Food Additives

Substances intentionally added to food to

improve colour, flavour, keeping quality,
nutritive value or physical condition(texture)

© PDST Home Economics.

main functions of the
additives
• Ensure the safety and edibleness of the food.
• Preserve or increase the nutritive value of the ingredients.
• Increase stability or improve organoleptic properties.
• Prolong the shelf life of the food and contribute to its
conservation.
• Make possible the availability of food out of season.
• Facilitate the manufacturing processes of the products.
• Provide food for groups of consumers with particular
dietary needs.
1. Stabilizers of physical
characteristics
• Emulsifiers: substances that allow the maintenance or
formation of a homogeneous mixture of two or more non-
miscible phases. For example, water and oil.
• Thickeners: macromolecules that preserve the textures of
foods such as viscosity or gelling effect. For example, adding
E-406 (agar-agar) to a jam preserves for its texture.
• Anti-caking agents: substance that prevents the formation
of clumps or lumps that affect product homogeneity. They
are usually used in soups, sauces, juices or dairy products.
• Acidity correctors: substances that control or alter the pH
of food. Inadequate control can lead to the proliferation of
undesirable bacteria in the food which could suppose a
health risk.
2. Inhibitors of chemical
and biological alterations
• Antioxidants: they are additives that are added
mainly in fatty ingredients to delay or prevent
the rancidity of foods due to the oxidation. There
are two
types of antioxidants on the market: natural and
synthetic
.
• Conservatives: substances that when added
protect food against deterioration caused by
unwanted microorganisms. They are often used
in food containing water, such as bakery,
pastries, dairy, beverages or meat products.
3. Modifiers of
organoleptic characters
• Colouring agents: substances used to modify or stabilise the colouring
characteristics of a food. Colour in food is an aspect that is associated
with the quality of food and is related to taste and smell. The use of dyes
in food goes back to ancient civilizations; the use of saffron or cochineal
for colouring have a long tradition which continues to today.
• Flavour enhancers: substances that enhance the taste and / or aroma
of a food without giving its own flavour. They are widely used in sauces
and soups. Monosodium glutamate is one of the most used in processed
foods.
• Sweeteners: these additives are used to provide sweet taste or to
mimic flavours. Its aim is that the flavour is the most similar to the
common sugar and resist similar treatments in which sugar is used.
They are very important in products for diabetics or low calorie products.
• Aromatic substances: are substances that provide a new aroma and /
or correct the aroma of food and beverages. It is possible to obtain them
from extracts of vegetable origin.
4. Improvers and
correctors

• They are additives that are

used in baking, wine making, or to
regulate the maturation of dairy
products, such as cheese or meat
products.
 Classification of additives
• Colourings: E100-199
• Preservatives: E200-299
• Antioxidants: E300-399
• Physical conditioning agents: E400-E499
• Flavourings: No E nos.
• Flavour Enhancers: E 600-699
• Sweeteners: E900-999
• Nutritive additives: No E nos
 Colourings: E100-E199
Class Examples Use Origin Functions

Natural Chlorophyll Tinned veg Plants •Improve

(E140) Soft drinks Carrots appearance of
Carotene food
Red jelly Cactus insects
Cochineal •To replace
Brown sauce, Heated carbs.-
(E120) colour lost in
gravy Caramelisation processing.
Caramel
•To satisfy
Syntheti Tartrazine - Soft drinks All made from consumer
c Yellow (E120) coal tar expectations.
Artificial Red (E128) Sausages •To give
Green (E142) Sweets colour to food
Amaranth - that would be
Blackcurrant
purply-red colourless
products
(E123)

Colourings are not permitted in fresh meat, fish, poultry, fruit, veg or
baby food.
Preservatives E200-E299
Classes Example Use Origins Functions
s
Natural Sugar Jam, sweets Beet/cane •Prevents
Salt Bacon, pickles Rock, sea spoilage by
preventing
Vinegar Pickles, chutney Fermentation
microbial
Alcohol Fruit, cake Fermentation growth.
Smoke Fish, meat, cheese Burning wood •Extend shelf
life.
Artifical Sulphur Sausages, fruit •Prevents
dioxide juice, dried fruit & food
(E220) veg. poisoning.
Made in labs
Soft fruit, fruit •Reduces
Sorbic yoghurt, processed waste.
acid cheese.
•Greater
(E200) Citrus fruit, variety foods
bananas available
Diphenyl
Not permitted in baby foods
Antioxidants E300-399
Classes Examples Use Origins Functions

Natural Ascorbic acid Fruit drinks Fruit & veg. Prevents

Tocopherol Nuts & oxidation
seeds where food is
(E306) Vegetable oils
spoiled by
Artificial BHA (E320) Stock cubes, Made in lab reacting with
cheese spread oxygen
BHT (E321) Chewing gum
BHA and BHT not permitted in baby food
 Physical Conditioning agents E400-
499
Classes Examples Use Origin Function

