Food Additives Flashcards
What are the 3 main Direct Food Additive groups?
- Food processing aids / Functional additives
- Food preservatives
- Food quality enhancers
What is the purpose of direct/intentional food processing aids?
added deliberately to achieve a desired effect - food texture improvement
What are the 9 types of food processing agents?
- emulsifiers
- thickness/thixotropic agents
- Water binding agents (2 types)
- Enzymes
- Foaming agents
- Anti-foaming agents
- Acids
- Alkalis
- Buffers
Give 3 examples of substances used as emulsifiers - definition - one example of a food that contains emulsifiers?
- mono-glcerides
- di-glycerides
- lecithin
- mustard powder
Definition: amphipathic molecules able to bring aqueous and non-aqueous phrases together to form a stable emulsion
ex. Ice cream
List 5 examples of thickeners/thixotropic agents. Purpose?
- starch
- gum
- pectin
- whey proteins
- sugars
Added to foods to add body/to make product thicker
What are the two types of water binding agents? How do each act as water binding agents?
Humectants: bind moisture and retain it in food products to keep it moist, juicy, or succulent (glycerol, sorbitol, phosphates, polyphosphates)
Anti-caking agents: absorb moisture from products such as sugar and slat to prevent them from going soggy (silicates, corn starch)
Foaming agent purpose / 2 examples?
Purpose: added to produce stable foams or make product fluffy/lighter
- egg white
- milk powder
Anti-foaming agent purpose / 3 examples?
used to destabilize foams in produces like chicken nuggets
Fatty alcohols such as:
- octane
- vegetable oil
- silicone
In what two ways are enzymes used as processing aids? examples of each
- Meat tenderizers
- bromelain
- papain
- ficin - Clarification of fruit juices
- amylases
What is added to iodized salt in order to prevent breakdown of salts? Acts as what?
Ca(OH)2 added to KI in table iodized salt to stabilize KI and prevent breakdown - acts as a buffer
What is the purpose of acids as food processing aids? What are 2 examples?
flavour and texture improvement
- acetic acid
citric acid
What are the 2 main purposes of food preservatives?
- control of microbial growth
2. storage life extension
What 6 techniques are used to control microbial growth in terms of food preservatives?
- fermenation
- Humectants (sugars, salts, alcohols)
- Acids (phosphoric acid, citrate, lactate, acetate, benzoate, sorbate)
- Gas sterilants (iodophor, choline,methylbromide) 5. Synthetic metabolic inhibitors (parabens)
- inorganic compounds (sulfites, nitrites)
What are two products of fermentation? What do they do?
acids - lower pH and inhibit growth (lactic acid, pyretic acid, citric acid)
alcohols - dehydrate (ethanol, propanol, butanol)
How do humectants inhibit microbial growth?
lower water activity and inhibit enzyme activity
How do acids inhibit microbial growth?
act as antioxidants by metal chelation
How do gas sterilants inhibit microbial growth?
used to clean processing equipment to get rid of microbes
What are synthetic metabolic inhibitors incorporated into in order to control microbial activity?
packaging
What two type of preservatives are used to extend shelf live?
- antioxidants
2. emulsifiers
How do antioxidants extend shelf life? What are examples of antioxidants?
prevent oxidative damage to food caused by exposure to air and light - oxidative rancidity
Ex. vit.E, vit.C, EDTA, citrate, propyl gallate, SO2
How do emulsifiers extend shelf life of foods?
hold different phases of a food product together as a stable emulsion
What are the 3 main types of food quality enhancer?
- flavouring agents
- organic flavours
- nutritional additives
What are the two types of flavouring agents?
- natural types (sugars & salts, spices, protein hydrolysates)
- artificial flavours (aspartame)
How are organic flavours obtained?
by excretion of natural flavours (ex. cocoa, coffee, tea flavours)
In what two ways are organic flavours extracted?
- fermentation (production of MSG) - sugar goes into microorganism, it grows and produces MSG which is released in the medium, recovered, and crystallized
- chemical synthesis (vanilla) - 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde converted to vanillin by methoxylation
What are the 3 purposes of nutritional additives?
