What is the origin of food additives? The history of the development of food additives

Starting from fried dough sticks and tofu, China has a long history of applying additives. As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, salt brine was used as a coagulant to make tofu. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the recipe of fritters with one alum, two alkalis and three salts has been recorded, and it is a high-quality and inexpensive food on the breakfast table of the common people.

Chinese people have eaten fritters and tofu for thousands of years, and there has not been a single case of poisoning caused by long-term eating of this food in history. Nitrite was used in the Southern Song Dynasty about 800 years ago for the production of bacon balls. In the 6th century AD, the agricultural scientist Jia Siqian Xi é also recorded the method of using natural pigments in food in the "Qi Min Yao Shu".

Kimchi has a history of thousands of years. In the process of processing, the ancestors unconsciously used food additives, and in the past, table salt and sea salt were all crude Tiantuan first salt, which was the factor that made the taste of kimchi crispy. Worldwide, in 1500 BC, food coloring was used in Egypt to color sweets, and in the 4th century BC, people began to artificially color wine.

The earliest chemically synthesized food additive used was the dye pigment aniline violet made from coal tar in 1856 by the British or Yanren.

1. Prevent deterioration.

For example, preservatives can prevent food spoilage caused by microorganisms, prolong the shelf life of food, and also prevent food poisoning caused by microbial contamination.

Another example is that antioxidants can prevent or delay the oxidative deterioration of food, providing stability and shelf-storing resistance of food, as well as preventing the formation of potentially harmful auto-oxidizing substances in fats and fats. In addition, it can also be used to prevent enzymatic browning and non-enzymatic browning of fruits, vegetables.

All of these are of certain significance to the preservation of food.

2. Improve the senses.

Improving the sensory properties of food, appropriately using colorants, color protectors, bleaching agents, edible spices, emulsifiers, thickeners and other food additives can significantly improve the sensory quality of food and meet people's different needs.

With the exception of real natural wild foods, all foods that have been processed by humans contain added ingredients.

Food additive family.

According to the Food Sanitation Law of the People's Republic of China, food additives refer to "chemical synthetic or natural substances added to food for the purpose of improving food quality, color, aroma and taste, as well as for the needs of preservative and processing technology".

Commonly used additives include:

Pigments, flavors, bleach, flavor enhancers, sweeteners, loosening agents, etc. added to improve quality.

Antioxidants and preservatives added to prevent food spoilage.

Stabilizers, emulsifiers, defoamers, etc., added to facilitate processing.

Nutritional fortifiers such as vitamins, amino acids, and minerals added to increase the nutritional value of food.

Food additives refer to chemical synthetic substances or natural substances added to food for the purpose of improving food quality, color, aroma, taste, preservative and processing technology.

Food additives are divided into two categories: natural and synthetic, and natural food additives are mainly automatic, plant tissue or microbial metabolites. Synthetic food additives are made by chemical means to produce a series of chemical reactions between elements and compounds. At this stage, there are fewer varieties of natural food additives, higher varieties, and the varieties of synthetic food additives are relatively complete, low, and the amount of use is smaller, but the toxicity of the latter is greater than the former, especially the quality of synthetic food additives is impure mixed with harmful impurities, or the dosage is too large, which is easy to cause harm to the body.

Therefore, at present, food additives focus on the development of natural food additives, and use natural and artificial mixed food additives to make up for their shortcomings.

Food additives are divided into preservatives, antioxidants, colorants, bleaching agents, flavoring agents, coagulants, loosening agents, thickeners, defoamers, sweeteners, colorants, emulsifiers, quality improvers, antagonists, flavor enhancers, preservatives, enzyme preparations, film agents, spices, nutritional enhancers and others.

There are biological types and chemical types, like polylysine, lactic acid streptococcus, natamycin are biological type of preservatives, especially polylysine, which is polymerized by lysine, after eating, it is decomposed by the human body into one of the eight essential amino acids lysine, which can be absorbed as nutrients and is absolutely non-toxic to the human body.

White sugar is also an additive.

You get the idea.

There are no additives, so you can only eat rice, white noodles, and drink white water.

That's what it means.

Industrial synthesis or animal and plant extraction.

According to China's Food Sanitation Law (1995), food additives are synthetic or natural substances added to food for the purpose of improving the quality, such as color, aroma and taste of food, as well as for the needs of preservative and processing technology [1].

At present, there are 23 categories of food additives in China, with more than 2,000 varieties, including acidity regulators, anti-caking agents, defoamers, antioxidants, bleaching agents, leavening agents, colorants, color protection agents, enzyme preparations, flavor enhancers, nutritional enhancers, preservatives, sweeteners, thickeners, spices, etc.

countries around the world on food additives.

The definition is different, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Food Regulatory Commission defines food additives as: food additives are consciously generally added to food in small amounts.

Non-nutrients that improve the appearance, flavor and tissue structure of food or storage properties. According to this definition, food fortifiers intended to enhance the nutritional content of food should not be included in the scope of food additives.

Joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Commission on Food Regulations:

Food additives are non-nutrients that are consciously added to food in small amounts to improve the appearance, flavor, tissue structure or storage properties of food.

EU: Food additives are any substances that are artificially added to food for technical purposes during the production, processing, preparation, handling, packaging, transportation or storage of food.

United States: Food additives are substances that are intentionally used to cause or are expected to cause them to become a food ingredient or affect the characteristics of a food, directly or indirectly.

China: In accordance with Article 54 of the Food Sanitation Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 28 of the Measures for the Hygiene Administration of Food Additives, as well as the Hygiene Management Office of Food Nutrition Fortifiers.

Article 2 of the Law and Article 99 of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, China defines food additives as: food additives, which refer to food additives for the purpose of improving food quality and color, aroma and taste, as well as for preservative, preservation and processing technology.

Synthetic or natural substances that need to be added to food.

In accordance with GB2760-2011 "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" [2].

Food additives are defined as "synthetic or natural substances added to food for the purpose of improving food quality, color, aroma and taste, as well as for the needs of preservative, preservation and processing technology." Nutritional fortifiers, food flavors, basic substances in gum-based confectionery, and processing aids for the food industry are also included. ”

Food additives refer to chemical synthetic or natural substances added to food for the purpose of improving food quality, color, aroma and taste, as well as for the needs of preservative and processing technology. Feed additives are defined as small or microtrophic or non-nutritive substances added to feed to meet special needs.

Definition of food additives:

1) In order to improve the quality, color, aroma, taste, preservative and processing technology of food, chemical synthetic substances or natural substances added to food, nutrition enhancers in China are also food additives.

2) Nutritional fortifiers refer to natural or synthetic food additives that are added to food in order to enhance nutritional composition, which belong to the range of natural nutrients.

Food additives are a class of chemical synthetic or natural substances used to improve food quality, extend food shelf life, facilitate food processing and increase food nutrients.

Food additives are a class of chemical compounds or natural substances added to food to improve the color, aroma, taste and other qualities of food, as well as for the needs of preservative and processing technology. At present, there are more than 20 categories and nearly 1,000 kinds of food additives in China, such as acidity regulators, sweeteners, bleaching agents, colorants, emulsifiers, thickeners, preservatives, nutritional enhancers, etc.

According to the provisions of China's Food Safety Law, food additives are synthetic or natural substances added to food for the purpose of improving the quality, such as color, aroma and taste of food, as well as for the needs of preservative and processing technology.