Have you ever wondered what all those items on the food label with numbers next to them are?
The more processed the food, the more ingredients you will find on the label, and the more additives there may be.
Additives are used to increase the shelf-life and the taste of the food.
These are five common food additives:
- – stop ingredients from becoming lumpy.
- – prevent foods from oxidising, or going rancid.
- – increase the sweetness.
- – stop fats from clotting together.
- – maintain the right acid level.
- – enhance or add colour.
Food additives are defined as any chemical whether natural in origin or synthetic which is not normally taken as a food or consumed as a food instead is added to food products to enhance quality and desirable properties of food. Below is a chart of common additives, their numbers and what they are intended to do.
Food additives may not be providing any nutritional value to food products but food additives are added intentionally to boost food qualities either directly or indirectly. You probably require knowledge of chemistry to understand each of the additives in these ‘pleasure’ foods.
Below is an example of four additives which you probably would be happy to have in the food.
