Taking the next packing with this or that product from the shelf of the store, we try not to pay attention to the label at all, as it seems that in order to understand the list of ingredients listed on it, it is necessary to be at least a chemist.
However, in fact, everything is not so difficult, because, one way or another, any, even the most natural product can be split into chemical elements. So, the benzoic acid, inspired by its name, is found in large quantities in the same cranberry, growing on an ecologically clean bog.
There are about two thousand such substances in the whole world. Accordingly, they needed classification. To date, there is a system developed by the European Council for Food Additives, which includes about 300 such components, most often used in the food industry. Each substance has a verbal designation and a code starting with the letter E( Europe).So, the sodium benzoate corresponds to the code E-211.
Classification of food additives
To facilitate the use of this system, all additives are broken down into target groups:
E-( 100 - 182) - dyes;
E-( 200 - 299) - preservatives;
E-( 300 - 399) - antioxidants, or antioxidants;
Е-( 400 - 449) - consistency stabilizers;
Е-( 450 - 499) - emulsifiers;
Е-( 500 - 599) - acidity regulators and disintegrants;
Е-( 600 - 699) - enhancers of taste and aroma;
E-( 700 - 799) - spare indexes for any other possible information;
E-( 900 onwards) are glazing agents, as well as improvers for bread and flour.
It would seem that after assigning a code to an additive, she gets a legal pass to the world of food, which means that her application is justified and necessary. Having met it in this or that product, the buyer should be sure that the products in front of him are checked for safety.
The theory is good, but it should be borne in mind that with time, new information appears, shedding light on this or that additive. For example, Coca-Cola used cocaine before, at that time no one considered it harmful. Since the E-Code has appeared, there have been fewer such incidents, but so far in Europe and America there has been continued talk about clarifying the lists of substances that are allowed to be used unconditionally, the use of which is undesirable, and substances that are frankly dangerous, which must be banned.
In Russia, this problem is paid no less attention, but the situation is even more confusing. In 1994, when a list of additives that were allowed or prohibited for use on the territory of the Russian Federation was compiled, some of them were not imported, while others did not have much information. As a result, Russia has formed 3 lists: allowed additives, banned additives and supplements, which are not prohibited and not allowed. The latter should not be allowed into production. The situation is complicated by the fact that some of the additives that are banned in Russia, other countries are used in industry, while prohibited food additives have a completely legal position in our country.
How to be a consumer? At all to refuse from the products containing food additives? However, not everyone will like it, not everyone can afford it, and someone, for example, diabetics, has to use sugar substitutes if they want to eat something sweet.
Prohibited additives
The chances of encountering banned additives in the wholesale markets are that most goods are often delivered without the appropriate certificates issued by the sanitary services. If the products are produced in some developed country, unfortunately, this does not guarantee that there are no prohibited additives in it, since the food produced for domestic use differs from food for export. Hence this advice: if you want to eat healthy food, give preference to the products of Russian production, because it is more carefully checked and besides the domestic food industry has always gravitated towards everything natural.
When purchasing products, candy, gum, carbonated water, study the composition printed on the label. Remember, the permitted and not forbidden additives are mostly relatively harmless, but the banned are deadly.
The following additives are banned in Russia:
- E-121( dye, citrus red 2).At one time it was customary for them to cultivate oranges;
- E-123( dye, amaranth) - a dye of synthetic origin;
- E-240( preservative, formaldehyde) - the strongest poisonous substance, in it physicians store pathoanatomical material;
- E-924a, E-924B - used to improve flour in the baking industry.
And yet the danger exists. ..
Benefit and harm of food additives
Yes, the state of the food industry is such that it is not necessary to count on the complete elimination of food additives from production. However, the constant consumption of food with them leads to a number of health problems, since the remaining decades of experience with the use of additives have shown that these substances contribute to increasing the risk of developing a fairly large number of serious diseases.
Some additives, on the contrary, go to man for good. Enrichment of foods with vitamins and trace elements has a positive effect on health.
First of all, countries with a high standard of living are concerned about this problem, the residents of which do not have a question how to fill their stomachs, they think more broadly, thinking about how to do this with the benefit of their health.
Let's talk more specifically about what dangers lie in wait for those who love artificial food. First of all, it is an intestinal disorder and other diseases of the digestive tract. Thus, citric acid E-330, which is contained in large quantities in carbonated water in combination with carbon dioxide, which causes water to bubble and hiss and the stomach to produce gastric juice, leads to the appearance of gastritis in a person.
A number of additives, if consumed in large quantities, have a negative effect on the liver and kidneys, which are known to react very sensitively to toxic substances.
Allergy-affected people, including in their menu products with additives, are at risk of aggravating their situation, since it is not known how the body will react to several hundred additional substances, one of which may well cause an allergic reaction that can manifest as a rash on the skin or suffocation(in asthmatics).
Separately, it is worth considering sweetener aspartame( E-951), or Nutrasweet. The fact is that he has been talking about it for several years. The fact is that 1 in 20,000 babies are born with a hereditary shortage of one specific enzyme. This severe disease is called phenylketonuria. It is this disease that scares every pack of chewing gum. That's just the E-951 can provoke its aggravation. The passions around this additive boil, but so far its harmfulness has not been proven. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that there are many complaints about her.
The most fears are the carcinogenic effects of some supplements, that is, their ability to cause malignant tumors. Here everything is not so simple. Yes, indeed, since the middle of the twentieth century, that is, from the time when food additives began to be used massively, the number of oncological diseases has increased. But that's what caused this growth: artificial food, bad ecology or other factors, no one can say for sure. Yes, and the manufacturers are very negative reaction to statements about the dangers of food additives, because such talks are jeopardizing the food industry.
European countries recently often impose a ban on an additive, the harmfulness of which has not been fully proven. In Russia, the list of banned additives includes only five substances. Undoubtedly, the inhabitants of our country would only benefit from taking over the experience of Western countries.