- restoration
- enrichment
- fortification
What is restoration? Give an example
added to REPLACE components lost during processing
ex. addition of vitamin C to canned tomato juice, or dehydrated mashed potatoes
What is enrichment? Give an example
done to correct for deficiencies in a food product
ex. addition of Fe & vitamins B1, B2 & niacin to flour
What is fortification? Give an example
added to foods beyond the normal level to address health or dietary issues
ex. addition of vitamins A & D to margarine or skimmed milk
What are the 3 criteria used for food additives?
- must be safe for continuous use
- must not be used to deceive the consumer
- must be used to the consumer’s advantage
What type of studies are conducted to verify safety food additives?
Tests with 2 experimental animals
- Short term studies: daily for appearance & behaviour, weekly for feed consumption & body weight changes & organ function
- Long term studies: offspring (stillbirths, litter size, birth weight, sex ratio, fetal malformation) & on parent animal (fertility, gestation period, lactation index, tumors)
What is the data from long terms studies used to determine?
Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of the additive for humans
What is the Acceptable Daily Intake concept?
one-hundredth of the highest level of the additive that caused no harmful effect in experimental animal
What is the ADI value of SO2?
1.5 mg/kg body weight
Food additive: what is the deception factor?
the additive must not be used to mask defects in food products to deceive consumers (ex. use of sulphites to reverse discolouration or fruits/vegetables & raw meats)
In what 3 ways must food additives be advantageous to the consumer?
- must improve / maintain nutritive value of the food product (ex. addition of vitamin C to fruit juices, or vitamin A&D to skim milk powder, or addition of vitamin Bs to breakfast cereals, addition of KI to table salts)
- must improve or maintain quality / acceptability of a food product (ex. use of emulsifiers, antioxidants, antimicrobial agents, enzymes, flavours, anti caking agents, foaming agents, clarifying agents)
- must increase / maintain quality of a food material / product (preservatives)
What are food colours?
compounds used to enhance appeal / acceptability of foods to consumers
What are the two categories of food colouring agents?
- natural
2. synthetic
What 3 sources are natural food colouring agents derived from?
- microorganisms
- plants
- animals
Do natural food colouring agents require certification?
no
Do synthetic food colouring agents require certification?
yes they must be approved for use
what are 4 benefits of synthetic food colouring agents?
- easy to produce in lab
- cheap
- can make them to a high degree of purity
- intense colour so only small amount required in food
What are the two forms of certified (synthetic) colors?
- dyes
2. lakes
In what 3 forms are dyes sold?
- powder
- granules
- liquids
What is the difference in solubility of lakes and dyes?
dyes = water soluble
lakes = water insoluble
In what two different ways are lakes marketed?
- pastes
2. dispersions
What are lakes exactly?
Al (most common) or Ca salts of dyes
What type of food products are lakes ideal for colouring?
They are ideal for colouring fatty/oily food products
What are advantages and disadvantages food dyes present in the powdered form?
Advantages: easy to mix into several products, easy to solubilize, can use it in many products including dry mixes
Dis: produces dust in manufacturing plant
What are advantages and disadvantages food dyes present in the liquid form?
Advantages: overcomes dust issue, easy to mix into foods that are not fat-based
disadvantage: packing, storage and transport (take up more space)
What are advantages and disadvantages food dyes present in granule forms?
Advantages: overcome dust issue
Dis: doesn’t solvate as fast as powder for, can’t use granules in dry mixes (have to be dissolved first)
What sucks about natural food colorants?
- not as readily available
- intensity of pigments is not uniform from batch to batch
- expensive
- co-extract harmful materials from the source
What are the3 most commonly used synthetic pigments in CAD? The make up what % of pigments?
- red no. 40
- yellow no. 5
- yellow no. 6
90%
What are examples of foods that food colors are applied to?
- beverages
- candies & confectionaries
- dairy products
- desserts
- food spreads (butter, margarine, jam)
- snacks
- soups
What are the 4 criteria for choice of dyes?
- composition of formulation
- processing conditions
- packaging
- shelf-life requirements
What are GRAS compounds?
Food additive compounds that are time-tested, trusted and generally recognized as safe for food use
What are 8 types of incidental additives?
- pesticides
- polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
- antibiotics
- fungal toxins
- heavy metals
- asbestos
- radioactive fallout