Emusifiers Lecithin Mayonnaise Eggs, soya To make

Hollandaise beans permanent
Sea weed emulsions
Alginates Ice cream
E401-404
Stabilisers Carageen Ice cream Sea weed To stabilise
Guar gum Confectionary Guar plant emulsions by
thickening them
E412
Poly- Magnesium Salt- as anti- Lab To prevent
phosphates carbonate caking agent, lumping
Cake mixes
Pectin Jams / jellies fruit cell To set mixtures
E440 walls
Humectant Sweetners Confectionary Lichen They absorb
s sorbital and and sweets water vapour
mannitol Cakes/ buns from air and
keep foods moist
 Flavourings (No E numbers)
Classes Examples Use Origin Functions

Natural Sugar Jam, tinned Cane, beet,

beans, cereals. fruit •To add
Salt Cheese, butter, Sodium flavour to
convenience chloride food
fds Rock or sea
Spices
Meat products, Root, seeds •To replace
Herbs
sauces, stock and leaves of flavour lost
cubes plants in
Artificial Ethyl acetate Rum flavour Chemical rxn. processing.
Amyl acetate Pear flavour heating acetic
acid and ethyl
Benzaldehyde Cherry flavour
alcohol
Maltol Fresh baked
Tree Bark •To
smell
enhance
Flavour Monosodium Chinese food, Glutamic acid
food flavour
Enhancers Glutamate soup, sauces, an amino acid
stock cubes
E600-699 E621
 Sweeteners E900-E999
Class Examples Use Origin Functions
Natural Fructose Tinned peas Fruit
Sucrose Biscuits, Sugar beet & To sweeten
sweets, sugar cane food
tinned fruit
Tinned fruit, Fruit & honey
Glucose
jelly
syrup
Artificial Aspartame Diet drinks Dipeptide
E951 Sweetener (aspartic acid+ Used in low
“Nutrasweet phenyalanine) calorie /
, Canderel” diabetic
Saccharine food &
Diet drinks Coal tar
E954 drinks
Sweetener
‘Hermesetes
’
Sorbitol Diabetic food, Lichens Sorbitol used
Bulk sugar free in diabetic
Sweetners Mannitol
food
Lichens
food as it
Sugar free does not
E965 gum, ice need insulin
Nutritive additives
• Nutritive additives are nutrients added to food
during manufacture
• The foods are then called fortified foods.
Functions
Replace nutrients lost in processing e.g. flour
skimmed milk
To increase nutritional value e.g. breakfast cereal
To increase sales e.g. fruit juice
To imitate another food e.g. butter/marg, meat /TVP
Advantages of additives
• Increase shelf life – preservatives
• Reduce risk of food poisoning – preservatives
• Prevent waste – preservatives
• Make food more appetising – colouring
• Improve taste – flavouring
• Improve texture – physical conditioning agents
• Increase nutritive value
• Provide wider variety of foods
• Ensure consistency of quality
 Disadvantages of additives
• Allergies: migraine, hyperactivity, rashes
e.g.tartrazine
• Little known about cumulative or combined effect of
additives.
• Bulking agents can deceive consumers
• Some additives destroy nutrients e.g.sulphur dioxide
destroys vit. B
• Sweetners can leave bitter aftertaste e.g. saccharine
 Legal Control over use of
additives in EU
• List of approved additives
• Approved additives have been well tested
• In EU every approved additive has E number (except
flavourings)
• The E no. or name must be on labels
• Additives should not reduce nutritive value
• Cannot be used to disguise faults
• Must not be health hazard
• Must not mislead consumer
 Legal Control over use of
additives in EU
• Must be used in smallest possible effective
quantity
• Colourings not allowed in fresh fruit, veg. meat,
poultry, fish
• Preservatives and BHA, BHT and colourings not
allowed in baby food.
• Sweeteners not permitted in food for infants or
young children
 Legal Control over use of
additives in EU
• Additives are tested by the European Scientific
Committee for Food (SCF)
• The SCF take advice from the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the Joint Expert
Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)
• In Ireland the FSAI are responsible for enforcing
the safe use of food additives
Contaminants
• Substances that enter food unintentionally or
illegally at various stages of production which
may cause harm.
• Pesticides: used in agriculture to prevent damage
to crops. They include insecticides, herbicides,
fungicides. Run off can contaminate water
supply.
• Antibiotics: used for animals and poultry to cure
diseases. Passed on to humans in milk or meat.
• Metals: from soil, water, containers cooking
equipment e.g. Lead, cadmium
Contaminants
• Plastic chemicals from packaging
• Formaldehyde from treated paper packaging
• Foreign bodies; hair, glass, wire etc..
• Other Chemicals: growth promoters, carcinogens
from smoking and barbecuing, dioxins from
burning hydrocarbons
• Micro-organisms
 Effects of Contaminants
Pesticides Respiratory problems. Heart and
circulatory problems. Damage to nervous
system. Cancer.
Antibiotics Build up resistance to antibiotics. Allergies
develop.

Metals Stomach cramps. Damage to liver,

kidneys, immune system, nervous
system.
Dioxins Cancer.
Contaminants
• Department of agriculture and food are
responsible for production of safe food.
• Samples are testing and comparisons made with
EU max permitted levels.
• People opt for organically grown food to avoid
these contaminants.