Food chemistry

Three kilograms of chemicals. That's the amount that is ingested during the year the average consumer of different, sometimes completely familiar products: cakes, for example, or marmalade. Dyes, emulsifiers, seals, thickeners are present now in everything. The question naturally arises: why do manufacturers add them to foods and how these substances are harmless?

Experts have agreed to believe that "nutritional supplements - is the common name of natural or synthetic chemical substances added to foods to give them specific properties (improve taste and odor, improving nutrition, preventing damage to the product, etc.) that are not used as stand-alone food. " The wording is quite clear and understandable. However, not all in this matter is simple. Much depends on the honesty and integrity of the unit manufacturers, from what it was and how much they use to make products presentation.

Serial number of taste

Food additives - this is not an invention of our high-tech age. Salt, baking soda, spices known to humans since time immemorial. But here's the golden age began to use them all the same in the twentieth century - a century of food chemistry. Additives have been assigned to high expectations. And they fell short of expectations in full. With their help, managed to create a wide range of mouth-watering, dolgohranyaschihsya and with less labor-intensive in production. Having gained recognition, "improvers" were put on stream. Sausages are pale pink, yogurt svezhefruktovymi and richly-necherstveyuschimi cupcakes. "Youth" and the attractiveness of food additives is provided, which are used as coloring agents, emulsifying agents, sealants, thickeners, zheleobrazovateley, Glazing agents, flavor enhancers and flavor, no preservatives ...

Their presence in the mandatory states on the package in the list of ingredients, and are denoted by the letter "E" (the initial letter in the word «Europe» (Europe). Be scared of their presence should not, most items at the proper observance of the formulation harm can not be held, except in those that among individuals may cause idiosyncrasy.

Further, the letter must be a number. It allows you to navigate in a variety of additives, as, under the Single European classification code of a particular substance. For example, E152 - completely harmless activated charcoal, E1404 - starch, and E500 - soda.

Codes E100-E182 represent colors that enhance or restore the color of the product. Codes E200-E299 - preservatives that increase shelf life of foods by protecting them from germs, fungi, and bacteriophages. This group included chemical sterilization additives used during the maturation of wines, as well as disinfectants. E300-E399 - antioxidants that protect the products of oxidation such as rancidity of fats and change the color of sliced ​​fruits and vegetables. E400-E499 - stabilizers, thickeners, emulsifiers, whose purpose - to maintain the consistency of a given product, as well as increase its viscosity. E500-E599 - pH regulators and anti-caking agents. E600-E699 - flavors that enhance the taste and flavor. E900-E999 - antiflamingi (defoamers), E1000-E1521 - everything else - namely, Glazing agents, distributors, sealants, flour improvers and bread teksturatory, packaging gases, sweeteners. Supplements under the numbers E700-E899 does not exist, the codes are reserved for new substances, whose appearance is not far off