Scientific understanding of food additives

The history of human use of food additives is as long as the history of human civilization. The history of the use of food additives in my country can be traced back to the Dawenkou culture period 6,000 years ago. At that time, the invertase (sucrase) in yeast used for brewing was a food additive and belonged to food enzyme preparations; more than 2,000 years ago, tofu was made with "brine", which was actually a food additive and belonged to food coagulant. Recently, food additives have again attracted attention. In order to help consumers understand food additives scientifically, the following scientific interpretation is made.

What are food additives?

Food additives refer to artificial or natural substances added to food to improve food quality and color, aroma and taste, as well as for the needs of preservation, freshness and processing technology. Food additives can be produced by chemical synthesis, biological fermentation or natural extraction. There are about 15,000 food additives approved worldwide. At present, there are more than 2,300 food additives approved for use in my country, which are divided into 22 categories according to function. Common ones include antioxidants, leavening agents, colorants, preservatives, sweeteners, food flavors, etc.

The use of food additives improves product quality, enriches food varieties, and meets consumers' diversified consumption needs for food. Without food additives, there would be no modern food industry. Food additives mainly have the following functions:

• Maintain or improve the nutritional value of food itself;
• As a necessary ingredient or component of some special dietary foods;
• Improve the quality and stability of food and improve its sensory properties;
• Facilitate the production, processing, packaging, transportation or storage of food.

For example, antioxidants are added to edible oils to delay or hinder oil oxidation; colorants are added to candies to give them a good color.

Reasonable use of food additives will not affect human health

To protect consumer health, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have established a special Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) to establish globally unified food additive food safety risk assessment principles and methods, and carry out food safety risk assessment of food additives at the international level. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has established international standards for the use of food additives (non-mandatory). As the host country of the Codex Committee on Food Additives, my country is in line with international standards and carries out food safety risk assessment of food additives based on the actual production and use of food additives in China and the food consumption data of residents.

The current "National Food Safety Standard - Standard for the Use of Food Additives" (GB 2760-2014) stipulates the principles for the use of food additives, the types of food additives allowed, the scope of use and the maximum amount or residue of food additives.

The basic requirements that food additives should meet when using mainly include:

• Should not cause any health hazards to the human body;
• Should not cover up food corruption and deterioration;
• Food additives should not be used to cover up quality defects in the food itself or in the processing process or for the purpose of adulteration, adulteration or counterfeiting;
• Should not reduce the nutritional value of the food itself;

The amount used in food should be reduced as much as possible under the premise of achieving the expected effect.

Food additives are not equal to illegal additives

In accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law, my country has established a series of management systems for food additives.

A strict approval system is implemented for food additives before they are put on the market;

A production license system is implemented for food additive manufacturers during production;

A food safety risk assessment system for food additives is established during use, and more than 700 mandatory national food safety standards covering food additive use regulations, product requirements, production specifications, labeling, inspection methods, etc. are formulated.

In addition, food additive production, operation and use requirements and corresponding supervision and management systems, as well as food additive import and export management systems, have also been established.