Understanding Your Food
Ingredients & Additives Explained
Fats, Oils, Salt, Colours, Flavours and more
Understanding Your Food…
Ingredients & Additives Explained…
Fats, Oils, Salt, Colours, Flavours and more…
Food Additives
Food additives are non-nutritional substances added to food products. They are used for technical purposes, such as the emulsification of fatsCompounds which contain the elements carbon, hydrogen and ox..., the binding of water, or to protect and preserve products from microbial deterioration. Some food additives are necessary to ensure that products are safe to eat.
There are a number of different categories of food additives, each according to the function of the additives, and a food additiveFood additives are those substances deliberately added to fo... numbering scheme has been established to order the additives in the different categories.
The numbering scheme was first established within the European Union where food additives are given an ‘E number’ or ‘Europe number’ and all food additives used in the European Union have to be approved for food safety by the European Food Safety Authority.
Additive Numbers
The Food AdditiveFood additives are those substances deliberately added to fo... Numbering Scheme adopted by the European Union is now used by countries in many parts of the world, but without the letter E. The system has also been adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
In some instances an additive which possesses an E-number for use within the European Union may be used in another part of the world, e.g. Australia, without the E and just the number. However, there are additives approved for use in countries that are not part of the European Union which have allocated classification numbers to additives that are not approved for use in the EU.
Different countries may take different positions about which additives are or are not approved for use.
This site has been created by the Food Ingredients and Additives Association working in partnership with the Department of Food Science and Agri-Food Supply Chain Management in Harper Adams University in order to provide an educational reference source covering food, food materials, food ingredients and food additives.
Examples of Classroom Activities
Jamming session
Making jam is a traditional method of preserving fruit. Students investigate the best conditions to form…
What’s in a flavour?
Students make vanilla-flavoured drinks and set up a tasting panel to judge which drink is…
Finding the additives
Students are given the ingredients list from a vinaigrette salad dressing, and have to identify…
Food ingredients card games
A fun selection of card games to test students’ knowledge of different foods and their…
Conditions necessary for the growth of microbes
Food spoilageThe rotting of food as a result of the action of bacteria. is often caused by microbial growth. During this lesson, students will investigate the…
What can be added to the food you buy?
Students will learn about the main classes of food additives, and their purpose
Chromatography
Students produce a chromatogram using the colour extracted from jelly babies in the practical experiment…
