Many different food additives have been developed over time to meet the needs of large-scale food processing. Additives are added to ensure processed food remains safe and in good condition throughout its journey from factories or industrial kitchens, to warehouses and shops, and finally to consumers. Additives are also used to modify the sensory properties of foods including taste, smell, texture and appearance.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website TJCY.
Food additives can be derived from plants, animals or minerals, or they can be chemically synthesized. There are several thousand food additives used, all of which are designed to do a specific job. Food additives can be grouped into 3 broad categories based on their function.
Flavouring agents are chemicals that impart flavours or fragrances and are added to food to modify its aroma or taste. They are the most common type of additive used in foods, with hundreds of varieties used in a wide variety of foods, from confectionery and soft drinks to cereal, cake and yoghurt. Flavouring agents can be extracted from naturally occurring sources (e.g. plant or animal sources) or chemically synthesized. Flavours extracted directly from naturally occurring sources are often referred to as natural flavours. Such flavours can also be chemically synthesized and are sometimes referred to as nature made or nature identical to indicate that although the flavour molecule itself is naturally occurring it hasn’t been extracted from its source, but synthesized to be identical. Artificial flavouring agents are chemicals that do not exist in nature but are synthesized to imitate natural flavours or elicit other taste sensations. Culinary ingredients, including spices, nuts and dried fruits or vegetables, can also modify aroma or taste, but are generally not considered flavouring agents.
Enzyme preparations are a type of additive that may or may not end up in the final food product. Enzymes are naturally occurring proteins that boost biochemical reactions by breaking down larger molecules into their smaller building blocks. They can be obtained by extraction from plants or animal products or from micro-organisms such as bacteria and are used as alternatives to chemical-based technology. They are mainly used in baking (to improve the dough), for manufacturing fruit juices (to increase yields), in wine making and brewing (to improve fermentation), as well as in cheese manufacturing (to improve curd formation).
Other food additives are used for a variety of reasons, such as preservation, colouring and sweetening. They are added when food is prepared, packaged, transported, or stored, and they eventually become a component of the food.
Preservatives can slow decomposition caused by mould, air, bacteria or yeast. In addition to maintaining the quality of the food, preservatives help control contamination that can cause foodborne illness, including life-threatening botulism.
Colouring is added to food to replace colours lost during processing or other production, or to make food appear more attractive.
Non-sugar sweeteners are often used as an alternative to sugar because they contribute fewer or no calories when added to food. WHO has issued a recommendation against the use of non-sugar sweeteners in general, based on evidence that they don’t seem to benefit long term weight loss or maintenance and may increase risk of noncommunicable diseases.
Food additives are assessed for potential harmful effects on human health before they are approved for use. Authoritative bodies at the national, regional and international levels are responsible for evaluating the safety of food additives. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is the international body responsible for evaluating the safety of food additives for use in foods that are traded internationally.
WHO, in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is responsible for assessing the risks to human health from food additives. Risk assessments of food additives are conducted by an independent, international expert scientific group – the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).
Only food additives that have undergone a JECFA safety assessment and are found not to present an appreciable health risk to consumers can be used internationally. This applies whether food additives come from natural sources or they are synthetic. National authorities, either based on the JECFA assessment or a national assessment, can then authorize the use of food additives at specified levels for specific foods.
JECFA evaluations are based on scientific reviews of all available biochemical, toxicological, and other relevant data on a given additive – mandatory tests in animals, research studies and observations in humans are considered. The toxicological tests required by JECFA include acute, short-term and long-term studies that determine how the food additive is absorbed, distributed and excreted, and possible harmful effects of the additive or its by-products at certain exposure levels.
The starting point for determining whether a food additive can be used without having harmful effects is to establish the acceptable daily intake (ADI). The ADI is an estimate of the amount of an additive in food or drinking water that can be safely consumed daily over a lifetime without adverse health effects.
The safety assessments completed by JECFA are used by the joint intergovernmental food standard-setting body of FAO and WHO, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, to establish levels for maximum use of additives in food and drinks. Codex standards are the reference for national standards for consumer protection, and for the international trade in food, so that consumers everywhere can be confident that the food they eat meets the agreed standards for safety and quality, no matter where it was produced.
