This document discusses food additives and their uses. It begins by explaining that food additives are substances added to food to preserve or enhance qualities like flavor, taste, appearance, and shelf life. Additives can be intentional, like those used for enrichment or fortification, or unintentional, like residues from pesticides. The document then covers the functions and categories of various food additives like acids, colors, preservatives, sweeteners, and emulsifiers. It discusses regulations on additives and concludes by acknowledging image sources.

1. FOOD ADDITIVES
Dr. Ananta Saikia
Professor
Department of Horticulture
Assam Agricultural University
Jorhat 785013

2. Why do we
use additives
more now
than we did in
the past?

3. The public has come
to expect food from
farmers, processors
and retailers to be
wholesome and free
from microbes, toxins,
pesticides and drug
residues.

4. WHOLESOME FOOD……
 High in nutritional value
 Good taste
 Long shelf life
 Safe
 Sensory pleasing

5. CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT WHOLESOMENESS
 Temperature
 Sanitation
 Storage
 Packaging
 Age
 Preservation techniques

6. WHAT ARE FOOD ADDITIVES?
 Food additives are substances added to
food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste
and appearance.
 Food additives are also defined as “any substance not
normally consumed as a food in itself and not normally used
as a characteristic ingredient of food, whether or not it has
nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to a food for a
technological purpose in the manufacture, processing,
preparation, treatment, packaging, transport or storage of
such food results, or may be reasonably expected to result, in
it or its by-products becoming directly or indirectly a
component of such foods”
 Food Additives can be intentional or unintentional.

7. INTENTIONAL ADDITIVES
Enrichment – restore lost nutrients to
food
Fortification – increase nutritional
value of food

8. UNINTENTIONAL ADDITIVES
Insecticides
Fungicides
Herbicides
Plant Growth Regulators
Hormones and Antibiotics

9. FUNCTIONS/PURPOSE
Prolong shelf life
Change/preserve color
Enhance flavor
Improve nutritional value
Compensate for vitamin and mineral
deficiencies
Maintain freshness
Prevent spoiling
Facilitate food processing

10. DELANEY CLAUSE, 1958
No substance known to cause cancer
in animals or humans at any dose
level shall be purposefully added to
food.

11. IMPROPER USE
To cover up faulty or inferior products
To deceive consumers
To produce effects that can not be
otherwise be achieved safely

12. BENEFITS OF FOOD ADDITIVES
Reduce food spoilage
Maintain nutrient quality
Lower food costs
Reduce occurrence of disease

13. RISKS
Cancer, birth defects,
allergies, and health
problems can result.
Oil is soluble in body fat.
The cost of food
production increases for
farmers/entrepreneurs.

14. WHY NOT KEEP TO NATURAL ADDITIVES?
 Some artificial colours have almost disappeared
from foods being identified as harmful.
 No sufficient variety of natural additives required to
perform all the required functions of additives.
 Manmade additives may prove more efficient at
preserving
 Some natural colours fade in some products.
Source: Food, a fact of life 2009

15. NUMBERING OF ADDITIVES
 Each additive is assigned a unique number, termed
as "E numbers“ which is used in Europe for all
approved additives. This numbering scheme has
now been adopted and extended by the Codex
Alimentarius Commission
E 100 – Curcumin, turmeric
E 123 – Amaranth
E 140 – Chlorophylls, Chlorophyllin
E 210 – Benzoic acid
E 224 – Potassium metabisulphite
E 300 – Ascorbic acid
E 330 – Citric acid

16. TYPES OF ADDITIVES
 Natural – found naturally, such as extracts
from beetroot juice (E162), used as a
colouring agent;
 Manmade versions – synthetic identical
copies of substances found naturally, such
as benzoic acid (E210), used as a
preservative;
 Artificial – produced synthetically and not
found naturally, such as Nisin (E234), used
as a preservative in some dairy products and
in semolina and tapioca puddings.

17. CATEGORIES OF FOOD ADDITIVES

18. ACIDS
 Food acids are added to make flavors "sharper",
and also act as preservatives and antioxidants.
 Common food acids include vinegar, citric acid,
tartaric acid, malic acid, fumaric acid, and lactic
acid.

