Here, in part one of a two-part Food Insight series on food ingredients, you’ll learn the “what and why” of common food ingredients—what they are and why they’re added to our food supply. Part two will cover the “how” aspect of additives—how different food ingredients allow food manufacturers to develop the innovative food products that today’s consumers seek.

What Do They All Do?
There are approximately 3,000 food additives used in this country, and many of them are common food ingredients we use at home every day, such as sugar or baking soda. Food additives are divided into categories based on function. Some of the basic categories are: acidulants, antioxidants, colors, emulsifiers, flavors and flavor enhancers, gums, preservatives, sweeteners and vitamins/minerals.

Acidulants
A lemon-lime beverage or food product wouldn’t have that refreshing tartness without an acidulant ingredient. Basically, acidulants are acids that are used for flavoring, as preservatives, for gelling and coagulation, and to help prevent oxidation of fats and oils. Examples of acidulants include citric acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, adipic acid, and malic acid.

Antioxidants
Many of us are familiar with the term “antioxidants” from a health perspective. In this context, however, the antioxidants are added to delay or prevent rancidity. Over time, fats and oils that come in contact with oxygen from the air can become rancid—developing unpleasant off-flavors and odors. Two of the most commonly used antioxidants are BHA, or butylated hydroxyanisole, and BHT, or butylated hydroxytoluene. Natural antioxidants such as tocopherols (forms of vitamin E) and guaiac gum are also used. Foods to which antioxidants are added include fats and oils, cereals, and high-fat foods such as doughnuts and chips.

Colors
Almost everyone has had fun mixing up colored frosting or coloring homemade play-clay with food colors. Food colors, dyes and pigments used in food, drugs and cosmetics are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and require testing similar to that required for other food additives. Colors are either classified as “certified” or “exempt from certification.” All nine certified colors are artificial, and most are named with the color name and number, (e.g., Red #2, Yellow #5). Exempt colors are frequently derived from natural sources such as vegetables, and also must meet certain criteria for purity and safety. Examples of exempt colors include substances such as annatto extract (yellow), dehydrated beets (bluish-red to brown), caramel (yellow to tan), beta-carotene (yellow to orange) and grape skin extract (red, green).

Emulsifiers
In food science classes, making salad dressing or mayonnaise is the classic lesson for teaching what emulsions are. With proper mixing, fat or oil and water will combine to become an emulsion. In food products, emulsifiers are added to keep emulsified products stable, reduce stickiness, control crystallization, keep ingredients dispersed (such as spices within a salad dressing) and to help products dissolve more easily (such as powdered coffee creamer). They work because their chemical structure attracts fats on one end and water on the other, thereby letting the two substances combine easily. Common emulsifiers include lecithin (often made from soybeans), alginates (chemical salts found in algae) and mono- and diglycerides (syrup- or fat-like substances found in alcohols).

Flavors and Flavor Enhancers
We all like our food to have pleasing flavors, and the food industry relies on various substances to provide the flavors that consumers demand. Spices and herbs, essential oils and their extracts, fruits and fruit juices and manufactured (also called “artificial”) compounds are classified as flavors. Often, both natural and artificial flavors are used together in one food item.

Somewhat less understood are flavor enhancers, the most common of which is probably monosodium glutamate, or MSG. Since 1909 when it was first manufactured, MSG has been used in a variety of foods, including meat and poultry items, soups and broths, salad dressings and sauces. MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid (glutamate), which is one of the most common amino acids found in nature. Although it has no true taste of its own, MSG works to enhance the flavors already present in foods. The overall taste effect contributed by glutamate is savory or meaty.

Gums
Gums provide thickness to foods and help form gels in products such as frozen desserts, candies, salad dressings, puddings and whipped toppings. They’re also used to keep ingredients suspended in a food and to inhibit crystallization, among other functions. Gums are classified by source, such as seaweed (which includes agar, alginates, carrageenan), plant seed gums (which include guar, locust bean, psyllium), plant extracts (which include pectin), fermentation gums (which include xanthan gum), plant exudates (which include gum arabic) and cellulose derivatives.

Preservatives
Because of preservatives, bread does not grow mold overnight, but remains fresh for several days. Preservatives can be antimicrobials, antioxidants, or both. As antioxidants, they keep foods from becoming rancid and turning brown. As antimicrobials, they inhibit the growth of bacteria, yeast and mold.

Food additives are very tightly regulated. The Food Additives Amendment to the U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, implemented in 1958, assigned proof for additive safety to the food industry. The degree of safety testing necessarily became very high because the industry had to prove additives were safe before they could be used.

Consumers can easily see which food additives are present in a food by reading the ingredient statement on the product label—the FDA requires all additives and ingredients to be listed. Food additives play many important roles in our food supply, helping to ensure that the wide array of foods we eat are safe, wholesome and tasty.

Food Additive Functions and Examples*

Provide or Maintain Consistency
Lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, methyl cellulose, carrageenan, glycerine, pectin, guar gum, sodium aluminosilicate

Improve or Maintain Nutritive Value
Vitamins A and D, thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, pyridoxine, folic acid, cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12), ascorbic acid, calcium carbonate, zinc oxide, iron

Maintain Wholesomeness and Prevent Spoilage
Propionic acid and its salts, ascorbic acid, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), benzoates, sodium nitrite, citric acid, erythrobates

Provide Leavening and Control Acidity
Yeast, sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, fumaric acid, phosphoric acid, lactic acid, tartrates

Enhance Flavor or Color
Cloves, ginger, fructose, aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, FD&C colors, monosodium glutamate, caramel, annatto, limonene, turmeric

*Adapted from “Common Uses of Additives,” Food and Drug Administration and IFIC Foundation Food Additives brochure.

What is a GRAS ingredient?

A list of GRAS (or “generally recognized as safe”) ingredients was created in 1959 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The roughly 700 additives on this list are believed by experts to be safe, based on their extensive history of use in foods, or based on published scientific evidence. Salt, sugar, spices, vitamins and monosodium glutamate are examples of GRAS ingredients. The FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture routinely reexamine GRAS ingredients in order to evaluate their safety in light of new scientific information, and to re-approve, reclassify or remove them from the list.