Key Facts
· Food additives are substances added to food to increase its safety, extend its shelf life, and preserve or improve its taste, consistency, or appearance.
· Before using food additives, it is necessary to ensure they pose no potential harm to human health.
· The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is the international body responsible for evaluating the safety of food additives.
· Only those food additives deemed safe by JECFA based on its evaluation, and within the established maximum permissible dosage limits set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, can be used in the production of food intended for international trade.
What are food additives?
Substances added to food to increase its safety, extend its shelf life, and preserve or improve its taste, consistency, or appearance are called food additives. Some food additives have been used since ancient times to extend shelf life, such as salt (in meat products like bacon or dried fish), sugar (in jam, marmalade), or sulfur dioxide (in wine).
Many different food additives emerged in response to the needs of the food industry, as mass food production is inherently very different from home cooking. Additives are necessary to ensure the safety and preservation of the marketable condition of industrial food products at all stages: from the production workshop or factory kitchen until they reach the consumer's table, including transportation to warehouses and stores.
The use of food additives is only justified when necessitated by the specifics of the technological process, does not mislead consumers, and serves a clearly defined technological need, such as the need to preserve the nutritional value of a food product or enhance its stability.
Food additives can be of plant, animal, or mineral origin. Synthetic additives also exist. They are deliberately introduced into food products to achieve specific technological goals, which consumers are typically unaware of. Several thousand food additives are used today, each serving a specific function to ensure safety or improve the appearance of food products. WHO, together with FAO, categorizes food additives into three broad categories based on their function.
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