Surely a large part of the population will have heard of the presence of food additives in the food we buy, especially in precooked or packaged food, and often try to avoid their consumption because they are associated with something negative.

On the other hand, it is known that although there are large economic interests behind them and they are not entirely healthy if they accumulate, they also have their role in keeping food preserved. There is a lot of controversy with these products.

What are food additives, what are they for and what effects do they have on us? This is what we will be talking about throughout this article.

Food additives: what are they and what are they for?

They receive the name of food additives to the set of substances which do not form part of the food in a natural way and which are added to the food with the purpose of adding, enhancing or modifying some of its characteristics , without adding or removing any of the nutritional properties of the food in question.

Generally, the main objective of adding this type of product is to favour its conservation for the maximum possible time, or to enhance its flavour. But it also has a sanitary sense, since food in a bad state can suffer alterations and breed bacteria, fungi and other substances dangerous to health.

Although when we talk about food additives we generally think of synthesized products, the truth is that throughout history mankind has used salt, sugar or sulfur dioxide for this purpose. Or, even, it has generated procedures such as smoking that allows food to be preserved. But little by little new ones have been generated with the purpose of increasing the time that food is preserved , enhancing the aroma, appearance or taste or reducing the cost of manufacturing processes.

Its main types

When we talk about food additives, we are not talking about something homogeneous, but about a series of elements that are added to foods but that in reality can be grouped into different types of food additives with different properties or objectives. Thus, we can find some of the following types of food additive

1. Preservatives

Probably the best known and most meaningful group of food additives, preservatives are those products that are used for the purpose of preventing deterioration of food by the activity of microorganisms . Among them we can find sorbic acid or benzoic acid, although also controversial compounds such as nitrates in marinades and sausages.

2. Flavourings

Food additives that are added for the purpose of improving the aroma and taste of food are known as flavourings.

This group generally includes products of plant origin or products that imitate their aroma, including nuts. They are usually found in sweets, pastries, wines or cereals. Elements such as sugar could also be considered as flavourings, although they are not legally considered as such.

3. Dyes

Colours are a group of food additives, which can be natural or synthetic, whose main function is to improve the visual appearance of food. Thus, their use is aimed at giving more colour to the product. An example is saffron or chlorophyll, or in the case of synthetics, erythrosine or tartrazine. However, it should be taken into account that many of these products can contribute to some health problems .

4. Antioxidants

Although many foods contain antioxidants at a natural level, it is common to find that in many foods they are added synthetically in order to prevent the food from oxidizing and becoming bad, as well as to prevent it from looking and tasting bad.

The main objective is to prevent the fats in the food from oxidizing and being lost. These can be either elements that directly remove oxidising substances from the food or substances that promote and enhance the natural antioxidants already present in the food itself. An example is found in L-ascorbic acid , generally in fruit and in packaging, lactic acid and citric acid.

5. Stabilizers, thickeners, gelling agents and emulsifiers

Although each of these names refers to a type of additive, they all share the fact that their use is based on altering the texture and composition of the food, allowing the generation of very varied products that are very different in the mouth despite having the same origin. They allow us to give more consistency to a liquid food, as well as generate gels and emulsions . However, most of them are not digestible per se. Examples of this are found in pectins or sorbitol.

6. Acidulants

Another type of food additive classified by the World Health Organization is acidulants. These products have the main objective of regulating the level of acidity of foods, or changing the taste of the product . It is typical of soft drinks, in which sulphates such as sodium or calcium are used.

7. Flavor enhancers

We call flavour enhancers that set of substances that allow to increase the perception of the flavour of the food in which they are added, in principle without the enhancer having a flavour of its own . The best known is L-glutamic acid, which in high concentrations is responsible for the umami taste.

8. Sweeteners

Along with preservatives and colours, sweeteners are the best known food additives, and perhaps the ones most widely used by the final consumer on a daily basis, regardless of whether the food chosen has them or not.

Sweeteners are a group of substances that are added to food in order to provide a sweeter taste . Generally, they are products that have been created to replace the use of sugars, which is essential for people with certain diseases. Saccharin and aspartame are the best known, along with stevia (this part of a natural product) and glycyrrhine.

9. Modified starches

This type of additive is characterized by the fact that it is based on the properties of starch to produce additives with binding properties, i.e. they are used to bring together and hold together two or more types of food that by themselves would not be able to mix .

10. Enzyme preparations

This type of food additive is a preparation based on natural proteins that aims to generate biochemical reactions in food, aiming to replace those procedures that would require the use of chemicals to perform. Typical of the preparation of cakes, fermented products or fruits . Also, the preparation may not be included in the final product that reaches us at the table.

Health effects

As we have seen, food additives are products that are considered to be useful and are used in order to preserve or try to improve the final product, or to reduce the cost of its production. But although we usually consume additives constantly, the truth is that many of them have been under investigation because in high proportions and with regular consumption they may favour the appearance of different health problems or even become directly toxic.

Among the different problems that they can cause, we can find that some additives can generate allergic reactions in some people, as well as the possibility that they make the digestion of the food more difficult, absorption problems, excretion alterations or they can even make difficult or destroy some beneficial components of the food to which they are added.

Also, in some cases they have been associated to difficulties in the transport of oxygen in the blood , to teratogenic effects that can damage the fetuses of pregnant women or even in some cases to an increase in the probability of suffering from cancer, as occurs for example with nitrates. It should also be noted that for some of them the short-term effects are known but the data on possible long-term effects are unknown or unclear.

Nevertheless, it must be said that there are various organisations that evaluate the level of toxicity of food additives and regulate their presence in food in order to reduce and try to eliminate the risks. Among other actions, they can regulate the levels of additives used, or in the case of a particular additive that is particularly dangerous, even ban its use. Even so, it may be useful to assess the type of elements that are part of the food we eat.

Bibliographic references:

  • Ibáñez, F.C.; Torre, P. and Irigoyen A. (2003). Food additives. Public University of Navarra.
  • World Health Organization. (2018). Food additives. WHO [Online]. Available at: http://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/food-additives.