Once a food additive has been found to be safe for use by JECFA and maximum use levels have been established in the Codex General Standard for Food Additives, national food regulations need to be implemented permitting the actual use of a food additive.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission also establishes standards and guidelines on food labelling. These standards are implemented in most countries, and food manufacturers are obliged to indicate which additives are in their products. In the European Union, for example, there is legislation governing labelling of food additives according to a set of pre-defined E-numbers. People who have allergies or sensitivities to certain food additives should check labels carefully.
WHO encourages national authorities to monitor and ensure that food additives in food and drinks produced in their countries comply with permitted uses, conditions and legislation. National authorities should oversee the food business, which carries the primary responsibility for ensuring that the use of a food additive is safe and complies with legislation.
Food additives are ingredients that are added to foods to carry out particular functions.
Manufacturers must provide information about any additives used in the foods they produce. You can find this information in the list of ingredients on the packaging. It will tell you what each additive does, followed by its name or E number.
Food additives are grouped by what they do. The additives that you are most likely to come across on food labels are:
Additives must be assessed for safety before they can be used in food. We also ensure that:
We investigate any information that casts reasonable doubt on the safety of an additive.
We funded research into possible links between food colours and hyperactivity in children. It found that consuming certain artificial food colours could cause increased hyperactivity in some children.
These artificial colours are:
Food and drink containing any of these six colours must carry a warning on the packaging. This will say ‘May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children’.
We encourage manufacturers to work towards finding alternatives to these colours. Some manufacturers and retailers have already taken action to remove them.
It’s important to remember that hyperactivity can also be caused by other things. So being careful about what a child eats may help manage hyperactive behaviour but it may not stop it.
A food additive is only approved if; it has been tested and proved to be safe for its intended use; there is a justifiable technological need to use it; and its use does not mislead the consumer.
All the foods we eat consist of chemicals in one form or another. Many food additives are chemicals which exist in nature such as antioxidants ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or citric acid, found in citrus fruits.
Due to technological advancements, many other additives are now man-made to perform certain technological functions. Whether or not the chemicals used in additives exist in nature, they are subject to the same safety evaluations.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit food additive companies.
Some consumers think of food additives (E numbers) as a modern invention used to make cheap foods. In reality, food additives have a long history of consumption and are used in many traditional foods. For example, wines including Champagne contain sulphites, and bacon contains the preservatives nitrates and nitrites to prevent the growth of botulism.
For a full list of E numbers please see our Approved additives and E numbers page.As with all other food additives, sweeteners must undergo a safety evaluation before they are authorised for use in food.
Only people who are diagnosed at birth with phenylketonuria need to avoid foods containing certain sweeteners, i.e. aspartame and aspartame-acesulfame salt. This is because they cannot consume foods containing phenylalanine which includes foods such as meat, dairy and nuts.
Due to reported concerns about sensitivity to aspartame (e.g. headaches, dizziness and stomach upsets) the Food Standards Agency commissioned research to investigate this further. People who self-reported sensitivity to aspartame were either given a cereal bar with or without aspartame; but were not told which bar they had consumed. The results showed that there was no difference in reported symptoms after eating the aspartame containing bar compared to the normal bar.
This study only investigated possible short-term effects of aspartame consumption. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opinion concluded that aspartame and its breakdown products are safe for the general population, at current levels of exposure.
Additional information on the safety of sweeteners can also be found on the NHS website.
Slush ice drinks can contain the ingredient glycerol as a substitute for sugar, at a level required to create the ‘slush’ effect. At this level, we recommend that children aged four years and under should not consume these drinks.
This is due to their potential to cause side-effects such as headaches and sickness, particularly when consumed in excess.
For more information on glycerol and our guidelines for businesses that produce slush drinks, see our Approved additives and E numbers page.
Energy drinks are generally drinks with high levels of caffeine. They are usually marketed as giving a mental and physical 'boost' by providing more ‘energy’ than regular soft drinks like cola. They’re different to ‘sports drinks’ which you might use to replace electrolytes lost during exercise.
