Food Additives Recipes Food Cooking International Guide

Food Additives In Our Everyday Food

By Ginger O’Riley

Food additives are in a lot of the food we eat. Some additives are artificial chemical additives, while others are natural ingredients like salt and vinegar. Some additives are used as preservatives, others are used as coloring or to add flavor to the food.

Most of the additives in our food do no harm, except if you have an allergy to the additives. Some people cannot eat foods high in carbohydrates for health reasons, other people cannot eat food with nuts as an ingredient. These people need to read the nutritional information on the food product to ensure they do not suffer an adverse health reaction.

I have seen labels on food products stating the products contains nuts or traces of nuts, as a warning to those with allergies to nuts. Before you buy any food product, if you know you have an allergy to certain additives or food ingredients, always read the nutritional information to confirm it is safe for you to consume. If you have any doubts, then do not buy the product.

Food Additives In Common Food

Although there is a lot of controversy about food additives in certain circles, for the most part they are completely safe.

Additives and food have been used for a long time, and many of the most popular foods that you and me eat everyday contain at least a few of these ingredients.

I had a friend who was really concerned about food additives a few years ago, and she panicked me a little bit about it. She really got me worrying.

She told me that you never knew what a food additive would do to you. She believes that they weren’t sufficiently studied. When I looked into the matter, however, I found that there was not that much grounds for concern.

Many of the most common food ingredients, in fact, are additives. It always pays to be careful, but don’t get alarmed yet!

Food Coloring Additives

Basically, anything that is not naturally a part of a food is considered a food additive. Food coloring additives are some of the most common ones. Anything that contains artificial coloring, for example, is in this category.

Although certain artificial colors have been shown to occasionally contribute bad health effects, most of the time those have been promptly removed from the food supply.

Artificial Flavors

Artificial flavors, similarly, are extremely common food additives. If you enjoy candy, bubblegum, chips, soda, or any other of the so-called junk foods, chances are that you are having some artificial flavors.

Even some health foods contain artificial flavoring. It really isn’t anything to worry about too much.

Preservatives

The most important food additives are preservatives. Before modern food manufacturing, there were some natural substances used to preserve food.

One of my friends always laughs whenever she sees salt and vinegar chips with the label “no preservatives”. Both salt and vinegar are actually effective food preservatives.

Salting fish and meat, as a matter of fact, is one of the oldest techniques to preserve it. When sailors were soldiers were going on long journeys, they would take salted food along so that it would last them for months.

Some food additives are added to preserve the consistency of the product or to give a certain feel or texture.

Hydrogenated Oils

For example, peanut butter generally contains partially hydrogenated oils. This is the only way to keep it from separating. Although too many partially hydrogenated oils are not very good for you, having a little bit in your peanut butter isn’t going to hurt much.

Some people are allergic to food additives and even to added ingredients in food. For example, some people cannot eat peanut butter because they are allergic to nuts, so they cannot eat any products that contains nuts as an additive or as a normal ingredient in food, like peanut butter.

Nutritional Information On Food Products

Other people cannot eat foods with high sugar content as it would affect their blood sugar levels and they may be a diabetic. All these people need to read the nutritional information on every food product to ensure they are not buying a product that may contain an additive that may affect their health.

When you read nutritional information, looking at the food additives, you may see numbers for colors and flavors and you want to know what these numbers mean. You may even seen a name of an additive you have not seen before and you do not know what it means. You can write down the name, numbers of the additives and do a search online and you will find details on those additives.

Those on diets, always need to know the details on food additives in their food, before they buy.

About the Author:
Ginger O’Riley has written a number of humorous articles on food and cooking including Chicken Recipes, Fruit Cake, Potato Salad, Slow Cooker Recipes, Low Carb Cooking.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles on this website.

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