Food additives are the soul of the modern food industry, arguably, there is no modern food industry without food additives. However, we often see various news on the media and micro blog that eating food additives will pose health risks to the human body. So food additives and human health is what kind of relationship, this blog will give you a critical answer.(Bofan, 2018)
In accordance with the definition of food additive GB2760-2011 in China, the food additive is a compound or natural substance added to food for the purpose of improving the quality of food such as color, smell and taste as well as the need of preserving and processing. First of all, we can be sure that not all food additives are chemically synthesized substances, but also a large part of natural substances. The fact is true. For example: the color of the pigment in the carmine red pigment is extracted from the carmine; the thickener guar gum is extracted from the guar beans.
Before talking about the safety of food additives, I will talk about the toxicological evaluation of food additives and see how food science workers can make a substance a food additive to safely enter our diet(Banipal, 2015). These conclusions can be drawn from this toxicological evaluation procedure:
1.In the limited range of food additives will not appear acute poisoning reaction.
2.In the limited range of long-term consumption of food additives will not be teratogenicity, carcinogenic, affecting the next generation of growth.
There may be somebody in doubt here again. That melamine causes so many people stone is going on. Here we must clarify the fact that substances such as melamine, Sudan, and sliver of white matter are not food additives that are not found in our national standard. These substances are industrial additives and are illegal to use in food.(MichaelSiegrist, 2017)
I know what you have to say again. You certainly are not assured of the conscience of our regulators and enterprises. Then the next is to start around this topic. For food additives, not add as much as possible, such as pigment, add too much color will deviate from the expected impact on sales; sweetener too much, causing the food too sweet and will you eat it? So, the nature of some food additives naturally determines that this food additive cannot be added too much. For businesses, the amount of 1mg / kg will be able to achieve the expected 1.5mg / kg is the use of limited, why should I go beyond the standard added to 2mg / kg? Not only to bear legal risks, but also spend unnecessary costs, if you are a business owner will you increase the amount of it? In addition, the larger market share of large enterprises, the use of food additives exceeded or out of range, once detected, faced with not only huge ticket, it is likely to smash their own brand lost the entire consumer market, outweigh the benefits, Therefore, for the well-known large-scale famous brands, they will not sacrifice profits by exceeding this area by using small amounts of food additives to kill their own business. However, those small handicrafts and roadside street vendors’ food and food additives are likely to exceed their standards and even use illegal additives because they can shoot a shot at different places and regulators can hardly supervise it. There is also a doubt that we often have. Is the poisonous bread safe? Is it safe to blend vinegar? What about the problem juice? News exposure of poisonous bread, refers to businesses claiming to be corn bread, and actually used lemon yellow dye, although this dose did not exceed the safe dose, but because the national standard does not allow the use of pigment in the bread, therefore This method of use is suspected of illegal, we call it the use of food additives beyond the scope, this does not mean that the food additives toxic, and this “poison” is the reporter himself, the reporter is not a food professional, knowledge of food additives may exist mistakes. Blend vinegar here, if the packaging is clearly written on the preparation of vinegar instead of brewing vinegar, other aspects also meet the national standards, then there is no problem, but if it is claimed to be brewing vinegar but in fact is the preparation of glacial acetic acid is suspected False propaganda, but also does not involve the safety of food additives. The same problem drinks, claiming to be fruit juice or fruit juice, in fact, not the same is a false propaganda issue, also does not involve the safety of food additives(Saltmarsh, 2014).
The final expression is actually the fact that food additives are not terrible as the media said, in fact, it is a reasonable limit in a way to make our food more delicious, more attractive and also let food safer. We refuse to buy illegal products and small workshops food products in the purchase, and buying the products manufactured by manufacturers will be able to ensure that one of the food additives will not give us the risk of health while enjoying the happiness which modern food industry brings to our taste buds. At the same time, we focus on food additives that point can be negligible risk, it is not better than caring about the nutrition label on products, think about their own sugar, fat, excessive salt intake, inadequate intake of vitamins, dietary fiber. Too much fat and high calorie food, stay in the room without exercising, these are the main factors that really affect our health.