Application of food additives

Food additives play a crucial role in modern food industry. While accounting for less than 2% of food products, they are indispensable in improving food color, aroma, taste, adjusting nutrition structure, enhancing processing conditions, and extending shelf life. In the supermarket, with a wide variety of processed foods on the shelves, these food additive components are everywhere in the ingredient lists. From grain and oil processing to condiment production, from snack foods to fruit and vegetable preservation, even in daily meals, the processing and application of food additives are indisepensible.

The importance of food additives is not only reflected in improving the taste and quality of food, but also in the development and progress of modern food industry. Without food additives, modern food industry would not be able to operate effectively, and aspects such as food taste, shelf life, and processing conditions would be difficult to control. Therefore, it can be said that food additives are an important support for modern food industry.

With the continuous improvement of people's living standards and increasing concern for health, nutritional foods, green foods, and functional foods have become consumption hotspots. This has not only promoted the rapid development of China's food industry, but also raised higher requirements for the development of food additives. People's concern for food safety and health has prompted the food industry to pay more attention to safety, nutrition, and health in the research, development, and application of food additives. Therefore, the development direction of food additives will be more focused on being green, natural, and healthy, to meet people's higher requirements for food quality and safety.

The Application of Food Additives

Food additives are widely used in various aspects to enhance the quality, color, aroma, taste, and preserve freshness of foods, or to meet specific processing needs. In modern food industry, food additives serve as indispensable auxiliary materials and are extensively applied in the production and processing of various food products.

Currently, there are over 10,000 types of food additives used internationally, while in China, more than 20 categories and over 2,000 varieties of food additives are approved for use. These food additives can be classified into several groups, including colorants, preservatives, antioxidants, thickeners, acidity regulators, sweeteners, and flavor enhancers. Each food additive has its specific purpose and function to meet the processing needs of different foods.

In the food processing process, the use of food additives can effectively improve the taste, appearance, and flavor of food, extend the shelf life, and ensure food quality and safety. For instance, colorants make food more appealing, preservatives prevent food from spoiling, antioxidants extend the shelf life of food, and thickeners enrich the texture.

Therefore, the application of food additives in food processing not only enhances food quality and taste, but also ensures food safety and stability. The scientific and rational use of food additives will further promote the development of the food industry and meet people's diverse demands for food.

In the food industry, sensory quality—including color, aroma, taste, appearance, and texture—is a crucial criterion for evaluating the overall quality of food. To satisfy consumers' diverse demands for food flavor and taste, a series of additives and modifiers are often used in food processing to optimize these sensory indicators.

Flavoring agents and aroma enhancers play a vital role in food, as they adjust the aroma and taste of food, providing consumers with a pleasant dining experience. Flavoring agents mainly include edible spices and flavors, where edible spices are mostly plant-based sources such as essential oils, pressed oils, and aromatic oils. Meanwhile, edible flavors are carefully formulated with various spices and diluents to mimic the aroma of natural fruits and vegetables, such as coffee, cocoa, cream, and various fruits. Flavor enhancers, on the other hand, give food a more delicious taste while balancing its sour, sweet, and other flavors.

Vibrant colors not only enhance the sensory quality of food but also provide visual enjoyment for consumers. In China, commonly used synthetic colorants such as erythrosine, tartrazine, sunset yellow, and amaranth are widely applied in food processing. For instance, erythrosine and tartrazine are common colorants found in jelly.

For wheat-based products like steamed buns, bread, and pastries, additives such as yeast, leavening agents (like baking powder which can be packed by our powder packing machine), emulsifiers, flour improvers, and bleaching agents play crucial roles in the processing. They increase the volume, improve color and texture, and may enhance nutritional value, offering consumers better food options.

Fresh foods and high-protein products, if not handled promptly or properly, are prone to rapid spoilage post-production, leading to resource loss and posing health threats to consumers. Preservatives and antioxidants serve as key protective barriers, ensuring that food remains free from oxidation and spoilage during processing, storage, and distribution, thus maintaining the expected quality throughout the shelf life. Additionally, these additives are essential for preserving the nutritional value of food.

