Food Additives

1. Food Additives Chapter 24

2. What is a Food Additive • What is BHT, sorbic acid, and guar gum mean????? • They are examples of FOOD ADDITIVES!! • Food Additive = any substance a food producer intentionally adds to a food for a specific purpose. • Producers use around 3,000 additives to preserve and improve foods

3. Natural vs. Synthetic • What are some examples of natural additives??? – That means guess guys!!!! • Salt and sugar • Artificial or synthetic are made in a laboratory; they aren’t found naturally in food • The chemical “ingredients” are the same as any that occur in nature, but the chemicals are joined or modified in the food science lab to produce a substance.

4. Common Food Additives (Few ex.) • Acesulfame – K(Artificial sweetener, used in chewing gum) • Aspartame – Artificial sweetener • Azodicarbonamide – Bleaching agent in flour • Guar Gum – Stabilizer for ice cream and soups • MSG – Flavor enhancer in soups, Chinese foods • Saccarin – Artificial sweetener • Sodium citrate – pH controller; meat curer • Sorbitol – Nutritive sweetener • Tartaric Acid – pH controller used in soft drinks

5. The Food and Drug Administration • Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) & the World Health Organization (WHO) provide oversight. Giving stricter guidelines about food additives. • Food and Drug Administration • Responsible that the food we eat is safe!!! • Getting a food additive accepted is not simple task, due to strict guidelines • A manufacture must submit evidence from extensive test, showing the substance does not cause short or long term harm • If satisfied they then determine how much is safe for the public to eat

6. The FDA Continued • Another FDA standard is called the Delaney cause • This states that any food additive that is shown to cause cancer in humans or animals may not be added to food • GRAS List = substances, such as spices, natural seasoning, and flavorings, that are considered safe for human consumption and not regulated as additives. • The GRAS list currently numbers about 670 items

7. Ingredient Labeling • Manufactures are required to list all food ingredients on the label • Example –suppose you want to produce products made with only natural ingredients. • The word “flavored” on a label tells you that the food uses only natural flavorings • These might be a variety of flavors, but all occur naturally • A food labeled “artificially flavored” contains some synthetic flavorings

8. How Additives Are Used • The purpose of additives fall into four categories • Improve storage properties • Increase healthfulness • Make food more appealing • Improve processing and preparation

9. Improving Storage Properties • Two hundred years ago, diets were largely limited to locally produced foods • Example 100 years ago a California orange sent to Boston would be inedible LONG before it arrived • Today that orange can be treated with preservatives • These are usually chemicals used to prevent mold and bacteria from spoiling food • Commonly used preservatives include sodium nitrate, sorbic acid, sodium bisulfite, and sodium nitrate • Preservatives are normally chosen because they are economical and don’t affect a food’s flavor, color or texture • Some perseveres are chosen to enhance color (meat is sometimes sprayed with sodium nitrate – why?????)

10. Increasing Healthfulness • Increasing additives is also included in boosting a food’s nutritional profile. • Fortification = is adding nutrients that are not normally found in a food (ex. Milk is fortified with vit. D) • Restoration = nutrients that are lost in processing are returned to the food with the process called restoration(reestablishes the product’s original nutritive value ex. Vit. C is put back into canned oranges) • Enrichment = adding nutrients lost in processing (contain more nutrients than existed in the food before processing (ex. Vitamins are increased) • Nitrification = process that adds nutrients to a food with a low nutrient/kcalorie ratio so the food can replace a nutritionally balanced meal (nutrition bars and shakes are examples)

11. Making Food More Appealing thru Color • Almost all soft drinks, cheeses, ice cream, jams, and jellies owe at least part of their coloring to additives. • Some colors are made from food (caramelizing sugars) • However, nearly ½ the common colorings are created in the laboratories • Each of the synthetic colorings are identified with a number (example yellow #1)

12. Making Food More Appealing thru Flavor • About 2000 natural and synthetic flavors are available. • In the US five times as many products are grape-flavored as are flavored by the concord grape. • Sometimes using a natural flavor would make a food too costly to produce. • Flavor enhancers are substance that gives no flavor but bring out the flavor in the food.

13. Making Food More Appealing thru Sweeteners • Of all of the flavor enhancers, sweeteners are the most common • Sweeteners are basically either nutritive or nonnutritive • Nutritive sweeteners metabolize to produce calories • Examples are sugar (sucrose), brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, and honey. • Sorbitol (taste ½ as sweet as sucrose, diabetics use this sugar) • Sorbitol absorbs more slowly from the intestinal tract than sucrose does, so the blood sugar level may not rise as high

14. Making Food More Appealing thru Sweeteners • Nonnative sugars are also called artificial sweeteners. (They have no calories but still taste sweet. Following sweeteners are currently approved by FDA: • Sucralose – made from sugar but is 600 times sweeter. (produces no calories) • Saccharin – made from petroleum products, saccharin is 300 times as sweet as sucrose. If used in great amount, it leaves a bitter taste. • Aspartame – 200 times sweeter than sugar, supplies no calories and leaves no aftertaste. Cannot be used in baked goods or cooked products, it losses it’s sweeteners , which is why many diet sodas have a use-by date • Acesulfame – 200 times sweeter than sugar. Use in candies, baked goods, frozen desserts, and beverages

15. Improving Processing and Preparation • Stabilizer, substance that keeps a compound, mixture, or solution from changing its form or chemical nature. • Example without stabilizer, the fat in peanut butter separates from the protein, creating an oil pool over a stiff paste. • Ice cream is creamy, in part because thickeners prevent crystals from forming as it freezes and stabilizes. • Many stabilizers are natural and starch-based. • Some are made from pectin, casein, sodium caseinate, and gelatin

16. Concerns About Food Additives • Some people believe that some additives cause “more trouble than they’re worth.” • One concern is not enough is known about the long-term effects • Example is nitrites which react with amines (preservative in meat) is suspected of causing cancer • Nitrites prevent botulism, which the FDA believe will out way the risks of using them, however the FDA required them to be used in lower quantities. • DO YOU THINK THERE ARE ANY RISKS IN EATTING SO MANY PROCESSED FOODS?

17. Poor Eating Habits/Unneeded Additives • If you ate a food full of vitamins and minerals, (example Total Cereal) do you think that you can skip more healthier foods??? • WRONG – you would be missing fiber, protein an other essential and nonessential nutrients. You also can be getting to much of particular nutrients. • Have you noticed that apples in the supermarket appear much more shiner than foods freshly picked??? • Apples, oranges, eggplant, and lemons are treated with a light coat of oil-based wax • These waxes are approved as a preservatives, they help maintain freshness by sealing in moisture

18. The Value of Food Additives • Preservatives extend the shelf life of many foods • Ex. mold inhibitor calcium propionate and BHT are used in bread to prevent mold (keeping the fat fresh) • Supporters of food additives say additives prevent disease caused by malnutrition • Goiter = an enlargement of the thyroid glad caused by a lack of iodine • This was then added to table salt in 1924 • Vit. D was added to milk in the 1930’s to help with rickets (bone-deforming disease)

19. Questions • In general, what is a food additive? • How are natural and synthetic additives different? • How does an additive gain acceptance from the FDA? • What is the Delaney Clause? • Why is the GRAS list useful? • What are four basic uses for additives? • What is sodium nitrite and why is it used?

20. Question Continued • Compare four techniques producers use to increase the nutritional value of food. • Describe three artificial sweeteners. • Would marshmallows crème be possible without stabilizers? Why or why not? • Explain the arguments for and against using nutritional additives in food. • According to supporters of food additives, what would result from eliminating preservatives? • How would you advise someone who is worried about chemicals in food?