Preservatives may affect people's health. Even sorbic acid and potassium sorbate, one of the internationally recognized safe preservatives, excessive intake can affect the balance of human metabolism. The mechanism of action of food preservatives: they can coagulate or denature microbial proteins, destroy or damage cell walls or interfere with the mechanism of cell wall synthesis, affect the replication, transcription, and protein translation of genetic materials, inhibit enzyme activity, and interfere with their normal metabolism.

1. What harm do preservatives do to people?

Preservatives may affect people's health. Most of the preservatives used in food production in our country are artificially synthesized. Improper use will have certain side effects. Some preservatives even contain trace amounts of toxins. Long-term excessive intake will cause certain damage to human health. Take the widely used food preservative benzoic acid as an example. Its use has always been controversial internationally. For example, because there have been reports of accumulation poisoning of benzoic acid and its sodium salt, the European Child Protection Group believes that it should not be used in In children's food, Japan has also imposed strict restrictions on its use. Even sorbic acid and potassium sorbate, one of the internationally recognized safe preservatives, excessive intake will affect the balance of human metabolism.

2. Mechanism of action of food preservatives

1. Food preservatives can coagulate or denature microbial proteins and interfere with their growth and reproduction.

2. Food preservatives can destroy or damage cell walls or interfere with the mechanism of cell wall synthesis, leading to the leakage of intracellular substances or affecting the electron transport system of the respiratory chain associated with the membrane, and have antimicrobial effects.

3. Food preservatives act on genetic material or genetic particle structure, thereby affecting the replication, transcription, and protein translation of genetic materials.

4. Food preservatives act on the enzyme system of microorganisms, inhibit enzyme activity and interfere with their normal metabolism.

3. The development trend of food preservatives

1. From high toxicity to low toxicity and safer development

With the improvement of people's health requirements , food safety standards are becoming more and more stringent. While governments of various countries are rapidly revising food safety standards and improving food safety levels, they are also using green barriers to protect their domestic food industries and reduce the impact of foreign videos on their domestic food industries.

2. Development from chemically synthesized preservatives to natural preservatives

In view of the safety and other shortcomings of chemically synthesized food preservatives, humans are constantly exploring safer and more convenient Natural food preservatives, such as nisin, natamycin, monastomycin, etc. from microbial sources, and lysozyme, chitosan, protamine, propolis, etc. from animal sources. Plant-derived agar-oligosaccharides, Eucommia ulmoides, spices, cloves, black plum extracts, etc.

3. Development from single antisepsis to broad-spectrum antisepsis

The antibacterial range of preservatives is relatively narrow, some have inhibitory effects on fungi, but are ineffective against bacteria, and some are only effective against fungi. A small number of microorganisms have inhibitory effects, so many food manufacturers add a variety of preservatives for the purpose of preservatives. People are eager to use a single food preservative in a broad sense that can both sterilize and inhibit bacteria.

4. From harsh use environment to convenient use

Some additives are sensitive to the pH value and heating temperature of food, some have poor water solubility, and some have too strong odors , some cause food to fade, etc. The development trend should be food preservatives that do not have strict requirements on the food production environment.

5. High-priced natural food preservatives are developing towards low prices

Natural food preservatives are non-toxic and harmless, but are expensive and cannot be afforded by many food production companies, such as lysozyme and lactic acid. Streptomycin, natamycin, protamine, etc. Substantially reducing the cost of natural food preservatives is one of the prerequisites for the wide-scale promotion and application of natural food preservatives.