Food product: a substance that can be used or prepared for use as food. Food, nutrient: any substance that an animal can metabolize to provide energy and form tissue. Starches: foods rich in natural starch (especially potatoes, rice, bread). The.
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Also available as a printable booklet PDF (330 kb) For centuries, ingredients have played useful roles in a variety of foods. Our ancestors used salt to preserve meat and fish, added herbs and spices to improve the taste of food, preserved fruits with sugar and pickled cucumbers in a vinegar solution. Today, consumers demand and enjoy a food supply that is tasty, nutritious, safe, practical, colourful and affordable. Food additives and advances in technology help to make this possible.
There are thousands of ingredients used to make food. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of more than 3000 ingredients in its database Everything that is added to foods in the United States, many of which we use at home every day (p. e.g. However, some consumers are concerned about additives because they may see long, unfamiliar names and think that they are complex chemical compounds.
In fact, all the foods we eat, whether it's a freshly picked strawberry or a homemade cookie, are chemical compounds that determine flavor, color, texture and nutritional value. All food additives are carefully regulated by federal authorities and several international organizations to ensure that foods are safe for consumption and are precisely labeled. . Some additives could be eliminated if we were willing to grow our own food, harvest and grind it, spend many hours cooking and canning, or accepting a greater risk of food spoilage.
However, most current consumers rely on the many technological, aesthetic and convenient benefits provided by additives. In its broadest sense, a food additive is any substance added to foods. Legally, the term refers to any substance whose intended use results in, or could reasonably be expected to, directly or indirectly become a component or otherwise affect the characteristics of any food. This definition includes any substance used in the production, processing, treatment, packaging, transportation or storage of food.
However, the purpose of the legal definition is to impose a pre-marketing approval requirement. Therefore, this definition excludes ingredients whose use is generally recognized as safe (when government approval is not needed), ingredients approved for use by the FDA or the U.S. UU. The Department of Agriculture before statutory provisions on food additives and coloring additives and pesticides, when other statutory pre-marketing approval requirements apply.
Direct food additives are those that are added to a food for a specific purpose in that food. For example, xanthan gum, used in salad dressings, chocolate milk, bakery fillings, puddings and other foods to add texture, is a direct additive. Most direct additives are identified on the food ingredient label. Indirect food additives are those that become part of the food in small quantities due to packaging, storage or other handling.
For example, small amounts of packaging substances can reach food during storage. Manufacturers of food packaging must demonstrate to the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that all materials that come into contact with food are safe before they are allowed to be used in that way. A coloring additive is any colorant, pigment or substance that, when added or applied to a food, drug or cosmetic, or to the human body, is capable (alone or through reactions with other substances) of conferring color.
The FDA is responsible for regulating all coloring additives to ensure that foods containing coloring additives are safe to eat, contain only approved ingredients, and are precisely labeled. The colors allowed by the FDA are classified as subject to certification or exempt from certification, and both are subject to rigorous safety standards prior to approval and included in the list for use in foods. Today, food additives and colorants are studied, regulated and controlled more strictly than at any other time in history. The FDA has the primary legal responsibility to determine their safe use.
To market a new food additive or coloring agent (or before using an additive already approved for use in another way that has not yet been approved), the manufacturer or other sponsor must first apply to the FDA for approval. These requests must provide evidence that the substance is safe for the ways in which it will be used. As a result of recent legislation, since 1999, indirect additives have been approved through a pre-marketing notification process that requires the same data that was previously required in the request. Under the amendment on food additives, two groups of ingredients were exempt from the regulatory process.
GROUP I (Formerly Sanctioned Substances) are substances that were determined by the FDA or USDA to be safe for use in foods prior to the 1958 amendment. Examples include sodium nitrite and potassium nitrite, which are used to preserve sausages. GROUP II (ingredients generally recognized as safe): these are those that experts generally recognize as safe, based on their extensive history of use in foods before 1958 or according to published scientific evidence. The several hundred substances in GRAS include salt, sugar, spices, vitamins and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Manufacturers can also request that the FDA review the industry's determination on GRAS status. Due to the inherent limitations of science, the FDA can never be absolutely certain of the absence of any risk derived from the use of any substance. If an additive is approved, the FDA issues rules that may include the types of foods in which it can be used, the maximum amounts that should be used, and how it should be identified on food labels. In 1999, the procedures changed, so the FDA now consults with the USDA during the review process on ingredients proposed for use in meat and poultry products.
