Food processing, especially the growing number of formula foods in modern society, often encounter a variety of deficiencies. To overcome these defects, special treatments or additives are used. For fruit juice, if we want it to last longer without layering, we need to add a thickener to increase its viscosity. And coffee-mate, we need it to be able to disperse evenly into the coffee, so we need some dispersants, and some surfactants do exactly that; Yogurt and ice cream, we want to have a variety of flavors, so we add various flavors, and to get the color corresponding to the flavor, we add different pigments, such as yellow with lemon flavor, red with strawberry flavor... It is the combination of different additives and different production conditions that produces a wide variety of foods. Otherwise, yogurt is always white and only sour, probably not so attractive; Ice cream and cake don't have as many "art forms"; And bread, probably will be as dull as steamed bread. It can be said that appropriate Food Additives are indispensable ingredients in modern food.
Food Additives are not necessarily synthetic materials, many are from natural plants and animals or bacteria. Thickeners, for example, are usually extracted from algae, plant fibers, or microbe secretions. They are usually polysaccharides that dissolve in water to greatly increase their viscosity. Thickened, liquid foods don't layer easily, look even, and tend to taste good. Many pigments, fragrances, and lecithin, an emulsifier, also come from plants.
In general, small molecule additives such as emulsifiers, preservatives, acids, bases, defoamer, sugar substitutes, and some flavors are more readily available through chemical synthesis. Other additives are natural products produced by industry, such as monosodium glutamate, which is an amino acid synthesized by bacteria through industrial fermentation.
Most people prefer natural products to synthetic additives. In terms of safety, natural products do not mean safe. Plants and animals evolved to adapt to their environment, and being eaten by humans certainly doesn't help them gain a survival advantage. Whether natural or synthetic, they are safe only after rigorous and reliable testing. Compared with synthetic products, the composition of natural products is complex and the stability of different batches is less, so it is difficult to test the safety of natural products. The lack of testing often gives a false sense of security. "Natural extract" or "industrial compound" is not the same as "safe" or "harmful".
For additives, it's the word "food" that matters. There are countless substances that can perform the functions needed in a variety of foods, such as thickening, dyeing, flavoring, emulsifying, defoaming, etc. However, only a fraction of them pass the test and are allowed to be used in food. First, the function should be legitimate and beneficial. For example, the thickening of cocoa milk is to avoid precipitation of cocoa particles and to obtain a good taste, which is legitimate and reasonable. However, adding melamine to milk is only to create a false "high protein content," no matter whether melamine is toxic or non-toxic, it is not legitimate. Secondly, it has to be something that has been tested to be harmless. For example, if you add emulsifiers to ice cream, protein and lecithin are fine, but washing powder is not. The "harmless" here must be scientifically tested "harmless", not "harmless" without being tested "do not know whether there is harm". Third, even substances that can be used as
Food Additives must conform to the "food grade" production process. Hydrochloric acid, acetic acid, caustic soda, soda ash, etc., can be used as Food Additives, but the products used as industrial raw materials may contain other harmful ingredients, can not be used in food. Finally, some additives have no use restrictions, while others have dosage limits.
It can be said that countless other substances can do what Food Additives do. However, only a small part of the root is miao red, good character can be recognized by the competent authorities to obtain the "post qualification". For those licensed additives, as long as they are used properly, they are not harmful to human health. Of course, there are some individuals who muddle through, obtain certification, and later are found to have other "bad" and removed from the list. This is the limitation of the development of science. People's understanding of the world is always in constant progress. The pursuit of "absolute security" is the same as the pursuit of "absolute truth", which can be solved by religion rather than science. Additives that could do the same job, but were excluded because of their other vices, such as their health hazards, became the accomplices of the lawless. One such thing is melamine, which acts like a protein in routine tests of protein content. In fact, in addition to it, any high nitrogen content of things, such as urea, ammonium bicarbonate and other fertilizers can also, but the ability to fake no melamine strong.
If the main ingredient in food is the guarantee that we eat full, then
Food Additives are the assistant that we eat well. For food safety, it can be considered that the use of Food Additives has no harm to human body. It is natural for scientists to worry about testing their safety. Responsible authorities translate the most reliable scientific findings into decisions and norms. The real harm to social security is that those who only remember the "add" and ignore the "food", the non-Food Additives "add" to the food behavior. One cannot judge such behavior unless there are a number of adverse consequences. The solution of the problem, can only hope in the responsible departments and businesses for their own credit care. What consumer can do, choose the merchant that oneself trust only.