19. ACIDITY REGULATORS
 Acidity regulators are used to change or otherwise
control the acidity and alkalinity of foods.
 Examples --- Acetic acid, Citric acid

20. ANTIFOAMING AGENTS
 Antifoaming agents reduce or prevent foaming in
foods.
 Examples -- polydimethylsiloxane (a type of
silicone). Silicone oil is also added to cooking oil to
prevent foaming in deep-frying.

21. ANTICAKING AGENTS
 Anticaking agents keep powders such as milk
powder from caking or sticking.
 Examples -- Sodium bicarbonate (E500), Calcium
silicate (E552), Sodium aluminosilicate (E554),
Bentonite (E558)

22. ANTIOXIDANTS
 Antioxidants act as preservatives by inhibiting the
effects of oxygen on food, and can be beneficial to
health.
 Examples – Ascorbic acid (Vit C), Tocopherols (Vit
E)

23. BULKING AGENTS
 Bulking agents such as starch are additives that
increase the bulk of a food without affecting its
nutritional value.

24. FOOD COLORING
 Colorings are added to food to replace colors lost during
preparation, or to make food look more attractive.
 Natural colorants are Caramel coloring (E150), Annatto
(E160b), chlorophyll (E140), Cochineal (E120), Betanin
extracted from beets, Turmeric (curcuminoids, E100),
Grape Skin Extract etc.
 Synthetic colorants are FD&C Blue No. 1 – (E133), FD&C
Green No. 3 (E143), FD&C Red No. 40 (E129) etc.

25. COLOR RETENTION AGENTS
 In contrast to colorings, color retention agents are
used to preserve a food's existing color.
 Example – Ascorbic acid (E300)

26. EMULSIFIERS
 Emulsifiers allow water and oils to remain mixed
together in an emulsion, as in mayonnaise, ice
cream, and homogenized milk.

27. FLAVOURS
 Flavours are additives that give food a particular
taste or smell, and may be derived from natural
ingredients or created artificially.

28. FLAVOR ENHANCERS
 Flavor enhancers enhance a food's existing flavors.
They may be extracted from natural sources
(through distillation, solvent extraction, maceration,
among other methods) or created artificially.
 E620 Glutamic acid
 E621 Monosodium glutamate, MSG
 E622 Monopotassium glutamate

29. FLOUR TREATMENT AGENTS
 Flour treatment agents are added to flour to
improve its color or its use in baking.
 azodicarbonamide (E927)
 carbamide (E927b)

30. GLAZING AGENTS
 Glazing agents provide a shiny appearance or
protective coating to foods.
 Stearic acid (E570)
 Beeswax (E901)
 Candelilla wax (E902)

31. HUMECTANTS
 Humectants prevent foods from drying out.
 Examples – glycerol/propylene glycol (E1520), and
glyceryl triacetate (E1518), sorbitol (E420)

32. PRESERVATIVES
 Preservatives prevent or inhibit spoilage of food
due to fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms.

33. STABILIZERS
 Stabilizers, thickeners and gelling agents, like agar
or pectin (used in jam for example) give foods a
firmer texture. While they are not true emulsifiers,
they help to stabilize emulsions.

34. SWEETENERS
 Sweeteners are added to foods for flavoring.
Sweeteners other than sugar are added to keep the
food energy (calories) low, or because they have
beneficial effects for diabetes mellitus and tooth
decay and diarrhea.
 Some sugar substitutes are natural and some are
synthetic. Those that are not natural are, in general,
called artificial sweeteners.
 Examples -- stevia, aspartame, sucralose,
neotame, acesulfame potassium, and saccharin

35. THICKENERS
 Thickeners are substances which, when added to
the mixture, increase its viscosity without
substantially modifying its other properties.
 Example -- arrowroot, cornstarch, potato starch,
sago, tapioca, vegetable gums (guar gum, locust
bean gum, and xanthan gum, protein (Proteins
used as food thickeners include collagen, egg
whites etc.

36. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All the photographs and graphics used in the slides are downloaded versions
from web. Thanks to those creators for their brilliant works