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Food Additives

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        Food additives are defined as "chemical substances deliberately added to foods, directly or indirectly in known and regulated quantities, for purposes of assisting in the processing of foods; preservation of foods; or in improving the flavour, texture, or appearance of foods." Additives may be reactive or inactive, nutritive or nonnutritive, but they should be neither toxic nor hazardous. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a governmental organization that determines whether a new compound is safe to be used as a food additive. It is up to the company that wants to use it however, to do all the necessary testing to prove the safeness of the additive in question. If the additive, given in any amount, is shown to have a cancerous effect on man, it will be refused. Certain additives are classified as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) when they have been used for long periods of time without apparent harm (e.g. salt, baking soda). There are currently over 3000 intentional additives allowed.

Food Additives and the Baking Industry

        The separation of the milling and baking industries has led to the adulteration of flour with various chemicals. For example, bakers have always known that ‘good quality’ baked goods could not be made with freshly milled flour. Up to the 20th century it was common to store flour for months to allow oxygen to condition it. Storage costs, spoilage, and losses due to insects created the need for chemical additives. Chemical oxidizing agents or bleaches were used for two reasons: 1) they produced the same conditioning effects of oxygen in only 24-48 hours; 2) they bleached the flour to a whiter colour. Although these properties resulted in higher profits, they lowered nutritional value.

        Today, the Canadian Food and Drug Act and Regulations Division 13, B.13.001 permits the addition of numerous chemicals to white, whole wheat, and rye flours. These include Acetone Peroxide, Ammonium Persulphate, Ascorbic Acid, Azodicarbonamide, Benzoyl Peroxide, Calcium Iodate, Calcium Peroxide, Calcium stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Chlorine, Chlorine dioxide, L-Cysteine, Potassium Persulphate, Sodium stearyl-2-lactylate, Sodium stearyl fumarate, and Sodium Sulphite. At the present time, the Health Protection Branch in Canada allows the addition of almost 30 different chemicals, in limited quantities, to flour and bread products alone.


        Food additives that may be used as bleaching, maturing and dough conditioning agents according to the Canadian food inspection agency.

Acetone Peroxide is acetone (colourless liquid used in nail polish removers and as a solvent for oils and waxes) with an oxygen compound attached. It is a maturing agent for bleaching flour and dough. It has a sharp acrid odor and can be damaging to the skin and eyes.

Ammonium Persulphate are odorless crystals or white powder used as a bleacher and as a modifier for food starch. PAFA (Priority-based Assessment of Food Additives) has not yet done a toxicology literature search on this additive.

Ascorbic Acid, also known as vitamin C, can be used as a preservative and antioxidant in frozen fruit, dry milk, beer, apple juices, soft drinks, milk, candy, meat products, jellies, etc. A white or slightly yellow powder can affect the excretion of medications, such as barbiturates, and make them more toxic. Reasonably stable when it remains dry in air, but deteriorates rapidly when exposed to air while in solution.

Azodicarbonamide is a yellow to orange red crystalline powder used as a bleaching and maturing agent for flour. The FDA wants further study of this chemical for both short-term and long-term effects.

Benzoyl Peroxide is a bleaching agent for flours, blue cheese, and milk. It is used as a drying agent in cosmetics and for hardening fiberglass resins. It is toxic by inhalation and it irritates skin.

Calcium Iodate is white, nearly odorless powder used as a dough conditioner and oxidizing agent in bead, rolls, and buns. It is a nutritional source of iodine in table salt and can be used in disinfectants and as a deodorant. Low toxicity, but may cause allergic reactions. The FDA has not yet done a search of the toxicology literature concerning this additive.

Calcium Peroxide, white or yellowish, odorless, tasteless powder is used in bakery products as a dough conditioner that can be irritating to the skin. Toxicology literature search has not been done concerning this additive, according to the FDA.

Calcium stearoyl-2-Lactylate is white powder used as a dough conditioner in yeast-leavened bakery products. Also used as a whipping agent in dried, liquid, and frozen egg whites. On the FDA list of additives requiring further safety information since 1980.

Chlorine Gas is flour-bleaching and aging and oxidizing agent. Also used in water purification. Found in the earth’s crust, it is a greenish yellow gas with a suffocating odor. A powerful irritant, dangerous to inhale, and lethal. Thirty-ppm will cause coughing. The chlorine used in drinking water often contains carcinogenic carbon tetrachloride, a contaminant formed during production. Chlorination has also been found to sometimes form undesirable "ring" compounds in water, such as toluene, xylene, and the suspected carcinogen styrene-they have been observed in both drinking water and wastewater plants. The FDA data bank, PAFA, was, as of this writing, doing a toxicology literature search on this gas.

Chlorine Dioxide, a yellow or reddish yellow gas with an unpleasant odor, highly irritating, and corrosive to the skin and mucous membranes, is used to bleach flours. It reacts violently to organic materials, and it can kill.

Potassium Persulphate: White crystals used as a flour-maturing agent and sprayed on cirrus as a coating. It is a strong irritant.

Sodium stearyl-2-Lactylate is used as an emulsifier (allows two insoluble compounds such as oil and water to be mixed together), plasticizer, or surface-active agent in bakery mixes, baked products, cake icings, fillings, dehydrated fruits and vegetables and juices, liquid shortenings, pudding mixes, etc.

Sodium stearyl fumarate is fine white powder used as a dough conditioner in bakery products, starch-thickened flour, and dehydrated potatoes.

Sodium Sulfite: White to tan-pink, nearly odorless powder with cooling, salty, sulfurlike taste. Used as a preservative, an antioxidant, an antifermentative, a browning inhibitor, and a bleaching agent. Can be found in hair dyes, and foods and drinks containing sulfites. Sulfites have been known to cause stomach irritation, nausea, diarrhea, skin rash, or swelling in sulfite-sensitive people.


References:

Guthrie, H.A. & Picciano, M.F. Human Nutrition. Mosby, St. Louis, 1995.
Chp.19 Food Safety, P. 639-657.

Viera, R. Elementary Food Science. Chapman and Hall, New York, 1996. Chp.13 Food Additives, P.183-205.

Winter, R. A Consumer's Dictionary of food Additives. Three Rivers Press, New York, 1994.

Daniels, "5000 Years of Milling", East-West Magazine, April 1978

Aubuchon "Quel est votre pain quotidien?" Vivre 131 Sept/Oct 1990

Marine & Van Allen, Food Pollution – The Violation of our Inner Ecology. Canada: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972.

Guthrie, Introductory Nutrition, 1989

Pedersen, "A comparative Analysis of Conventional and Alternative Bread Industries in Northern People: Product Quality, Working Conditions, Environmental Impact and Resource Use, 1990.