20
2018
-
08
Are food additives "good" or "bad"?
The Sanlu milk powder incident has made people all over the country aware of melamine, a chemical raw material, and the cause of the poisoning has been clear-the milk powder has been added with undesirable ingredients. As a result, the word "food additive" has surfaced again, and the panic about it has once again become a hot spot of concern. So, "food additives" in the end is "good" or "bad?
In fact, as mentioned earlier, "food additives" is a very broad concept, including all small ingredients added to food to play a specific role. The salt, sugar, vinegar, etc. that we come into contact with every day are also food additives. However, when people talk about the word, they usually refer to some raw materials that are not commonly synthesized. Out of the resistance to industrial products, people have far more doubts about food additives than positive.
Food processing, especially in the modern society more and more formula food, often encounter a variety of defects. In order to overcome these defects, it is necessary to carry out some special treatment, or the use of some additives. For example, fruit juice, we hope it can be stored for a longer period of time without stratification, so we need to add thickeners to increase viscosity. As for coffee companion, we need it to be evenly dispersed into coffee, and we need some dispersants. Some surfactants can just achieve this goal. Yogurt and ice cream, we want to have various flavors, so we add various flavors, and in order to obtain colors corresponding to tastes, just add different colors, such as yellow with lemon flavor, and red with strawberry flavor... It is the combination of different additives and different production conditions that make a variety of foods. Otherwise, yogurt will always be white and only sour, probably not so attractive; ice cream and cake will not have so much "artistic modeling"; and bread, probably will be as monotonous 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 derived from natural animals and plants or bacteria. Thickeners, for example, are usually extracted from algae, plant fibers, or bacterial secretions. They are usually some polysaccharides, dissolved in water can greatly increase the viscosity. Thickened liquid foods are not easy to stratify, look uniform, and tend to have a good taste. Many pigments, flavors, and lecithin as an emulsifier are also derived from plants.
In general, small molecule additives, such as emulsifiers, preservatives, acids, alkalis, defoamers, sugar substitutes, and some flavors are more easily obtained through chemical synthesis. There are also additives that are industrially produced natural products, such as monosodium glutamate, which is an amino acid synthesized by bacteria through industrial fermentation.
Most people will chase "natural products" and dislike synthetic additives. From a safety point of view, natural products do not mean safety. Animals and plants evolved to adapt to their environment, and becoming food for humans clearly doesn't help them gain a survival advantage. Whether it is natural or synthetic, it can only be confirmed by strict and reliable testing. Compared with synthetic products, the composition of natural products is complex, and the stability between different batches is also poor, so it is difficult to test the safety of natural products. Because of the lack of testing, often give people a "natural is safe" illusion. "Natural extract" or "industrial product" is not the same as "safe" or "harmful.
In fact, as mentioned earlier, "food additives" is a very broad concept, including all small ingredients added to food to play a specific role. The salt, sugar, vinegar, etc. that we come into contact with every day are also food additives. However, when people talk about the word, they usually refer to some raw materials that are not commonly synthesized. Out of the resistance to industrial products, people have far more doubts about food additives than positive.
Food processing, especially in the modern society more and more formula food, often encounter a variety of defects. In order to overcome these defects, it is necessary to carry out some special treatment, or the use of some additives. For example, fruit juice, we hope it can be stored for a longer period of time without stratification, so we need to add thickeners to increase viscosity. As for coffee companion, we need it to be evenly dispersed into coffee, and we need some dispersants. Some surfactants can just achieve this goal. Yogurt and ice cream, we want to have various flavors, so we add various flavors, and in order to obtain colors corresponding to tastes, just add different colors, such as yellow with lemon flavor, and red with strawberry flavor... It is the combination of different additives and different production conditions that make a variety of foods. Otherwise, yogurt will always be white and only sour, probably not so attractive; ice cream and cake will not have so much "artistic modeling"; and bread, probably will be as monotonous 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 derived from natural animals and plants or bacteria. Thickeners, for example, are usually extracted from algae, plant fibers, or bacterial secretions. They are usually some polysaccharides, dissolved in water can greatly increase the viscosity. Thickened liquid foods are not easy to stratify, look uniform, and tend to have a good taste. Many pigments, flavors, and lecithin as an emulsifier are also derived from plants.
In general, small molecule additives, such as emulsifiers, preservatives, acids, alkalis, defoamers, sugar substitutes, and some flavors are more easily obtained through chemical synthesis. There are also additives that are industrially produced natural products, such as monosodium glutamate, which is an amino acid synthesized by bacteria through industrial fermentation.
Most people will chase "natural products" and dislike synthetic additives. From a safety point of view, natural products do not mean safety. Animals and plants evolved to adapt to their environment, and becoming food for humans clearly doesn't help them gain a survival advantage. Whether it is natural or synthetic, it can only be confirmed by strict and reliable testing. Compared with synthetic products, the composition of natural products is complex, and the stability between different batches is also poor, so it is difficult to test the safety of natural products. Because of the lack of testing, often give people a "natural is safe" illusion. "Natural extract" or "industrial product" is not the same as "safe" or "harmful.
