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 form nutrients. The food additives are in most of the cases introduced to the foods during the treatment, processing, packaging, transportation and even during storage and distribution. Some of the foods have been found to be entirely processed. This means that they have not been grown on any farm, but rather have been developed in the lab. As such they are made of vast amounts of chemicals that are normal. In other cases, some of the chemicals that get to the consumers include the pesticides, herbicides, hormones and fungicides among others. These are chemicals that are dangerous and are not intended to be consumed but at timesmay get to the consumer in one form or the other.
Food additives categories
Food additives are quite many and the best way to break them down is to highlight on them with reference to their categories. The best and most convenient categories that are easiest to understand are the functional classes.These are the grouped according to functions that the hundreds of chemicals and their combinations play in the food industry (Codexalimentarius.net).
Acid regulators
These are additives that are introduced in the foods with the main purpose of altering the acidity or their alkalinity. These are basically acids, bases, acid regulators, buffers and the pH adjusting agents.
Antifoaming agents
This is a category of additive to the foods, with the sole reason of altering the ability of the food to form foams. They may be in the form of antifoaming agents or simply deforming agents.
Anti-caking agents
These are agents that are added t food that have the tendency to cake. Ideally, the particle of the said foods can adhere together forming blocks of the same. These agents prevent his adherence by helping the particle stay detached from one another.
Antioxidants
Most of the food due to the presence of oxygen in the air may go through the oxidation process. The oxidation process may in turn have some detrimental aspects on the food especially with reference to the shelf life characteristics.
Bulking agents
These are additives that increase the bulk of the food, although they do not have any impact on the energy or nutrients value of the bulked foods (Codexalimentarius.net).
Bleaching agents
These are chemicals that are used to discolor food. It is crucial to note that they do not include any food pigments.
Carbonating agents
These are chemicals that help to build up carbon dioxide in the food. They are common in the carbonated drinks.
Carrier agents
The carrier agents tend to dissolve, dilute or physically distort the food form they are added to without altering the function of the food. This means that the food is not affected on other levels such as their function, application, use and handling of the nutrients.
Artificial Colors
These are common on many foods that take the colors intended by the manufactures. Manufacturers use the colors of the foods to ones that are more appealing to the customers.
Color retention agents
These chemicals are common and have the ability to intensify, stabilize and retain the colors that have been added to the foods (Codexalimentarius.net).
Emulsifiers
Theses are chemicals that are added to foods that have more than one phase, making them look and feel uniform in nature.
Flavors
The flavors help the manufacturer to alter the taste and the odor of the foods they sell.
Packaginggas
These are a gas that are added to the packaging material before during and after packaging to ensure food does not go bad due to oxidation (Grace Communications Foundation).
Preservatives
Like the packaging gases, the preservatives prevent the food from going bad from microorganisms, increasing the shelf life.
Sweeteners
This are added to the foods to ensure increased sweet tastes (Codexalimentarius.net).
Brief History of Food Additives and the Controversy
It is not exactly clear when the food additives were first introduced. Some of the records indicate that the additives could date back to the prehistoric times when man is thought to have added some chemicals to his meat after smoking. Later on there was the development of the methods that involved adding salt to the meat such as the fish and bush meat increasing the shelf life of these animal products? Within in the time line there was also the development of the indigenous herbs that served as spices (Pastaco.com). As people stated to depend on an ever increasing list of processed foods, the additives found a common place in the food processing (Abc.net.au). The controversy of the food additives did not start until the early 1800s. During this time, food adulteration became quite common in different parts of the world. This continued until the 1920s, when the complaints and the pressure mounted, as various factions demanded that there be some form of regulation and analysis of the chemicals that were used on the foods. This pressure led to the development of legal sanctions within many parts of the world; where measures were put inplace to analyze and certify the food additives that the consumers were exposed to (Pastaco.com).
Controversy
In the last 50 years, food additives have been studied more than any other time in their history. This development is due to the emergence of knowledge that some of the food additives are behind some of the health complications that most people are suffering from. While the FDA has been trying to test and certify the food additives chemicals there are scores of them on the streets that have net been tested (Burke). Some of those that have been tested have also been found to have some effects when used in combination. There are varying reports of the effects that these products would have on the body. Over this particular period of fifty years there have been several studies and regulations that have come up in earnest efforts o cub the use of some of the additives and their effects on the human population.
Between the years 1958 and the 1960, there were regulations which required the manufacturers to provide proof of the safety of the food additives that they incorporated in their products. This was especially so with respect to all the new additives that the manufacturers devised. Before the enactment of these regulations, most of the burden was on the government to hunt down and establish the safety of the new additives. This was quite tricky and did not bare much result despite the intentions and the resources dedicated to the process. However, there was a down side of the self tests. It meant that the manufacturers had to test their chemicals and this was subtly self serving. There was need of a third party, preferably one that did not have any interests in the industry to test the chemicals for the ...