Description

Additives are substances that are added to food to maintain or improve the freshness, taste, texture, appearance or safety of food. Their main purpose is to ensure processed food remains safe and in good condition from factories or industrial kitchens, during the process of transportation to warehouses and shops, and finally to consumers.Additives can be derived from natural sources such as plants, animals, or minerals, or they can be synthetic. There exists many categories of additives, such as anti-oxidants, emulsifiers -acidity regulators and buffers, anti-caking agents, bread enhancers and improvers ,food colours, preservatives, stabilisers and  thickening agents.
Additives are tested for toxicity and safety. However, their side effects can never completely be excluded.The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), is the international body that has authority for evaluating the safety of food additives. Those food additives that have been evaluated and deemed safe by JECFA, on the basis of which maximum use levels have been established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, can be used in foods globally. Once a food additive has been found to be safe for use by JECFA and maximum use levels have been decided in the Codex General Standard for Food Additives, then national food regulations are to be implemented permitting the actual use of a food additive.The Codex Alimentarius Commission also sets the standards and guidelines on food labeling. These standards are followed in most countries. Food manufacturers are also obliged to indicate which additives are in their products. For instance,in the European Union, there is legislation governing the labelling of food additives according to a set of pre-defined “E-numbers”.