Food Additives: Overview of Related Safety Concerns

Abstract

Food additives are the basis of the modern food industry, and play a significant role in improving the colour, aroma, and taste of food, altering its nutritional structure, perfecting its processing conditions, and extending its shelf life. The need of food additives in the food processing industries have sharply increased due to consumers’ preferences and commercial advantage they provide to the manufactured food because of longer shelf life, standardized composition and convenience in processing. Additives can be added to food directly and intentionally while indirectly, foods are exposed to them during processing, packaging, or storage Some additives are either natural or from synthetic sources and are classified into several groups, although there overlap exist between them. The use of food additives has been criticized for multiple health impacts such as cancer, asthma, allergies, and behavioral disorders in children. It is therefore important to balance the potential risks of an additive against its perceived benefits and allowing the consumer the choice of consuming or not consuming the food. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is charged with the responsibility of assessing the risks of food additives to human health and safety through the establishment of the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for additives and in any case, the decision of consuming food with a particular additive is left to consumers.