains firmness and crispiness.

• Enzyme preparations: modify fats and proteins.

These are some of the functions of food additives. Modern technology is being used to create more food additives, particularly bio-technology.