Food additives refer to chemical synthetic or natural substances added to food to improve the quality, color, aroma and taste of food and to meet the needs of preservation and processing technology.
Generally speaking, food additives may not be food, and may not have nutritional value, but they must conform to the concept defined above, that is, they do not affect the nutritional value of food, and have the functions of preventing food spoilage, enhancing food sensory properties or improving food quality.
Generally speaking, food additives can be divided into natural and chemical synthesis according to their sources. Natural food additives refer to natural substances obtained by extracting the metabolic products of animals and plants or microorganisms as raw materials; Chemically synthesized food additives refer to substances that are obtained by chemical means to make elements or compounds undergo synthetic reactions such as oxidation, reduction, condensation, polymerization and salification. At present, most of them are chemical synthetic food additives.
According to the use, the classification of food additives in different countries is similar, and the difference is mainly the difference in classification. The United States divides food additives into 16 categories, while Japan divides them into 30 categories. China's Hygienic Standard for the Use of Food Additives divides them into 22 categories: (1) preservatives (2) antioxidants (3) chromogenic agents (4) bleaching agents (5) sour agents (6) coagulants (7) loosening agents (8) thickeners (9) defoamers (10) sweeteners. 3) Quality improver (14) anti-caking agent (15) flavor enhancer (16) enzyme preparation (17) coating agent (18) foaming agent (19) preservative. Seasoning is actually a kind of food, which not only can adjust the taste, but also has very important nutritional value. For example, salt is an essential seasoning for human body.
In our daily life, many people don't add chemicals according to the national standard. The melamine incident a few days ago is an example. We should eat some foods with additives correctly, because food additives can not only poison people, but also cause great damage to people's health. To this end, this year, the Health Supervision Center of Yichang Municipal Health Bureau will carry out special rectification work on illegal use of food additives. This article is published in the hope that the general public can know about food additives and improve their self-protection ability.
Abuse of food additives: some lawless elements abuse food additives for profiteering, or add toxic and harmful substances that are prohibited from being added to food. For example, using mineral oil to process rice and biscuits, adding soybean oil, mustard oil, corn salad oil and watermelon seeds; 44% of the products were unqualified when benzoyl peroxide was added to flour. Treating water-borne products with industrial formaldehyde and caustic soda; Adding the sodium bicarbonate into rice flour, rice noodles and vermicelli; Pigments such as carmine are added to marinated chicken, duck, goose and pork.
Food additives are harmful to health: abuse of food additives can cause chronic poisoning or acute and subacute poisoning, and different additives can cause different damage to human organs, such as benzoyl peroxide can cause damage to human liver and kidney; According to Japanese scholars, natural pigments can also cause cancer; Formaldehyde is a carcinogen recognized by scholars all over the world. Foods processed with mineral oil can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms.
I hope all students can eat safely, become good habits and have a healthy body.