By, Harish S BTF-11-013

Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavour or enhance its taste and appearance. Some additives have been used for centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling (with vinegar), salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulphur dioxide as in some wines.

 Many people enjoy making bread, cakes, wine, beer, and ice

cream at home. However, most of today's food is bought from shops and supermarkets. Food made at home is always at its best when eaten straight away. Food produced on the large scale that is needed to supply supermarkets and other food shops has to be transported and stored before it is consumed. It has to stay in top condition over a much longer period of time than home-cooked food. Additives are used so that these foods still have a consistently high quality. In some products, they are so essential that additives are used even in certain organic foods.

Colorants Flavoring agents Flavor enhancer Anti caking agent Antioxidant Anti foaming agent Bulking agent Emulsifiers Flour treatment agent Humectants Preservatives Stabilizers Sweeteners Thickeners

 To regulate these additives, and inform consumers, each

additive is assigned a unique number, termed as "E numbers", which is used in Europe for all approved additives. This numbering scheme has now been adopted and extended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission to internationally identify all additives, regardless of whether they are approved for use. E numbers are all prefixed by "E", but countries outside Europe use only the number, whether the additive is approved in Europe or not. For example, acetic acid is written as E260 on products sold in Europe, but is simply known as additive 260 in some countries.

 Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment or

substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels and pastes. Food coloring is used both in commercial food production and in domestic cooking. Due to its safety and general availability, food coloring is also used in a variety of non-food applications including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, home craft projects and medical devices. Classified into natural and artificial colouring agents

 Natural Colorants: Caramel; Pigments like carotene, betalins,

chlorophyll; Turmeric; Saffron, etc.

Artificial Colorants: Only 7 colors are approved to be safe. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

FD&C Blue No. 1 Brilliant Blue FCF, E133 (blue shade) FD&C Blue No. 2 Indigotine, E132 (indigo shade) FD&C Green No. 3 Fast Green FCF, E143 (turquoise shade) FD&C Red No. 40 Allura Red AC, E129 (red shade) FD&C Red No. 3 Erythrosine, E127 (pink shade, commonly used in glac cherries)[10] FD&C Yellow No. 5 Tartrazine, E102 (yellow shade) FD&C Yellow No. 6 Sunset Yellow FCF, E110 (orange shade)

 A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically

produced substance that is added to food products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes. Common antimicrobial preservatives include sorbic acid and its salts, benzoic acid and its salts, calcium propionate, sodium nitrite, sulfites (sulfur dioxide, sodium bisulfite, potassium hydrogen sulfite, etc.) and disodium EDTA. Antioxidants include BHA, BHT, TBHQ and propyl gallate.

 Naturally occurring substances such as rosemary extract,

hops, salt, sugar, vinegar, alcohol, diatomaceous earth and castor oil are also used as traditional preservatives. Certain processes such as freezing, pickling, smoking and salting can also be used to preserve food. Another group of preservatives targets enzymes in fruits and vegetables that start to metabolize after they are cut. For instance, the naturally occurring citric and ascorbic acids in lemon or other citrus juice can inhibit the action of the enzyme phenolase which turns surfaces of cut apples and potatoes brown if a small amount of the juice is applied to the freshly cut produce. Vitamin C and Vitamin E are also sometimes used as preservatives.

 Flavouring agent is defined as a substance that gives another

substance flavour, altering the characteristics of the solute, causing it to become sweet, sour, tangy, etc. Of the three chemical senses, smell is the main determinant of a food item's flavour. While the taste of food is limited to sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami (savoury) piquancy and metallic, the seven basic tastes the smells of a food are potentially limitless. A food's flavour, therefore, can be easily altered by changing its smell while keeping its taste similar. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in artificially flavoured jellies, soft drinks and candies, which, while made of bases with a similar taste, have dramatically different flavours due to the use of different scents or fragrances.

 Flavour enhancers are food additives commonly

added to food and designed to enhance the existing flavours of products. In western cultures, the 5th taste or umami went unrecognized for a long time. It was believed that flavour enhancers did not add any new taste of their own. It is now understood that these substances activate taste receptors for umami, and thus add this taste to products.