In China, commonly used food preservatives include benzoic acid and its salts, sorbic acid and its salts, propionic acid and its salts, and parabens. Antioxidants mainly comprise butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and propyl gallate (PG). The scientific application of these additives not only extends the shelf life of food but also provides consumers with safer, more reliable food choices.

Furthermore, food fortificants, as supplements of natural nutrients, significantly enhance the nutritional value of food. By appropriately adding these fortificants, we can effectively improve the nutritional composition of food to meet the body's requirements for various nutrients. Particularly in geographically specific regions with nutrient deficiencies, such as iodine deficiency disorders prevalent in inland areas far from the sea, the mandatory addition of potassium iodide (KI) to table salt, known as "iodized salt," effectively addresses this issue, ensuring people's health. This measure not only prevents malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies but also promotes nutritional balance, thus improving overall health.

In the meticulous process of food processing, the clever use of thickeners, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and gelling agents greatly promotes the convenience and efficiency of food processing. These additives not only facilitate various functions like emulsification, thickening, dispersion, leavening, filtration aid, stabilization, foaming, or defoaming but also provide strong support for the mechanization and continuous production processes, further enhancing the convenience of food processing operations.

Emulsifiers play a crucial role in improving the uniformity of food in food processing. They find widespread applications in the production of bread, pastries, candies, and other food items. Common emulsifier varieties include monoacylglycerols, sorbitan fatty acid esters, sucrose fatty acid esters, soy lecithin, and propylene glycol esters, effectively enhancing the texture and mouthfeel of food.

Thickeners are key additives used to increase the viscosity of food. By adding thickeners, food matrices can maintain a stable suspension or emulsion state or form gels. Common thickeners include gelatin, xanthan gum, agar (also known as agar jelly or agar), carrageenan (also known as Irish moss gum or carrageen), pectin, maltodextrin, and alginates. For example, in the popular summer treat ice cream, the application of thickeners allows for the refinement of ice crystals during the freezing process, resulting in a smoother, creamier texture of the product.

Stabilizers and coagulants also play an indispensable role in food processing. These additives, such as various calcium salts (calcium chloride, emulsified calcium, etc.), can promote the transformation of soluble pectin into gel-like calcium pectate, thus maintaining the crispiness and hardness of fruit and vegetable processed products and preventing them from softening. In the production process of tofu, protein coagulants such as bittern (a by-product of seawater desalination) and calcium sulfate play a vital role in solidification, ensuring the formation and texture of tofu.

By carefully selecting and using these additives, the food processing industry is able to guarantee food quality while achieving more efficient and convenient production processes.

Food additives, as an indispensable part of modern food processing, play an important role in improving food quality and extending shelf life. However, their safety has always been a focus of social attention. Ideally, food additives should be harmless and beneficial, but in practical applications, absolute safety is often difficult to achieve.

In China, the health department has formulated strict regulations on the usage and types of food additives. However, in the fierce market competition, some companies or individuals may exceed the limits of additive use or even use illegal additives in order to reduce costs and improve the appearance and certain quality indicators of food, thus posing potential threats to consumers' health.

Issues in the Application of Food Additives

The excessive use of food additives is a widespread issue. For instance, the excessive addition of "benzoyl peroxide" to flour or the overuse of benzoic acid in pickled vegetables can potentially have adverse effects on human health. When these additives are overused, they may disrupt the body's enzyme and digestive systems, leading to allergic reactions or poisoning.

The unauthorized use of food additives is also a concern. Some businesses or individuals may use unapproved food additives, such as synthetic colorants or preservatives, in pursuit of specific food effects. The safety of these additives has not been fully validated, posing potential unknown risks.

