17 Jul 2014 A review of synthetic, natural food additives

While they may be feared, spurned and hopelessly misunderstood in today’s world, the fact is that mankind depends on food additives; in fact, the industrialised world would not have been possible without them. A FREE paper published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety analyses the safety and toxicity of the most important preservatives, nutritional additives, colouring, flavouring, texturising, and miscellaneous agents.

The citizens of industrialised societies are not often involved in the cultivation, harvesting, and processing of the food they eat. Due to this fact, processed food has to be transported across large distances to reach consumers. In order to ensure that the food reaches its destination in good conditions, special requirements are needed, mainly to prevent contamination and spoilage.

The pressing issue to feed the increasing world population has created a demand to enhance food production, which has to be cheaper, but at the same time must meet high quality standards. Taste, appearance, texture, and microbiological safety are required to be preserved within a foodstuff for the longest period of time.

Although considerable improvements have been achieved in terms of food additives, some are still enveloped in controversy. The lack of uniformity in worldwide laws regarding additives, along with conflicting results of many studies help foster this controversy.

Today, more than 2 500 additives are intentionally added to food in order to keep certain properties or to extend shelf life, while many others were banned throughout the years.

Natural additives and extracts, which are gaining interest due to changes in consumer habits are also evaluated in terms of their benefits to health and combined effects.

Technologies, like edible coatings and films, which have helped overcome some drawbacks of additives, but still pose some disadvantages, are briefly addressed.

Future trends like nanoencapsulation and the development of “smart” additives and packages, specific vaccines for intolerance to additives, use of fungi to produce additives, and DNA recombinant technologies are summarised.

The authors conclude that they believe what needs to happen is a “soft transition into the natural additives with a simultaneous reduction of additives altogether, relying on new technologies to carry out the same effects. There is no timeframe for this to happen, but it will surely take place, and there are four forces that will decide the fate of additives: legislators, scientists, commercial enterprises, and ultimately, consumers.”

Journal Reference:

Adding Molecules to Food, Pros and Cons: A Review on Synthetic and Natural Food Additives

Márcio Caroch, Maria Filomena Barreiro, Patricia Morales and Isabel CFR Ferreira