Food additives

Food Additives
According to the FDA definition, it is as follows:

“Any substance that is generally consumed must have direct or indirect results from its consumption or be part of the components of food, or affect the characteristics of any food (impacting production, manufacturing, preparation, processing, packaging, treating, transporting, or storing food).”

In 1977, a nutritionist named “Dezrozier” referred to a list of chemical additives published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in his book “Food Preservation Technology”.

These substances include: activators, flavor enhancers and taste intensifiers, emulsifiers and preservatives and growth promoters, etc., and here are some of them mentioned.

Preservatives:

Preservatives are substances that can destroy harmful agents or stop their activity, or hide or delay the spoilage process. In other words, preservatives are substances that prevent undesirable changes in food and can either hide or neutralize unwanted changes in food.

The type of preservative used depends on the product type, bacterial strains, enzymes, and other spoilage factors. Excessive use of preservatives is harmful and must be monitored and controlled carefully.

Chemical preservatives are commonly divided into three groups:

1. Organic and sweet preservatives

2. Mineral preservatives

3. Common preservatives

1) Organic preservatives:

Benzoates

Propyl Ester

Vanillic Acid Ester

Glycol

Fatty Acid Propionates

Monochloroacetic Acid

Benzoates: 

One of the characteristics of benzoic acid is the benzoates, which show intense reactions. Generally, the environment to which preservatives are added is very important. For example, if the pH of the environment changes from 7 to 3.5, the acidity increases, and the microbicidal effect of preservatives may become 5-10 times stronger. The non-ionized form of benzoic acid has antimicrobial properties.

It is worth mentioning that the effect of benzoic acid on molds is less, but it is more effective on yeasts.

The recommended usage of benzoic acid is 0.1%. Esters of benzoic acid do not have much preserving power, whereas the ester of parabenzic acid is highly active, and methyl esters of this acid are very effective against fungi (molds and yeasts).