Potassium benzoate (212), cyclamate (952), butylated hydroxyanisole (320). A list of things you might find in a mad scientist’s lab… right?
Not quite. These almost unpronounceable terms and their corresponding 3-digit numbers are actually some of the food additives making regular cameos in packaged products.
Big Food manufacturers usually bung them in as a cheap and easy way of improving the colour, texture or flavour of processed food. Or prolonging shelf life far beyond a normal used-by date.
But while the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization do monitor food additives – and the following have all been approved by international nutrition bodies – there’s still hot debate around their potential effects on our health.
Ever been confused by the numbers staring back at you? Here’s a rundown of what some of them mean. Although if you’re just eating real food as nature provided it, you might decide to give them a miss.
Why we prefer to eat from nature’s rainbow.
Colour additives give that pack of Skittles their “taste the rainbow” reputation. Not surprisingly, a lot of them – like tartrazine (102), allura red (129) and ponceau 4R (124) – have been strongly linked to hyperactivity, particularly in children.
And although it’s rare, an additive commonly used in margarine – annatto (160b) – can cause severe allergic reactions. As if we needed more reason to love our butter! Real food provides all the colours of the rainbow, without the help of carmoisine (122).
Preservatives in wine are anything but fine (and don’t even get us started on pop).
Preservatives are used to keep foods from going bad and walking off supermarket or pantry shelves. Which can be really helpful in some situations where food needs to be stored for longer periods of time. But some preservatives – like those often found in dried fruit and wine – can be problematic for people prone to allergic reactions and asthma attacks.
Late last year, the WHO listed preservatives used in processed meats as “probably carcinogenic”, because of the way they’re used by the body. The organisation did stress the health benefits of meat though, and experts recommend a “cut it down” rather than “cut it out” approach.
In soft drink land, the powers of sodium benzoate, potassium benzoate (212) and ascorbic acid (300) combined can cause a known carcinogen – benzene – to form. While the amounts of benzene found in soft drink are much smaller than those we breathe in from traffic pollution (and tobacco smoke), we just see it as further proof to give the pop a miss.
Artificial sweeteners: not as sweet as they sound.
Big Food is using artificial sweeteners more and more these days, as people wake up and smell the not-so-sweet side of sugar. But a lot of them are very hard to digest and can lead to an unhappy gut.
And while many of us turn to foods sweetened with the artificial stuff when we’re trying to give sugar the flick, the science is now pointing to the idea that these sweeteners only add to the cycle of sugar addiction and even cause us to eat more than we usually would. Yet another reason why we prefer to JERF!
Do you avoid food additives?
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