What are food ingredients?

Food additives are products that are added to food to improve safety, performance, taste, texture or appearance. Processed foods in the supermarket contain food additives and many people also use food additives at home to prepare food or process food to be safely stored. There are a number of different types, including natural and artificial ingredients. In general, the ingredients used must be listed on the food product label.

While many people think that food additives are artificial inventions of the 20th century, people actually use ingredients in food for thousands of years. For example, salt has been used in many cultures historically as a preservative and taste enhancer, including ancient China, Egypt, Rome and Greece. People also used acids or herbs for preservation in processes such as smoking and drying. Can be amplifiers of taste -spilled or artificial nature, including things such as salt, monosodium glucTamát and spices like vanilla. Improved textures can be used to make food feel softer, firmer, chewing or crispy. Color additives can be used to make food pleased visually or to help food to maintain a natural color. For example, nitrates are used with meat to keep looking pink and fresh.

One of the most important groups of food ingredients is preservatives and stabilizers that keep food safe to help it maintain its integrity. Without the use of preservatives, many foods would rot and could also have harmful bacteria and other organisms that could cause diseases. The ingredients can also improve consistency and reliability, such as in the case of additives included in flour to reliably behave in baking or adding counter -causing fabrics to avoid SHLSticking together.

In the European Union, food additives are identified by e-units. In other regions of the world, the ingredients can be listed by a name or numerical code. While companies must publish which ingredients they use, concentrations or quantities do not necessarily reveal, which is something important to remember.

Some food ingredients were associated with health problems and some people are very concerned about using artificial ingredients in their food. Governments are obliged to investigate security concerns and give recommendations such as removing an additive from the market or forcing companies to use less ingredients if security concerns are taken. Individuals with certain health conditions may find that otherwise safe ingredients are dangerous to them, which is important to talk about safe and dangerous foods with a doctor in discussion on disease management.