LU4

Minor Food Components

 Food Additives
• Chemical added to preserve
and/or improve the appearance
and flavor of food
• Several Classes:
Colourings, Antioxidants,
Flavour Enhancers, Preservatives,
Sweeteners, Emulsifiers
stabilizers, and thickeners, and etc.
 Principles of food preservation
• Removal of moisture
• Altering temperature
• Changing pH value
• Use of osmotic process
• Use of chemical additives
Some Food Preservation Techniques
Irradiation Expose food to ionizing radiation
Drying and Dried in the sun or in special ovens or freeze
Dehydration driers
Refrigeration kept at lower temperature ; 0-4oC
Canning Cooked under pressure in hermetically sealed
container
Salting Treated with salt or strong salt solution
Pickling in Kept in vinegar
vinegar
Use of food Substances which control micro-organisms
additives and chemical spoilage
 Some classes of food additives
Preservatives Prevent microbial growth and spoilage
Antioxidants Prevent rancidity of fats and oils
Emulsifier, Give texture, blend, smoothness; stabilize oil-
stabilisers, and water mixtures.
thickener
Anticaking Keep food fast flowing, prevent caking in humid
agents weather
Humectants Retain moistures
Bleaches Confer white colour to food
Some common food additives
 Regulations on Food Additives
• Food Safety Information System of Malaysia
(FoSIM), Ministry of Health Malaysia responsible
for regulation all man-made food additives
• Food additive certification as approval process:
assures the safety, quality, consistency and
strength.
• Food Regulations 1985
http://fsis2.moh.gov.my/fosimv2/HOM/frmHOMF
ARSec.aspx?id=21
 Regulations on Food Additives
• All foods have to be labeled with ingredients and
specific food additives..
• MSG has been given green light as a food additive.
• R 23 (4)Notwithstanding paragraph (g) of
subregulation (1) of regulation 11, where a
permitted flavour enhancer has been added to any
food there shall be written in the label on a
package containing such food the words
"contains (state the chemical name of the flavour
enhancer) as permitted flavour enhancer".
 Main Classes of Food Additives
1. Colourings
• To improve the
appearance of food
• E.g. sunset yellow
used in sweets and
jam. Caramel (brown)
used in chocolate and
oyster sauce
 Coloring Agents
• Only nine synthetic colors are currently
approved for food use and 21 nature-
identical colors are exempt from
certification.
• The average per capita consumption of food
colors is about 50 mg per day.
 Color Additives Permitted for
Food Use and Their Common
Names
• FD&C red no. 3 (erythrosine)
• FD&C red no. 40 (allura red)
• FD&C orange B
• FD&C yellow no. 6 (sunset yellow)
• FD&C yellow no. 5 (tartrazine)
• FD&C green no. 3 (fast green)
• FD&C blue no. 1 (brillian blue)
• FD&C blue no. 2 (indigotine)
• Citrus red no. 2
 Coloring Agents
• The natural or nature-identical colors are
less stable than the synthetic ones and more
variable.
• The major categories of natural food colors
and their sources are listed in Table 1
Major Categories of Natural Food
Colors and Their Sources
2. Preservatives
• Are used to kill or stop the growth of
micro-organisms in food.
• Micro-organisms can cause spoilage
in foods. Some produce toxin which
causes food poisoning.
 Methods used to stop the
bacterial growth
a) Dehydration
(Removal of water)
• The micro-organism
stop growing due to
lack of water.
• Food is dried by
blowing hot dry air.
• E.g. dried meat,
vegetables & fruits.
• Food is soaked in
concentrated salt or sugar
solution. e.g. jam and
fruits in heavy syrup.
b) Altering temperature
Heat treatment - bacterial
cells and spores can be
destroyed.
Freezing – the growth of
micro-organisms and the
rate of chemical reactions
which cause food
spoilage are retarded.
c) Lowering the pH of
food by adding acid
• The acid in the
vinegar kills the
bacteria.
• Other acids: sulphur
dioxide, benzoic acid.
• E.g. pickled onions
and cucumbers.
 Preservatives : Benzoic Acid
• Benzoic acid occurs naturally in many types of
berries, plums, prunes, and some spices.
• As an additive, it is used as benzoic acid or as
benzoate.
• Soluble in water (0.27 percent at 180C) and sodium
benzoate is more soluble (66.0 g/100 mL at 2O0C).
• Effective antimicrobial agent
• The optimum pH range is from 2.5 to 4.0. This
makes it an effective antimicrobial agent in high-
acid foods, fruit drinks, carbonated beverages and
pickles.
• It is also used in margarines, salad dressings, soy
sauce, and jams.
 Preservatives : sulphur dioxide
• Sulfur dioxide and sulfites have long been used as
preservatives, serving both as antimicrobial
substance and as antioxidant.
• Sulfur dioxide is a gas that can be used in
compressed form in cylinders. It is liquid under
pressure of 3.4 atm and can be injected directly in
liquids.
• It dissolves to form sulfurous acid. Sulfurous acid
inhibits molds, bacteria and yeasts.
• The bisulfite ion (HSO3-) can react with aldehydes,
ketones, and certain sugars to form addition
compounds.
Preservatives : sulphur dioxide

