5^th European Food Chemistry Congress

Food Additives

Food additives are substances that are added to food to enhance or preserve its safety, freshness, flavor, texture, or appearance. A few additional substances have been used for a short period of time, such as pickling (with vinegar), salting (as with bacon), preserving desserts, or using Sulfur dioxide in the same way as with drinks. Food additives are only justified where there is a technical need for them, they do not deceive consumers, and they serve a well-defined technological purpose, such as preserving the nutritional quality of the food or enhancing the food's stability. Flavoring agents are also used to improve the taste and flavor of foods. Adding flavor to them necessitates certain restrictions, namely, they must be applied in compliance with official guidelines. Many researchers and organizations have now accepted and built on this numbering scheme to uniformly distinguish all additional substances, regardless of whether they are licensed for use.