The abuse of illegal additives is an even more serious problem. Unscrupulous merchants may use industrial-grade raw materials or other illegal additives to reduce costs or enhance certain properties of food. These substances often contain harmful chemical components like heavy metals or pesticide residues, which can have serious long-term effects on human health if ingested.

Therefore, in the application of food additives, we must remain vigilant and strictly adhere to relevant national laws, regulations, and standards to ensure the safety and compliance of food additives. Meanwhile, consumers should raise awareness of food safety, choose reputable brands and channels to purchase food, and avoid consuming unsafe products.

Although China's "Hygienic Standards for the Use of Food Additives" clearly stipulate the limits of food additive use in food, in reality, due to commercial interests, some non-standard practices regarding additives persist, posing potential health risks.

I. Excessive Use of Additives

To cater to consumers' sensory demands, many food processing companies spare no effort in exceeding standard limits of food additives. For example, sodium metabisulfite is excessively used to process daylily to enhance color and preservation, or hydrogen peroxide is added to flour beyond regulations to achieve a whiter hue. More concerning is the excessive addition of preservatives (such as benzoic acid), sweeteners (sodium saccharin, aspartame), and artificial synthetic colorants in some dairy beverages, fruit juices, and candied fruits to prolong shelf life and reduce costs. While these overused additives may not cause noticeable symptoms in the short term, their long-term accumulation could have adverse health effects, such as pigment deposition in the body, and harm to the nervous and digestive systems; prolonged intake of excessive preservatives may also increase the risk of cancer.

II. Excessive Use of Additives

In addition to excessive usage, there is also the phenomenon of exceeding the specified scope of food additives. China's "Hygienic Standards for the Use of Food Additives" clearly define the applicable scope of various additives, but many enterprises still expand the usage beyond these limits. For example, sweeteners such as sodium saccharin and aspartame should not be added to puffed foods according to regulations, yet quality checks have found many products containing these additives. Furthermore, some producers misuse sulfur fumigation on steamed buns, resulting in severe destruction of vitamin B and significant residual sulfur dioxide. Similarly, the overuse of colorants is commonly found in vermicelli, where they are misrepresented as sweet potato noodles or mung bean vermicelli.

III. Abuse of Illegal Additives

The presence of illegal additives poses a significant threat to food safety. These substances do not belong to the category of food additives but are rather chemical raw materials or non-edible chemicals that pose great harm to human health. However, some unscrupulous producers, in an attempt to reduce costs or attract consumers, indiscriminately add these illegal additives. For example, industrial-grade ammonium bicarbonate is used as a "food leavening agent," while sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate (commonly known as "diao bai kuai")—an industrial bleaching agent—is also added to food, causing severe damage to organs such as the liver and kidneys. Even worse, Sudan Red I, a chemical agent commonly used in industrial products, has been added to chili sauce and animal feed, increasing the risk of cancer. Additionally, the infamous "Sanlu milk powder incident," where melamine was found, has adverse effects on the kidneys and bladder, possibly leading to stone formation.

These instances of misuse of food additives not only violate relevant regulations in our country but also severely endanger consumer health. Therefore, strengthening the supervision and enforcement of food additives and raising consumer awareness of food safety are crucial measures for ensuring food safety.

The Development of Food Additives

The industry of food additives, which plays a crucial role in the food industry, has a history that can be traced back to ancient times. From ancient texts like the "Classic of Food" and "Essentials of the Qi Min Yao Shu," we can glimpse the wisdom and craftsmanship of our ancestors in food processing. During that era, salt was used as a natural preservative, while the addition of brine (magnesium chloride) allowed soy milk to coagulate into delicious tofu.

As time progressed, food processing techniques gradually evolved. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, fermentation technology was first applied to the production of steamed buns, using alkaline solutions to neutralize the acidic taste produced during dough fermentation. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the classic recipe for making youtiao ("one alum, two alkalis, three salts") was born, which is still widely used today.

