The definition of food additives in the National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760-2014) is: artificially synthesized or natural substances added to food to improve its quality, color, aroma, and taste, as well as to meet the needs of preservation, preservation, and processing technology.
As defined, food additives play an important role in food processing. However, when it comes to food additives, many consumers may turn pale and have doubts.
This is mainly due to consumers lacking scientific understanding of food additives, believing that substances added to food (especially illegal additives such as melamine and Sudan red) are food additives, leading to misunderstandings about food additives. Little do they know that food additives are not "scary".
1. Food additives ≠ illegal additives
In recent years, from "melamine" to "Sudan red"; From "lean meat powder" to "hanging white blocks", food safety incidents have occurred frequently, damaging the health and rights of consumers and causing adverse social impacts. But most consumers are not aware that these harmful substances do not belong to food additives, but are other illegally added substances explicitly prohibited from use in Article 34 of the Food Safety Law.
Food additives are safe as long as they are used within the specified range and limit. In addition, there have been some false and exaggerated advertising campaigns on the market, such as "this product does not contain any additives" and "zero additive products", which also make consumers mistakenly believe that "no additives" are "safe".
However, in fact, food that truly does not contain additives is prone to discoloration, odor, and even spoilage, which can have an impact on food quality. Food additives ≠ illegal additives! The National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760-2014) provides strict regulations on the types, scope of use, and safe dosage of food additives in China.
Therefore, as long as it is a product that has undergone national review and is allowed to be launched, the types and amounts of food additives contained in it must meet food safety standards, and consumers can purchase with confidence.
2. Types and effects of food additives
At present, there are more than 2000 types of food additives in China, including preservatives, leavening agents, thickeners, coloring agents (pigments), and nutritional fortifiers. And each food additive often has one or more functions, playing an important role in the food processing and production process:
One is to control the proliferation of microorganisms in food and prevent food spoilage and spoilage. For example, in order to prevent the deterioration of long-lived Pickled vegetables, fruit juice, jam, preserved fruit, soy sauce, etc., preservatives are often required, otherwise these foods will deteriorate before they leave the factory or soon after they leave the factory;
The second is to prevent food from changing color, flavor, and affecting quality during storage. For example, fats are prone to rancidity and produce a pungent taste, and adding antioxidants can prolong this process;
The third is to meet the needs of food processing technology. For example, when making tofu, a coagulant needs to be added; The production of jelly and ice cream requires the addition of thickeners; To maintain or enhance the nutritional value of food itself, nutritional fortifiers are added to high calcium biscuits and zinc milk powder.
3. Requirements for the use and labeling of food additives
One is that the use of food additives must comply with relevant national safety standards, and food additives cannot be used beyond the scope or limit, and should not pose any health hazards to the human body.
Secondly, food additives cannot be used to cover up food spoilage and spoilage.
The third is that food additives cannot be used to cover up quality defects in the food itself or during the processing, or to use food additives for the purpose of doping, adulteration, or forgery.
The fourth is that the use of food additives should not reduce the nutritional value, quality, and hygiene requirements of the food itself.
The fifth is to minimize the use of food additives in food as much as possible while achieving the expected results.
According to the General Rules for Pre packaged Food Labeling of National Food Safety Standards (GB 7718-2011), directly used food additives should be labeled with their common names in GB 2760 in descending order of addition amount. Food additives contained in composite ingredients with a dosage less than 25% of the total food content, if they comply with the principle of introduction specified in GB 2760 and do not have a process effect in the final product, do not need to be labeled.
Shaanxi Huike Botanical Development Co., Ltd. a integrated enterprise which is focus on natural products, plant extract related products and services.We mainly focus on pharmaceutical, functional food, Freeze-dried powder,Natural Pigment,Homology of medicine and food,beverages and other business services.
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2023-12-28
Shaanxi Huike Botanical Development Co., Ltd.