Energy drinks can contain high levels of caffeine, Products with increasingly higher caffeine levels are being introduced to the market. Caffeine levels in a can of energy drink can vary between 80mg (equivalent to two cans of cola or a mug of instant coffee) and 200mg (equivalent to five cans of cola). Imported versions of energy drinks often have higher caffeine content than the UK equivalent product. As even small cans of energy drinks or bottle of 'energy shot' products can contain anywhere from 80mg to as much as 200mg of caffeine in a small 60ml bottle.
Consumers should always check the label before drinking them.
In May , The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a report on the safety of caffeine. They looked at research on the short term adverse effects of caffeine such as interrupted sleep, anxiety and behavioural changes and increased blood pressure.
EFSA’s advice for those without underlying health problems such as hypertension, is that:
Based on current scientific opinions on the safety of caffeine, we advise that children, or other people sensitive to caffeine, should only consume caffeine in moderation. Pregnant and breast-feeding women are advised not to have more than 200mg of caffeine over the course of a day. This is roughly two mugs of instant coffee or one mug of filter coffee. Drinks like espresso and lattes, which are made from ground coffee, typically contain higher levels of caffeine per mug.
When purchasing energy drinks of 'energy shots' containing caffeine, we advise that you always check the label to see how much caffeine the product contains.
The Food Information (assimilated Regulation (EU) /) requires specific labelling for high caffeine drinks and foods where caffeine has been added for a physiological effect. This labelling helps consumers to identify foods with high caffeine content in those products where they may not expect to find it.
Drinks that contain caffeine from whatever source at a level over 150mg per litre (mg/l) must state: ‘High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women’.
This must be in the same field of vision as the name of the product, along with the amount of caffeine expressed in mg per 100ml.
Foods (other than drinks) to which caffeine is added for a physiological purpose must state: ‘Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children or pregnant women'.
This must be in the same field of vision as the name of the food along with the amount of caffeine in mg per 100g or per 100ml.
The British Soft Drinks Association has a voluntary Code of Practice on energy drinks, which suggests that the term 'Consume Moderately' (or similar words) should be included on the label and that such products should not be promoted or marketed to those under 16 years of age.
The above labelling rules do not apply to foods (including drinks) where caffeine is added for flavour rather than for a physiological purpose. These types of foods and drinks must comply with flavouring legislation ( assimilated Regulation (EU) /). This limits the use of caffeine for flavouring purposes and sets maximum levels depending on the particular food or drink it is used in. For regular soft drinks like cola, the maximum amount of added caffeine permitted is 150 mg/l. The labelling legislation (assimilated Regulation (EU) /) requires that where caffeine is used as a flavouring, the term ‘caffeine’ must appear after the word ‘flavouring(s)’ in the list of ingredients.
Nitrites and nitrates are naturally present in vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, celery and even beetroot. These are the main sources of dietary exposure to nitrates with only around 5% coming from its use as a food additive.
Nitrites and nitrates (E 249 – E 252) are used in certain cheeses and processed meats such as bacon, ham, corned beef and other cured meats to help keep it looking red and to aid the development of the ‘cured’ flavour. However, their main role is to reduce the growth of harmful microorganisms in particular clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that can be life threatening.
All food additives must pass a robust safety assessment, a key element of which is looking at the actual risk to human health based on the levels at which an additive is likely to be present in the diet.
The FSA considers that existing levels of nitrites and nitrates are sufficiently protective for consumers. This is based on the view of the independent committees that advise the FSA, the rest of Government, and other scientific organisations such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). These preservatives can only be used at the lowest effective levels which are kept under review.
Sodium and potassium salts of nitrite (E 249-250) and nitrate (E 251-252) were re-evaluated by EFSA in ; following which it advised that nitrites and nitrates intentionally added at permitted levels to meat and other foods remain safe.
Whilst links have been made between the over-consumption of red and processed meat and an increased risk of certain types of bowel cancer, it is not yet fully understood how this occurs; some contributory factors proposed are the processing method, how it is cooked (e.g. temperature) and may in part be a result of natural components in the meat.
Red and processed meat, whether produced with the use of nitrites and nitrates or without, can form part of varied and balanced diet when consumed within current NHS guidelines, and alongside healthy lifestyle choices.
Are you interested in learning more about chemical trading company? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!