Food additives refer to a kind of chemical synthetic or natural substances used to improve food quality, prolong food shelf life, facilitate food processing and increase food nutrients.
Food additives have greatly promoted the development of food industry and are known as the soul of modern food industry, mainly because they have brought many benefits to food industry.
1. is beneficial to preservation and prevention of deterioration.
2. Improve the sensory characteristics of food.
3. Maintain or improve the nutritional value of food.
4. Increase the diversity and convenience of food.
5. It is beneficial to food processing and adapts to the mechanization and automation of production.
6. Meet other special needs
In fact, it is more dangerous not to use preservatives, because spoiled food often causes food poisoning diseases. In addition, preservatives can not only prevent food from spoilage, but also kill toxic microorganisms such as Aspergillus, which is undoubtedly beneficial to human health.
Safe dosage of food additives: the dosage of food additives without any toxic and side effects on health, expressed by the mass per kilogram per day (mg), that is, mg/kg.
Nowadays, there are two kinds of edible pigments in common use: natural pigments and synthetic pigments. Natural pigments are derived from natural materials, mainly extracted from plant tissues, and also include some pigments from animals and microorganisms. Synthetic pigment refers to the organic pigment prepared by artificial chemical synthesis, which is mainly made of aniline dye separated from coal tar. In the long-term application process of food additives, people did not realize the harm of synthetic pigments, and compared with natural pigments, synthetic pigments have the advantages of bright color, strong coloring power, stable properties and low price. Synthetic pigments are widely used in food processing industry in many countries. With the development of society and the improvement of people's living standards, more and more people question whether the use of synthetic pigments in food will do harm to human health. At the same time, a large number of research reports point out that almost all synthetic pigments can not provide nutrition to human body, and some synthetic pigments may even endanger human health. When eating exquisite snacks, fast food boxes and delicious hot dogs, take a look at the nutrient composition list on beautifully printed packaged foods, and you will find that there are additives in each food. It is understood that there are four most common ingredients in processed foods, namely, trans fat, refined grain products, salt and high-fructose syrup, which are harmful to human health. Some of them are harmful if excessive, such as citric acid, stevioside, aspartame, sodium cyclamate, Finnish white pigment, vanillin, ethyl maltol, potassium sorbate and so on. As long as it is added excessively, it is basically harmless.