Food additives
With industrial progress, people began to use various chemicals for household tasks in place of natural materials. Many such substances are used at home today; food additives, cleaning agents, medicines, paints, cosmetics and coatings are the main ones.
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Food additives and E numbers
Various substances are added to food to improve its taste, smell and appearance, to raise its nutrition and to make it keep. The code system the European Union uses to label food additives that have been tested, confirmed safe and permitted is the E number. Even for some substances with E numbers, there are big questions about whether they are suitable.
Activities 15.3 and 15.4
- Find the E numbers on the labels of products brought home. What does each stand for, why is it added, and what harm can it do?
- Investigate the artificial substances used to preserve, colour and flavour processed food brought home, in a table of food — substances in it — harmful effects.
For extra knowledge — food additives
| Additive and purpose | Substances | Harmful effects |
|---|---|---|
| Colourings (attractive appearance) | FDSC Blue No 1, FDSC Red No 40, beta-carotene | Allergy, disorders in children |
| Sweeteners | Sucrose, glucose, fructose | Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a protruding belly |
| Flavourings | Monosodium glutamate (MSG) | Headache, chest pain, weakened taste buds, heart trouble |
| Preservatives (stop food spoiling) | Ascorbic acid, BHA, BHT, EDTA, sodium benzoate, calcium propanoate, sodium nitrate (NaNO3) | Allergy, nausea, vomiting, stomach upset, infertility, cancer, DNA damage, liver and kidney trouble |
| Stabilisers (better texture) | Gelatine, pectin | Diarrhoea, digestive trouble |
| Raising agents | Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), calcium carbonate, monocalcium phosphate | Stomach upset, cancer |
| Bleaches | Sulphur dioxide (SO2) | Breathing difficulty |
| Nutrients (replace nutrition lost in processing) | Thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, ascorbic acid | Nausea, vomiting |
Diseases linked to chemicals added to food include asthma, kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, cancers (of the gut, lungs, liver and thyroid gland), allergies (skin disease), nutrition-related disease, disorders of the nervous system, overactivity in children, slow and criminal mental states, and diseases of the gut.
The textbook's table prints the bleach as "sulphur dioxide (SO)"; the formula is SO2.
Read the label
Additives colour, sweeten, flavour, preserve and stabilise food; E numbers identify permitted ones, but some still raise health concerns.