Food additives
Food additives play an important part in our food supply ensuring our food is safe and meets the needs of consumers.
Many additives have long complex names, some of which are abbreviated or include letters from the Greek alphabet. The food additives’ names can be confusing so, to help reduce this confusion, each food additive is given a short code number. Many people like to know what these food additive codes stand for and some people may choose to avoid certain food additives. The lists below give you a way to check food labels as you shop, detailing what the food additive is and what it does.
How to find out about a food additive
If you want to know more about a food additive look at the ingredient list on the food label where you will find the additive's, function and name or number, for example, acidity regulator (260). You can use this information to gain a better understanding of what is in the food you eat. For example, acidity regulators help maintain a constant acid level in foods. This can help prevent foods from spoiling, keep them safe, as well as change the flavour of the food.
Food additives are used in processed foods in relatively small quantities. Many substances used as additives also occur naturally, such as vitamin C or ascorbic acid (300) in fruit or lecithin (322) in egg yolks, soya beans, peanuts and maize. Just as food additives are chemical substances, so are all the foods to which they are added. Foods are made up of many thousands of chemical substances. The human body cannot distinguish between a chemical naturally present in a food and that same chemical present as an additive.
What are food additives used for?
There are good reasons for using food additives. They can be used to:
- Improve the taste or appearance of a processed food. For example, beeswax - glazing agent (901) may be used to coat apples to improve their appearance.
- Improve the keeping quality or stability of a food. For example, sorbitol - humectant (420) - may be added to mixed dried fruit to maintain the moisture level and softness of the fruit.
- Preserve food when this is the most practical way of extending its storage life. For example, sulphur dioxide - preservative (220) - is added to some meat products such as sausage meat to limit microbial growth.
Food intolerances
Adverse reactions to food additives occur in a small proportion of the population. Intolerances can be to natural or synthetic sources. The labelling of food products helps people who are sensitive to some food additives to avoid them.
For more information about food intolerances visit: | For more information on additives visit: |