Food Additives 101

have you ever flipped over a box of cereal read the label and wondered what is lecithin and all this other stuff why is it in my food technically a food additive is just anything added to a food during its production processing or packaging so unless you grow harvest and process all your own food you've almost certainly eaten additives at some point in fact we've been using simple additives like salt vinegar sugar herbs and spices to change and preserve our food for centuries they keep eating interesting but modern food engineering means tons of new additives the Food and Drug Administration regulates over 3000 of them including all those tongue twisters on that label some are natural like beet powder used to add color while others are artificial like synthetic sweeteners used in diet soda long unfamiliar names may be hard to pronounce but that doesn't automatically mean they're bad just like natural ones aren't always healthier most additives fall into a few basic categories preservatives keep food from spoiling while spices sweeteners and acids change flavor and added vitamins and minerals supply extra nutrients many additives change texture in some way adding bulk for example or keeping oil and water mixed together so your ice cream stays creamy but here's where it gets tricky not everything that's added to your food is regulated by the FDA why not well there's a loophole some additives are privately tested and deemed generally recognized as safe outside of FDA review also remember that while food labels should tell you what additives are in there they won't say how much or how your body may react to them in the end if you're worried about certain additives it's up to you to learn more about them so you can make informed choices and feel good about the foods you eat

Channel: WebMD

Views: 44,599

Keywords: Food Additive (Ingredient), Food (TV Genre), food labels, food labeling, food manufacturers, Food And Drug Administration (Government Agency), ingredients

Id: jSgILz-ZX8I

Length: 1min 57sec (117 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 04 2015