Federal officials then monitor the extent of Americans' consumption of the new additive and the results of any new research into its safety to ensure that its use remains within safe limits. If there is new evidence to suggest that a product already in use may not be safe, or if consumption levels have changed enough to require further analysis, federal authorities may prohibit its use or conduct further studies to determine if the use can still be considered safe. Regulations known as good manufacturing practices (GMP) limit the amount of food ingredients used in foods to the quantity needed to achieve the desired effect. Food ingredients have been used for many years to preserve, flavor, mix, thicken and color foods, and have played an important role in reducing serious nutritional deficiencies among consumers.
These ingredients also help ensure the availability of tasty, nutritious, safe, practical, colorful, and affordable foods that meet consumer expectations all year long. Food additives and colorants are strictly studied, regulated and controlled. Federal regulations require evidence that each substance is safe at its intended level of use before it can be added to foods. In addition, all additives are subject to continuous safety review as scientific knowledge and test methods continue to improve.
Consumers should feel safe with the food they eat. Food manufacturers are required to include all food ingredients on the label. On a product label, ingredients are listed in order of predominance, first the ingredients used in greater quantity, followed in descending order by those found in smaller quantities. The label must include the names of any FDA-certified coloring additives (e.g.
However, some ingredients may be listed collectively as flavors, spices, artificial flavors or, in the case of coloring additives exempt from certification, artificial colors, without naming each of them. Declaring an allergenic ingredient in a single collective or unique color, flavor, or spice can be achieved simply by naming the allergenic ingredient in the list of ingredients. Certified color additives are classified as colorants or lakes. Dyes dissolve in water and are manufactured in the form of powders, granules, liquids or other forms of special use.
They can be used in beverages, dry mixes, baked goods, candy, dairy products, pet food, and a variety of other products. Lakes are the water-insoluble form of the dye. Lakes are more stable than colorants and are ideal for coloring products containing fats and oils or items that lack sufficient moisture to dissolve colorants. Typical uses include coated tablets, cake and donut mixes, hard candies and chewing gums.
Natural ingredients are derived from natural sources (e.g. e.g.,. Other ingredients are not found in nature and must therefore be produced synthetically as artificial ingredients. In addition, some ingredients found in nature can be artificially manufactured and produced more economically, with greater purity and more consistent quality, than their natural counterparts.
For example, vitamin C or ascorbic acid can be derived from an orange or produced in a laboratory. Food ingredients are subject to the same strict safety standards, regardless of whether they are naturally or artificially derived. The FDA Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Components concluded in 1986 that FD&C Yellow No. It also concluded that there was no evidence that the coloring additive present in foods caused asthma attacks.
The law now requires a yellow No. This allows the few who may be sensitive to color to avoid it. Food safety experts generally agree that there is no convincing evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship between these sweeteners and negative health effects in humans. The FDA has been monitoring consumer complaints about potential adverse reactions for more than 15 years.
For example, in carefully controlled clinical studies, aspartame has not been shown to cause adverse or allergic reactions. However, people with a rare hereditary condition known as phenylketonuria (PKU) should control their intake of phenylalanine from all sources, including aspartame. Although aspartame contains only a small amount of phenylalanine, the labels of foods and beverages containing aspartame should include a statement informing phenylketonurates of the presence of phenylalanine. People who have questions about the possible adverse effects of food additives or other substances should contact their doctors.
Many new techniques are being investigated that will allow the production of additives in ways that were not previously possible. One approach is the use of biotechnology, which can use simple organisms to produce food additives. These additives are the same as the components of foods found in nature. In 1990, the FDA approved the first bioengineered enzyme, renin, which was traditionally extracted from the stomach of calves for use in making cheese.
The following summary lists the types of common food ingredients, why they are used, and some examples of the names that can be found on product labels. Some additives are used for more than one purpose. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Serviceww, fsis, usda, gov Food Safety Education Staff 1400 Independence Ave. This partnership agreement does not constitute an approval of any product or organization that supports the IFIC or the International Food Information Council Foundation.
Often, the shelf life of food is not so much a matter of safety as it is a matter of quality. We want foods that are safe to eat, as well as foods that taste good. In parts of Africa and Asia, especially India, legumes such as beans, lentils and chickpeas are staples. Corn is also used to produce corn oil, sweeteners such as corn syrup and cornstarch, which are used as a sweetener and thickening agent in home cooking and in processed food products.
Cultures native to polar climates, where fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce, rely on meat and fish as basic foods. However, with improvements in agriculture, food storage and transportation, some basic foods are changing. Taro is a staple food in some of the Pacific Islands, such as Hawaii, Fiji and New Caledonia, and also in West Africa. A consensual development panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded in 1982 that, in some children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and confirmed food allergy, dietary modification had produced some improvement in behavior.
Rice is a staple food for more than 3.5 billion people around the world, particularly in Asia, Latin America and parts of Africa. .
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