bisulfite ion
Preservatives : sulphur dioxide

bisulfite ion
 Preservatives : sulphur dioxide
• The use of SO2 is not permitted in foods that
contain significant quantities of thiamine, because
this vitamin is destroyed by SO2.
• The maximum permitted level of SO2 in wine is
350 ppm.
• SO2 is also widely used in dried fruits, where
levels may be up to 2,000 ppm.
• The acceptable daily intake (ADI) is set at 1.5
mg/kg body weight.
 Nitrates and Nitrites
• Curing salts contained nitrate and nitrite
• Both nitrates and nitrites have antimicrobial
action.
• Nitrate is used in the production of cheese to
prevent gas formation by butyric acid-forming
bacteria.
• The action of nitrite in meat is to inhibit the toxin
formation by Clostridium botulinum
 Nitrates and Nitrites
• Major concern about the use of nitrite was
the secondary amines in foods may react to
form nitrosamines, as follows
 Nitrates and Nitrites
• The nitrosamines are powerful carcinogens,
and they may be mutagenic and teratogenic
as well.
• The ADI of nitrite has been set at 60 mg per
person per day.
3) Antioxidants.
• Food antioxidants in the broadest sense are all of
the substances that have some effect on preventing
or retarding oxidative deterioration in foods.
• Primary antioxidants terminate free radical chains
and function as electron donors. They include the
phenolic antioxidants, butylated hydroxyanisole
(BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), tertiary
butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), alkylgalates, usually
propylgallate (PG), and natural and synthetic
tocopherols and tocotrienols.
 Antioxidants
• Oxygen scavengers can remove oxygen in a
closed system. The most widely used
compounds are vitamin C and related
substances, ascorbyl palmitate, and erythorbic
acid (the D-isomer of ascorbic acid).
• Chelating agents remove metallic ions,
especially copper and iron, that are powerful
prooxidants. Citric acid is widely used for this
purpose. Amino acids and ethylene diamine
tetraacetic acid (EDTA) are other examples of
chelating agents.
 Antioxidants
• Natural antioxidants are present in many spices
and herbs
• Chemical Structure of the Active Antioxidant in
Rosemary
 Antioxidants
• The level of phenolic antioxidants permitted
for use in foods is limited. U.S. regulations
allow maximum levels of 0.02 percent based
on the fat content of the food.
• Sometimes the antioxidants are incorporated
in the packaging materials rather than in the
food itself. In this case, a larger number of
antioxidants is permitted, provided that no
more than 50 ppm of the antioxidants become
a component of the food.
• The oxygen in the air
reacts with unsaturated
fat and oil molecules
to form compounds
with an unpleasant
taste and smell. To
prevent this, anti-
oxidants are added.
• E.g. Butter, margarine
and potato chips.
4) Chemical Preservatives
• Chemicals such as
sodium nitrate and
sodium nitrite are toxic
towards micro-
organisms.
• E.g. meat and sausages

• Benzoic acid (or sodium

benzoate) is added to
fruit juices and drinks to
kill micro-organisms
5) Food Flavour
• They are used to improve flavour and to
replace flavour lost during food
processing.
• Natural flavourings: sugar, salt, vinegar
• Artificial flavourings: esters
Some common flavourings
Flavour Food Additive
Ginger Ginger oil
Grape Methyl anthranilate
Lemon Citral
Orange Orange oil
Pear Amyl butyrate
Spearmint Carvone
Vanilla Ethyl vanillin
Spicy Ethyl cinnamate
Three categories of flavor compounds have been proposed.

