Fundamental Benefits and Detrimental Health Effects of Food Additives

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Food Safety
Introduction
For most of the foods that comes from the stores and the shelves at the market, they have more than nutrients to replenish the body. Most of the foods in the market today have some form of additives that are bound to change their color, taste and even extend their shelf life. Tracking back to the beginning of man’s ability to grow food, there were also some forms of additives (Grace Communications Foundation). At the time, when man realized that could conserve what he produced in bulk, there came the aspect of preservation. Much of the literature indicates, man actually used to smoke their meat and laterstarted salting. Today with advances in science and technology, there are better ways of preserving the foods, however some of the means have at the cost of the consumers’ health. Food processing is now one of the most common processes in any foods chain of distribution. It is during the processing that most of the food additives are included in the foods found in the stores. Ideally most of the food that graces the stores comes from abroad and has to travel millions of miles to get to the customers (Abc.net.au). The products are thus most of the time processed with additives that ensure the products seem fresh when they get to the consumers. This means that the products will not only get to the destinations looking fresh, they will also have some time on the shelves before they go bad. Some of the other forms of food additives include the food coloring and the flavors. This means that, in the need to create a variety of product from one single product, there is variation in the taste and the colors of that initial product.
Basically the food additives are chemicals that are combined and introduced to the foods in a manner intended to enhance them through their qualities. This way they can manage to front a different appeal to the consumers in the market. While majority of the chemicals are safe for human consumption and have been tested, some of them are not. The Food and Drug Administration has tested and allowed more that 3000 food additives that are safe for human consumption (Haas). However, there are those that have not been tested and are used on the foods. It is estimated that more than 80,000 food additives that are in the market at the moment have not been tested.These groups of food additives that have not been tested together with some of the ones that have been tested have been found to cause health complications (Grace Communications Foundation). This paper tries to uncover the aspect of health implications of most of the food additives which have for long been controversial.
Thesis statement: Food additives chemicals, whether intended or not, have health implication on adults but more implicating on children.
Food Additives Overview
As mentioned earlier, food additives are chemicals that are added to the foods to enhance their qualities. They do not have any nutritive advantages, other than the fact that they tend to alter the texture, flavor and the shelf life of the products. They tend to integrate with the food components and thus become part of the food (Haas). Some of the natural additives have however been found to add some...