However, with the improvement of living standards, consumers' demands for food have shifted beyond quantity, price, and taste to include concerns about hygiene and safety. In this context, the variety and application scope of food additives have continued to expand, with synthetic chemicals becoming mainstream. While they have to some extent improved the color, taste, and shelf life of food, they also come with potential food safety issues.

Nitrites in food coloring are a typical example. Despite their toxic side effects, they are allowed for use in various countries because they inhibit bacterial growth, preventing foodborne illnesses in meat products. However, prolonged excessive intake or unauthorized use of nitrites can have adverse effects on human health. Therefore, strict standards and regulations on the usage of food additives have been established by various countries.

Looking ahead, the development of natural, nutritious, multifunctional, and composite additives will become the primary direction of food additive development. This not only aligns with consumers' pursuit of food safety and health but also represents an inevitable trend towards the sustainable development of the food industry. Currently, preservatives, antioxidants, food colorants, and flavor enhancers are widely applied and developed.

Preservatives play a crucial role in maintaining food quality and extending shelf life. Natural preservatives like sorbic acid and its salts and potassium sorbate are favored for their efficiency, low toxicity, and safety. Moreover, substances with natural antioxidant components such as rosemary extract and tea polyphenols are gradually gaining attention.

In terms of food colorants, natural colorants are replacing synthetic ones as the mainstream choice due to their high safety, abundant sources, and some even possess pharmacological activities. For example, beta-carotene extracted from vegetables like carrots and pumpkins not only provides nutritional value but also offers various health benefits.

Flavor enhancers now prioritize the balance between nutrition and health. New types of umami enhancers such as animal and plant protein hydrolysates are welcomed for their richness in nutrients and health benefits. These enhancers not only maintain the nutritional value of food but also provide essential nutrients for the human body.

In conclusion, the development of food additives is an ongoing process of pursuing safety, health, nutrition, and diversity. With continuous technological advancements and changing consumer demands, the variety and application scope of food additives will continue to expand, providing strong support for the development of the food industry.

3.1 Antioxidant Preservatives

Antioxidants, preservatives, and freshness-retaining agents play a pivotal role in the food industry by ensuring food quality, prolonging shelf life, and safeguarding consumer health. In today's market, there is a wide variety of these additives, with some natural or bio-based products being highly favored for their effectiveness, low toxicity, and eco-friendliness.

Sorbic acid and its salts (potassium sorbate, sodium sorbate): Widely recognized as one of the best antioxidants and preservatives internationally, they are primarily used for preserving meat products. They exhibit high preservative efficacy and can directly participate in fat metabolism within the human body, ultimately oxidizing into carbon dioxide and water with almost no toxicity, and without adversely affecting food flavor.

Polylysine: This microbial preservative demonstrates excellent antimicrobial properties, with a broad antibacterial spectrum, good thermal stability, strong water solubility, and excellent safety performance. Polylysine is often used as an auxiliary agent for preservatives such as glycine, sodium acetate, ethanol, and lysozyme. Upon consumption, it degrades into L-lysine, an essential amino acid for the human body, which is further utilized for protein synthesis or metabolic processes without any toxicity.

Fish milt protein: An alkaline protein primarily found in the cell nucleus of mature fish sperm. When combined with glycine, sodium acetate, ethanol, and heated, its antibacterial activity increases exponentially. Therefore, it is commonly used for preserving starch-based foods.

Additionally, natural antioxidants have garnered attention due to their unique advantages. They are not only less toxic than synthetically produced antioxidants but also exhibit significant antioxidant effects, with excellent biological activity and health benefits. For example, extracts such as rosemary, sage, licorice, tea polyphenols, tannic acid, and sunflower seed extracts possess potent antioxidant capabilities. Among these, tea polyphenols stand out for their exceptional antioxidant capacity, surpassing common synthetic antioxidants like BHT and BHA without the potential side effects of synthetic compounds. Moreover, the catechin component in tea polyphenols provides robust protection for fats, liposomes, and proteins, helping maintain the original color and nutritional content of food over extended periods.