 Umami Flavourants

Glutamic acid salts 2. Glycine salts 3. Guanylic acid salts 4. Inosinic acid salts 5. 5'-ribonucleotide salts Acid Flavour Enhancers: Acetic acid, Ascorbic acid, Citric acid, Fumaric acid, Lactic acid, Malic acid, Phosphoric acid and Tartaric acid
1.

 An anticaking agent is an additive placed in powdered or

granulated materials, such as table salt, to prevent the formation of lumps and for easing packaging, transport, and consumption. An anticaking agent in salt is denoted in the ingredients, for example, as "anti-caking agent (554)", which is sodium aluminosilicate, a man-made product. This product is present in many commercial table salts as well as dried milks, egg mixes, sugar products, and flours. Natural anticaking agents used in more expensive table salt include calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate.

 E341 Tricalcium Phosphate E460(ii) Powdered cellulose E500 Sodium bicarbonate E535 Sodium ferrocyanide E536 Potassium ferrocyanide

E538 Calcium ferrocyanide

E542 Bone phosphate E550 Sodium silicate E551 Silicon dioxide E552 Calcium silicate E553a Magnesium trisilicate

 An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the oxidation of

other molecules. Antioxidants are used as food additives to help guard against food deterioration. Antioxidants are an especially important class of preservatives as, unlike bacterial or fungal spoilage, oxidation reactions still occur relatively rapidly in frozen or refrigerated food. These preservatives include natural antioxidants such as ascorbic acid (AA, E300) and tocopherols (E306), as well as synthetic antioxidants such as propyl gallate (PG, E310), tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA, E320) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT, E321).

 A defoamer or an anti-foaming agent is a chemical additive

that reduces and hinders the formation of foam in industrial process liquids. The terms anti-foam agent and defoamer are often used interchangeably. When used as an ingredient in food, antifoaming agents are intended to curb effusion or effervescence in preparation or serving. The agents are included in a variety of foods such as chicken nuggets in the form of polydimethylsiloxane (a type of silicone). Silicone oil is also added to cooking oil to prevent foaming in deep-frying.

 Flour treatment agents (also called improving agents, bread

improvers, dough conditioners and dough improvers) are food additives combined with flour to improve baking functionality. Flour treatment agents are used to increase the speed of dough rising and to improve the strength and workability of the dough. They are an important component of modern plant baking, reducing the time needed to produce a loaf of bread to two hours from the 12 to 24 hours early bread-making required. There are wide ranges of these conditioners used in bakery processing, which fall into four main categories: bleaching agents, oxidizing and reducing agents, enzymes, and emulsifiers. These agents are often sold as mixtures in a soy flour base, as only small amounts are required.

 A desiccant or humectant is a hygroscopic substance that

induces or sustains a state of dryness (desiccation) in its local vicinity in a moderately well-sealed container. When used as a food additive, the humectant has the effect of keeping the foodstuff moist. Humectants are sometimes used as a component of antistatic coatings for plastics. Humectants are also found in many cosmetic products where moisturization is desired, including treatments such as moisturizing hair conditioners and also commonly used in body lotions.

 Colour retention agents are food additives that are

added to food to prevent the colour from changing. Many of them work by absorbing or binding to oxygen before it can damage food (antioxidants). For example, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is often added to brightly coloured fruits such as peaches during canning

E number

Common name

Max permitted level GMP

Sources Standard 1.3.1 - Food Additives (Australian)

Application Wine, sparkling wine and fortified wine Fruit and vegetable-based drinks, juices and baby foods

E300

Ascorbic acid

0.03% (w/w), or 0.02% (w/w) depending on the matrix

The Miscellaneous Food Additives Regulations 1995

Fat-containing cereal-based
foods including biscuits and rusks

 Sweeteners are added to foods for flavouring.

Sweeteners other than sugar are added to keep the food energy (calories) low, or because they have beneficial effects for diabetes mellitus and tooth decay and diarrhoea. Thickeners are substances which, when added to the mixture, increase its viscosity without substantially modifying its other properties. Stabilizers, thickeners and gelling agents, like agar or pectin (used in jam for example) give foods a firmer texture. While they are not true emulsifiers, they help to stabilize emulsions.