Characteristics and classification of food additives
Food additives refer to small amounts of synthetic or natural chemical substances that people consciously add to food to improve the quality and sensory properties of food and prevent food from spoilage. Improve food processing efficiency. Adapt to the requirements of mechanization, continuity and automation of food processing. As people’s living standards continue to improve, the pace of life accelerates, and the food consumption structure changes. The rapid development of my country’s food industry requires convenience, diversification, nutrition, flavor and high-end food. Therefore, the food industry must modernize. In order to meet people’s needs for changes in food consumption structure and consumption quality, and to achieve this goal, the development of food additives plays an important role.
Characteristics of food additives
A wide variety and large sales volume are one of the important characteristics of food additives. According to statistics, the total number of food additives in various countries in this industry has reached more than 10 types, among which There are about 10,000 kinds that are directly used and about 600 kinds that are commonly used. In the early 1980s, the total sales of food additives in the world, excluding Japan, reached 4.5 billion US dollars. There are 884 kinds of food additives that have been listed in our country and are subject to hygienic standards (July 9, 1990).
Rapid change is another characteristic of it. With the rapid development of science and technology, people’s understanding of food additives is also constantly developing and improving. Currently, countries around the world are turning to the development and research of highly safe natural food additives, such as natural sweeteners. However, the use of synthetic sweeteners is rapidly decreasing in many fields of use. The same is true for food dyes. Although natural dyes are not ideal, due to their high safety, they have great potential to replace synthetic dyes.
Classification of food additives
According to their raw materials and production methods, they can be divided into chemical synthesis additives and natural food additives. Natural food additives mainly come from plants, animals, enzymatic production and microbial cell production .
There is still no unified classification standard for food additives in various countries around the world. In my country, food additives are classified according to their main functions.
It is divided into 21 categories. Such as acidity regulators, anti-caking agents, defoaming agents, antioxidants, bleaching agents, leavening agents, pancreatic sugar base agents, colorants, color protectants, emulsifiers, ketoning agents, flavor enhancers, flour treatment agents, Coating agents, moisture protectants, nutritional fortifiers, preservatives, stabilizing and coagulating agents, sweeteners, thickeners and others.
It can be seen that there are many types of food additives. This article cannot introduce them one by one. According to the specific conditions of our country Situation and key development directions of chemical industry will focus on introducing preservatives later, Antioxidants, flavorings and food colorings.
