(NYN) Additives and Controlled Substances Lesson

Additives and Controlled Substances

The Truth About FOOD ADDITIVES Food additives are substances put in food to preserve flavor or improve taste & appearance. Taste, texture, color, and freshness all play roles in the enjoyment of our food. These are the qualities that make eating a pursuit that goes well beyond simple nourishment. Our modern lifestyles have given rise to high food production, more mouths to feed, and a greater demand for shelf-life. This, in turn, has given rise to food additives, which give us exactly what we want out of our food, but at what cost?

Ingredients serves as useful functions in a variety of foods. Our ancestors used salt to preserve meats and fish, added herbs and spices to improve the flavor of foods, preserved fruit with sugar, and pickled cucumbers in a vinegar solution. Today, consumers demand and enjoy a food supply that is flavorful, nutritious, safe, convenient, colorful and affordable. Food additives and advances in technology help make that possible.

There are thousands of ingredients used to make foods. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of over 3000 ingredients in its database, many of which we use at home every day such as: sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla, yeast, spices and colors.

Have you ever wondered how a can of corn or green beans can sit on your shelf in the cupboard for a year and still be good to eat? There are a few things to consider the next time you open a canned good. Let's explore why chemicals are added to our food. 

A food additive is any substance added to food directly or indirectly. This includes any substance used in the production, processing, treatment, packaging, transportation or storage of food. The purpose of the legal definition, however, is to impose a premarket approval requirement. Therefore, this definition excludes ingredients whose use is generally recognized as safe (where government approval is not needed), those ingredients approved for use by FDA or the U.S. Department of Agriculture prior to the food additives provisions of law, and color additives and pesticides where other legal premarket approval requirements apply.

Direct food additives are those that are added to a food for a specific purpose in that food. Most direct additives are identified on the ingredient label of foods. Indirect food additives are those that become part of the food in trace amounts due to its packaging, storage or other handling. Food packaging manufacturers must prove to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that all materials coming in contact with food are safe before they are permitted for use in such a manner.

For decades now, the food industry has continually created new chemicals to manipulate, preserve, and transform our food. With the use of chemicals, scientists are able to mimic natural flavors, color foods to make them look more "natural" or "fresh," preserve foods for longer and longer periods of time, and create altered versions of breads, crackers, fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products and many more commonly used foods. Some of the "foods" that are made entirely from chemicals are coffee creamers, sugar substitutes, and candies consist almost completely of artificial ingredients. Such manipulation of our food can have a profound effect on our body's unique biochemical balance.  The food industry says there is method to their madness and provide five main reasons why chemicals must be added to our foods:

1. To improve shelf life or storage time. 

2. To make food convenient and easy to prepare. 

3. To increase the nutritional value. 

4. To improve the flavor of foods. 

5. To enhance the attractiveness of food products and improve consumer acceptance.

Some of the immediate effects of chemicals and additives in your food may cause headaches or alter your energy level, or they may affect your mental concentration, behavior, or immune response. Those with long-term effects could increase your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other degenerative conditions. Avoiding additives in your diet is an important step toward enhancing your health and lowering your risk of disease. Generally, infants and children are more vulnerable to food additives. This is because their immature digestive systems cannot break down the chemicals efficiently. Symptoms triggered by this can include poor attention and concentration, anxiety, irritability, restlessness, waking during the night, bedwetting, temper tantrums, hives, eczema, skin rashes, headaches, sinusitis, tinnitus, 'irritable bowel', constipation, asthma, frequent colds and flu.

Today, food and color additives are more strictly studied, regulated and monitored than at any other time in history. FDA has the primary legal responsibility for determining their safe use. 

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