food additives guide

Food additives can be classified into types of classification according to its origin, function classification and safety evaluation. what are food additives? Food additives by sources can be divided into three categories in the international: natural extract; material prepared by the fermentation method, such as citric acid, although some of them are chemically synthesized but its structure are the same with the structure of natural compounds; pure chemical compounds, such as sodium benzoate.

The advantages of food additives are as follows: improve the development of modern food industry; improve the food texture and flavor; etc. Most nature foods have their own food colours and odors, but their own colors may fade or lost during the manufacturing or storage. As a result, edible food colors ingredients added to food during the processing to improve food sensory properties and maintain its colors.

According to the source of food colorings, food colorings extracted from plants，animals （microorganisms are included) are natural food coloring. For example, Lac Red are extracted from Lac female secretions; anthocyanins extracted From grape skin. And those with chemical synthesis ways are artificial food coloring. Such as carmine, lemon yellow, etc.

Color food additives are very safe when used properly. There are kinds of food additives used in food. Foods with ingredients are not added the more the better, such as pigments, adding too many colors will deviate from expected. Will you eat food with too much sweeteners? So, due to the natural of some food additives, they cannot be added too much. But views about foods without additives are different.

In short, the functions of additives and process of this product have a great relationship. Sometimes, the same kinds of food additives play different roles in different foods. The purpose of food additives is to improve the quality of food and convenient food processing. The most common food additives are monosodium glutamate food additive, maltodextrin food additive, trisodium phosphate food additive, sulphur dioxide food additive, sorbic acids, citric acid, preservative sodium benzoate, etc. They belong to categories of food additives. Different additives have different functions. The food additives and health are still an important issue, so food additive manufacturers or food additive companies need to be strictly to the quality.

Food additives and food industry

If we want to have a correct understanding of food additives, first of all, we should know clearly what are food additives and what are illegal additives. Illegal additives like Sudan, melamine, lean, etc are not food additives. In the current food safety issues, they were all not caused by the legal use of food additives. Vilified food additive to meet the psychological needs of consumers will not solve the food security problem, instead it will make food safety problem solving goes astray.



Currently, China has more than 2,500 kinds of food additives. each food additive is subject to verification of identification, evaluation, and validation. According to the technical necessity of food additives and food safety risk assessment, to meet the food safety requirements in accordance with the license.

There are four main purposes of use of food additives in the foods processing:
1. in order to maintain or improve the nutritional value of foods, such as vitamin c in concentrate fruit juice; variety of vitamin, mineral added to infant formula milk powder is nutrition enhancer

2. improve the quality of food, such as antioxidants. With antioxidants, people do not need to worry too much about cooking oil go rancid;

3. improving the sensory characteristics of food, such as emulsifiers, thickeners in ice cream, they make the ice cream not like ice;

4. facilitate the production and distribution of food. People can by their loved food from other countries.

Understand the characteristics of the products correctly, and food additive should be viewed objectively. Add non-edible substances in the food are a serious threat to people's food safety, but also hinder health food industry development. For a long time, confuse the boundaries of food additives and non-edible substances, non-edible substances added to food additives, deepening public misunderstanding of food additives.

Food additives refers to synthetic or natural material that improve food quality, color, aroma, taste, as well as for the reason of antiseptic, fresh-keeping and processing technology. They play an important role in the food industry development and ensuring food security. When you refuse all food additives, you have largely rejected the modern "food".

How you understand food ingredients?

According to the definition of food additives, food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance. Some additives like salting have been used for centuries. The functions of food additives is to improve the food color, taste and longer shelf life of synthetic or natural substances extracted from plants and animals. Now at the mention of food additives, many can't help but fear in the mind, they think once eat foods containing food additives will harm to health. So how do the facts? How should we treat food additive or food ingredients?

Food additives already been parts of our life. What are food additives? Whatever a food in your hand, a large part of food ingredients are the most common food additives, such as bleaching, colouring agents, food additives emulsifiers, preservatives, potassium chloride food additive. propylene glycol food additive, lactic acid food additive, etc. Since it contains so many kinds of food additives, does that mean the food we should not to buy? The advantages of food additives is cheap and convenient to get. From the examples of food additives, common food acids include vinegar, citric acid, tartaric acid, ascorbic acid, malic acid, fumaric acid, and lactic acid are added to make flavors "sharper"; colorings are added to make food look more attractive; preservatives food additives prevent or inhibit spoilage; antioxidants such as vitamin C act as preservatives; gluten free thickeners for the people who have food additives allergy to gluten.



Each additive is assigned a unique number, that is E number, which is used in Europe for all approved additives. For example, we can see e100 food additive, e262 food additive, food additive 330, food additive 621, etc. According to E-407 you will get it is carrageenan food additive. whether artificial food additives are good or bad, people have different views. Such as artificial food dyes have stable color low costs. Food grade food colouring additives are widely used in food and beverages, the processing of a piece of cake may need green food colouring, red food colouring, black food colouring, white food colouring, etc. Whether food dyes in food ingredients is health and no toxic？ Where to buy safe food ingredients? How to find reliable food additive suppliers or manufacturers? Many China food company are good choices and qualified.

The reason of using food additives

Food additive refers to the various traces of substances used in food processing, usually the amount is no more than 2% of food quality. Why add them to food? The reasons are as follows: improving and maintaining the nutritional value of food and changing the color of food; ensuring microbial safety; maintain continuity and consistency of food quality.

What are food additives? The approved for use food additives, one kind like vitamins provide nutrition enhancer function, the other has the function of disease prevention. For example, glycyrrhizin can protect the liver; polyphenols, xylitol can prevent cavities; xylitol is diabetic foods. Let's talk about the use of some food additives.

Acidity regulators, or PH control agents, used to adjust or maintain PH (acid or alkaline) of a food additive. Commonly used acidity regulators are citric acid, acetic acid and lactic acid. Sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate can be used in flour food, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide are strong acids, strong alkali, which is corrosive to the human body, so they can only be used as processing aids. Also it need to be neutralized before food processing. In order to prevent loss of moisture during the store, humectants are added to prevent shrinkage or harden. The commonly used humectants are glycerin, sorbitol, wheat and grape buds of sugar alcohols, etc.



In food, emulsifying is a widespread phenomenon, such as ice cream, milk powder, Coffee mate, salad dressing, mayonnaise, etc. To guarantee and improve the quality of food, the food flavour enhancers complement and improve the smell of food. Add food flavour enhancers consciously can strengthen one's appetite to the food. We like sweet food, xylitol is a sweet substances with nutritive value. Healthy people even if they do not eat any food containing xylitol, 100 mg blood also contains 0.03-0.06 mg of xylitol. Xylitol sweetener is widely found in various fruits and vegetables in the natural world, but the content is very low. And the low-calorie sweeteners aspartame is widely used in food.

Some may say aspartame is not health, they need natural sweeteners. Actually, the amount of use and the intake amount is the key. Types of enzymes or coating agents food are in our life, they are food additives, and food industry need them. How to find the best artificial sweetener, protease enzyme or defoaming agent is important. This related to people's health.