Besides tea polyphenols, grape seed polyphenols, phenolic compounds in chrysanthemum, bitter melon extracts, mushroom mycelium extracts, and walnut leaf extracts have also been scientifically proven to possess antioxidant properties and various medicinal components, making them important sources for developing new natural antioxidants.

In summary, as consumer concerns about food safety and health continue to rise, natural, nutritious, multifunctional, and composite antioxidants, preservatives, and freshness-retaining agents will become the main direction for the future development of food additives.

3.2 Edible Pigments

Food colorants are a major category of food additives, and their purpose is to make food more visually appealing. Food colorants are divided into two main categories: natural and synthetic.

Synthetic Colorants: Due to their vivid colors, convenient blending, stable properties, and low cost, synthetic colorants have been widely used in the food industry. However, excessive use or long-term accumulation in the body may pose potential harm to health, and some synthetic colorants even have carcinogenic effects. Therefore, it is crucial to strictly control the usage amount and scope of synthetic colorants to ensure food safety.

Natural Colorants: While natural colorants may not match the color intensity and stability of synthetic ones, they are highly safe, abundant in sources, and some of them even possess pharmacological activities. For example, β-carotene extracted from vegetables like carrots and pumpkins not only has significant nutritional value, but also functions in preventing cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and aging. In addition, natural colorants such as red yeast rice pigment, black bean red, and phycocyanin are also widely used due to their unique colors and nutritional value.

3.3 Seasonings

Flavor enhancers play a crucial role in improving the taste and flavor of food products. They mainly include umami enhancers, souring agents, and sweeteners.

Umami enhancers: Novel umami enhancers such as hydrolysates of animal or plant proteins are not only rich in various amino acids, nucleic acids, and vitamins but also have nutritional and health benefits. These umami enhancers are widely used in seasoning blends and food products like chicken essence and premium soy sauce, allowing consumers to enjoy delicious food while obtaining ample nutrition.

Souring agents: Souring agents impart acidity to food products while also possessing certain preservative properties. Naturally derived malic acid not only mimics the sour taste of natural fruits but also improves liver function, prolongs the shelf life of low-salt sausages and jams, among other physiological functions. Additionally, L-potassium malate and sodium malate can serve as sources of potassium and sodium for the human body, providing certain benefits for special populations such as diabetes patients.

Sweeteners: Sweetness is one of the fundamental tastes favored by people. However, synthetic sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame, despite their high sweetness, offer limited nutritional value. For special populations such as diabetes patients, it is particularly important to choose sweeteners that provide sweetness along with certain nutritional value. Sugar alcohols like xylitol are favored for their unique metabolic pathways and sensory properties. They not only provide moderate sweetness with low calorie content but also serve as an ideal sweetener source for populations like diabetes patients.

Indeed, food additives play an indispensable role in modern food industry, providing a rich array of tastes, colors, and nutritional values to food products and serving as a crucial pillar for the development of the food industry. However, the use of food additives directly relates to people's food safety and physical health, thus requiring rigorous and standardized research and production processes.

With consumers' increasing focus on healthy eating habits, the convenience, nutrition, and greenization of food have become the main themes of food industry development. To meet this demand, the research and production departments of food additives in China must not only strictly comply with existing standards and regulations but also actively develop new, efficient, safe, and green health-enhancing food additives.

Future food additives should pay more attention to the health benefits for the human body, such as containing more natural ingredients and possessing health-enhancing functions like antioxidation, anti-aging, and reducing disease risks. Moreover, the research and production of food additives should also consider environmental sustainability by adopting more environmentally friendly and energy-saving production processes to minimize environmental impacts.

It is believed that with technological advancements and continued consumer focus on healthy eating habits, future food additives will become more diverse and personalized, widely embraced for their beneficial ingredients that promote human health. This will inject new vitality into the development of the food industry and propel the entire sector towards a healthier, greener, and more sustainable future.