Food Additives Essay

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Food Additives: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Food additives are chemical substances that have been added to foods during the processing or making of the food, for specific reasons. Within food additives, there are direct and indirect food additives. Direct food additives are known to be added to the food during the processing of that food, whereas indirect food additives are known to be added to the food after the food has been processed. Direct food additives can be used in order to add nutrients, prepare and process the food, while keeping the food fresh and to help make the food look more desirable to consumers (Food Additives, n.d.). However, indirect food additives are added to foods in small amounts after the food has been processed, but with no specific purpose (Food Additives, n.d.). There can be a variety of purposes that food additives take on, but each and every food additive serves five main functions. These include “giving the food a smooth and consistent texture, improve or preserve the nutrient value, maintain the wholesomeness of foods, control the acid-base balance of foods and provide leavening, and provide colour and enhance flavor.” (Food Additives, n.d.). Each day as consumers we come across new articles, research information and studies that either fight against or support the use of food additives. As consumers, this can be an extremely difficult situation to be in, as has yet not been a study/test to prove that food additives are less or more advantageous. It can be difficult to walk down the aisle of a grocery store and pick out the foods that do not contain any food additives. The debate over the use of food additives have been non-stop, in which some argue that since food additives have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), then they must be safe. However, just because a food additive has been approved by the
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