Introduction to Food Additives

Food additives are substances added to food to modify its texture, enhance its color, improve its safety, or supplement its nutritional content. Food additives that are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) do not require government approval, while other additives must go through premarket approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they are allowed in foods. Even with this regulatory process, controversy surrounds many food additives, especially fears that specific chemicals may cause cancer or other serious health problems. Here, we review some of the common purposes food additives are used, and share some surprising facts about their sources, safety, and history.

 

Thickening Agents

One common use for food additives is to modify a food’s texture, increasing its mouthfeel and making it taste smoother or creamier. Starches are essentially long chains of sugars bound together to store energy for plants; when heated, starches expand as they absorb water, thickening and gelling food to change its texture. Long chains of sugars, or polysaccharides, also can play structural roles in microbes and plants, helping to protect them from pathogens. Carrageenan is a polysaccharide from red edible seaweed species that is used as a thickening agent and may have health benefits beyond those of common thickeners such as cornstarch. Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide thickener that is produced by Xanthomonas campestris as described by the Journal of Food Engineering.

 

Food Coloring

A large component of enjoying food is visual stimulation, so food companies use coloring additives to enhance their products’ graphic appeal. Certified colors are synthetically produced and must be approved by the FDA for their use in foods, whereas natural pigments, such as grape-skin extract, do not require certification. There are currently nine certified color additives approved for use by the FDA. Although these colors are approved, Yellow No. 5 may cause hives in fewer than 0.01% of people, but there is no evidence that this additive causes asthma attacks. This example highlights that even though a food additive may be safe for the general populace, every individual is unique, and many consumer goods are associated with a small, albeit non-zero, risk.

 

Freshness and Preservation

Another reason for food additives is to preserve and maintain the freshness of foods, as well as their safety. Antioxidants, such as vitamin E, can be added to foods to prevent the oxidation or rancidification of fats and oils in food.

 

One controversial food preservative is sodium benzoate, which prevents fungal and bacterial growth, but has been suspected to cause hyperactivity in children and form the carcinogenic compound benzene. The FDA tested hundreds of beverages with sodium benzoate and found that more than 2% had unsafe benzene levels; the drinks were modified to meet safety requirements and the FDA regulates the amount of sodium benzoate allowed in foods but benzene exposure is still a concern with this preservative.

 

Improving Nutritional Quality

Food additives are also added to foods to improve their health benefits. Dietary fiber is not digested by the human body, but plays a vital role in a healthy lifestyle by keeping bowel movements regular, controlling blood sugar levels, lowering cholesterol levels and maintaining a healthy weight. Extracts from chicory root or Jerusalem artichoke are used to increase the dietary fiber content of many foods.

 

Enhancing Sweetness

Controversy surrounds the use of artificial sweeteners in food, with many claims of their adverse health effects, including an elevated risk of cancer. Despite these claims, there is no sound scientific evidence that the FDA-approved artificial sweeteners cause serious health problems. Although these guidelines generally hold true, certain individuals may experience gastrointestinal discomfort with certain artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols. Additionally, people with the rare condition phenylketonuria should avoid aspartame, which contains an amino acid that they have trouble metabolizing. Interestingly, although refined stevia extracts are approved by the FDA, whole-leaf and crude stevia extracts are not allowed as food sweeteners due to safety concerns.