Food Additives Flashcards
define a food additive
substance added to food to become components of the food material. can be added inteionally or unintentionally
what are the 3 groups of food additives?
- food processing aids
- food preservaitves
- food quality enhancers
what are food processing aids for?
texture and water binding. texture: - emulsification - thickeners/thixotropic agents - tenderizers: mostly enzymes - acids - alkalis - buffers - foaming agents - anti-foaming agents water binding - humectants - anti-caking agents
name some thickenters
gelatin, pectin, starch, carboxymethyl cellulose
what’s a humectant? example?
absorbs/retains moisture to make product juicy and succulent. ex) polyphosphate
what’s an anticaking agent? examples?
removes moisture to prevent sogginess. ex) silicates, starches)
what is the purpose of alkalis as food additives?
leaveners
what are 6 methods of controlling microbial growth?
- fermentation
- humectants
- acids
- gas sterilants
- synthetic metabolic inhibitors
- inorganic compounds
what kinds of preservatives are there?
- antioxidants
- chelating agents
list some gas sterilants
iodiopor, chlorine, methylbromide
name inorganic food preservatives
sulfites, nitrites
what do food quality enhancers target?
- flavoring agents
- organic flavors
- nutritional additives
what kind of flavoring agents are there?
natural and artificial
- natural: sugars/salts, spices, protein hydrolysates
- artificial: aspartame
how are organic flavors produced?
- extraction of natural flavors
- fermentation
- chemical synthesis
what kind of nutritional additives are there?
- restoration: put back nutrients lost during processing
- enrichment: adding nutrients to a food poor in a nutrient
- fortification: adding nutrient to a certain high level due to health reasons.
what are the 3 criteria for using food additives?
1) must be safe for continuous use
2) must not be used to deceive consumer
3) must be used to the consumer’s advantage?
how is the safety of a food additive determined?
- at least 2 experimental animal studies
- short term safety: appearance/behavior, feed intake, weight gain/loss
- long term: offspring (stillbirths, litter size, birth weight, sex ratio, fetal malformation, survival data) and parent (fertility, gestation period, lactation index, tumors & causes)
what do safety studies determine?
- acceptable daily intake (recommended levels of compound for human intake
- max amount of compound that caused no adverse effect on animal divided by 100
describe significance of food deception
what are examples of additives used to deceive people?
- additive must not be used to mask defects in
- water sulfites to reverse discoloration of F&V and raw meats; water binding agents in meat, addition of water/chalk to milk to add weight and appearance
- in what ways can additives be advantageous to the consumer
- improve nutritive value
- improve quality
- increase/maintain quality
- increase availability of food
name some examples of food additives advantageous to consumers
- antioxidants
- emulsifiers
- stabilizers/thickeners/anti-caking agents
list ways of how food availability may be increased
- increasing shelf life
- use of TGase to bind small pieces of meat together
- use of isopropyl alcohol to solubilize meat scraps of fish trams for protein concentrate
how are food colors categorized?
- synthetic
- natural
what’s the difference between certified and uncertified foods?
certified: produced by chemical synthesis
uncertified: produced from plant, animal, and mineral sources
