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Food Additives

European legislation states (Council Directive of Dec-21, 1988):

For the purposes of this Directive 'food additive' means any substance not normally consumed as a food in itself and not normally used as a characteristic ingredient of food whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packaging, transport or storage of such food results, or may be reasonably expected to result, in it or its by-products becoming directly or indirectly a component of such foods.

There are some food additives such as vinegar, salt and sugar which have been used for centuries to assist in flavouring, or preserving food. Until the 20th century there were only few kinds of additives. However, during the last century food chemists have created a considerable number of new, mostly synthetic additives. It is estimated that there are currently over 2000 additives in use around the world.

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Last Update: 2005-04-08