1. Natural flavors and flavoring substances

are preparations or single substances obtained
exclusively by physical processes from raw
materials in their natural state or processed for
human consumption.
2. Nature-identical flavors are produced by chemical
synthesis or from aromatic raw materials; they are
chemically identical to natural products used for
human consumption.
3. Artificial flavors are substances that are not present
in natural products.
 Food Flavour
• The amounts of flavor compounds used in
foods are usually small and generally do not
exceed 300 ppm.
• Spices and oleoresins are used extensively
in sausages and prepared meats.
 Flavour enhancer
• Compounds have the ability to enhance or
improve the flavor of foods. It has often
been suggested that these compounds do not
have a particular taste of their own.
• This taste is sometimes described by the
word umami, derived from the Japanese for
deliciousness
 Flavour enhancer
• MSG (Monosodium-L-glutamate monohydrate)
• Chemically isolated by a Japanese in 1908
 Flavour enhancer
• MSG contains 12.3 percent sodium;
common table salt contains less sodium
than MSG.
• By using flavor enhancers in a food, it is
possible to reduce the salt level without
affecting the food taste
6) Emulsifiers and
stablilzers
• They are added to
stabilize the mixture
by preventing the oil
and water from
separating.
• Emulsifiers and
stablilzers are added
to ice cream,
mayonnaise.
 Emulsifiers and stablilzers
• With the exception of lecithin, all
emulsifiers used in foods are synthetic.
• They are characterized as ionic or nonionic
and by their hydrophile/lipophile balance
(HLB).
• All of the synthetic emulsifiers are
derivatives of fatty acids.
 Emulsifiers and stablilzers
• Lecithin is the commercial name of a
mixture of phospholipids obtained as a
byproduct of the refining of soybean oil.
• Lecithin can be hydroxylated by treatment
with hydrogen peroxide and lactic or acetic
acid.
• Hydroxylated lecithin is more hydrophilic,
and this makes for a better oil-in-water
emulsifier.
 Bread Improvers
• To speed up the aging process of wheat flour,
bleaching and maturing agents are used.
• Benzoyl peroxide is a bleaching agent that is
frequently used; other compounds ; including
the oxides of nitrogen, chlorine dioxide,
nitrosyl chloride, and chlorine—are both
bleaching and improving (or maturing) agents.
 Bread Improvers
• Improvers used to ensure that dough will
ferment uniformly and vigorously include
oxidizing agents such as potassium
bromate, potassium iodate, and calcium
peroxide.
• Most of these bread improvers can only be
used in small quantities, because excessive
amounts reduce quality.
7) Acids, bases and
buffers
• They control the pH
value of foods.
• E.g. Ethanoic acid,
citric acid are added
to soft drinks,
alcoholic drinks.
 Sweeteners
• Sweeteners can be divided into two groups,
nonnutritive and nutritive sweeteners.
• The nonnutritive sweeteners include saccharin,
cyclamate, aspartame, acesulfame K, and
sucralose.
• The nutritive sweeteners are sucrose; glucose;
fructose; invert sugar; and a variety of polyols
including sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, lactitol,
xylitol, and hydrogenated glucose syrups.
The chemical structure of the most
important nonnutritive sweeteners

carcinogen
 Sweeteners
• Cyclamate is 30 to 40 times sweeter than
sucrose, and about 300 times sweeter than
saccharin
• Acesulfame K. It is a crystalline powder
that is about 200 times sweeter than sugar.
Acesulfame K is reportedly more stable
than other sweeteners.
 Sweeteners
• Sucralose. It is about 600 times sweeter
than sucrose and has a similar taste profile.
One of its main advantages is heat stability,
so it can be used in baking.
 E Numbers
• The codes indicates an ingredient which is some
type of food additives

• The ―E‖ indicates that is a ―European Union

Approved‖ food additive

• All food additive used in the European

Community (EC) countries have E numbers.

• E 160 – a food colouring

• E 200 and E 270 – food preservatives
• E 331– a stabilizer
 Example of E numbers (E 160)
• The first digit indicates the type of food
additives.
• ‗1‘ indicates food colour
• It is a carotene, a reddish colour found in
carrots and pumpkins.
E numbers of food additives
Type of additive E number
Colourings Most begin with 1
Preservatives Most begin with 2
Flavourings Not numbered
Antioxidants 300-321
Emulsifiers and stabilisers E322 and some numbers
between E400 and E495
Acids, bases and buffers Most begin with 5
Sweeteners Most begin with 4 or 6
a.What is the number beside
―Caramel‖?
b.What is this number?
c.What does this number
tell you?
d.What is ‗caramel‘?

A
a.E150
b.E number
c.The additive used in this
product has been tested on
animals and proved to be
safe for consumption.
d.(caramel) is a colouring
agents.

.
 Are food additives safe?
1) Allergies
• Some additives cause rashes or stomach upsets
in a few people. Sulphur dioxide causes
breathing difficulties in some people.
2) Over-activity
• Some colourings make some children too active.
E.g. E 102 (tartrazine) found in sweets.
3) Long-term illness
• Sodium nitrite may cause cancer. It can also
slow down the growth of children if eaten for a
long time.
• Sulphur dioxide and its salts when ingested
attack the respiratory system. Individuals who
suffer from chronic respiratory diseases are
easier to be attacked.
4) How much MSG is safe?
• Monosodium glutamate may have side effects
which include thirst, headaches, chest pains and
vomitting. The acceptable amount a day is 120
mg for each Kg of body weight.