SUPPLEMENTS: read the product composition and are not frightened

What are food additives and why they are needed

Food supplement - is any substance that we do not eat as independent and which is specifically added to the product, to obtain from them certain properties.

Nutritional supplements have come up with to make the food better. For example, save it for the long term, when you need to stock up on groceries, or to enhance flavor and preserve food texture.

Without additives shelves of stores are almost empty: preservative-free products quickly deteriorate without stabilizers and antioxidants, many did not appear.

The idea of ​​using certain substances to improve food is not new, because the spices, salt, starch and vinegar - also diet supplements, even well-known for many centuries. But dietary supplements - it is also a horror story about the harmful chemicals from which we get sick and die.

In fact, all substances that exist in nature - is also chemistry, and nutritional supplements, even with the "terrible" index E can be natural (and thus much more dangerous than synthetic).

Try to understand the meaning of codes and labels on packages, and see if you can eat foods with additives.

They harmful or harmless?

This must be the most important issue of concern to anyone who is considering another package with a list of thickeners, colorants or preservatives.

Answer: Food supplements should not be harmful. All additives that are in our food, must comply with standards and regulations. And if additives have code that begins with the letter E, it is even better. Code means that the substance corresponds to Codex Alimentarius - a document which regulates the international food standards.

If the additive has an index of E, it means that the matter was investigated and checked and calculated the dose at which it is safe.

Dangerous can be any substance, even clean water. The question only in quantity. The most useful in the world vitamins overdose turn into poisons.

Additives which are used in the food industry, in this sense do not differ from all other substances. Each has an acceptable rate of daily consumption (ADI). This is the dose of the substance, which can be obtained without harm to health
everydayFDA Review of Toxicology Information in Petitions for Direct Food Additives and Color Additives Used in Food.

To calculate the dose, conduct experiments on animals. Find the highest level of consumption of additives in which nothing will be the animal, and then divided by a safety factor, required to account for differences between animals and humansEuropean Food Safety Authority FAQ. The resulting dose recorded in milligrams (matter) per kg (body weight), the average weight of a person is assumed to be 60 kgIPCS Risk Assessment Terminology.

And already from this value is calculated, how much and what kind of additives can be put into products. This takes into account many factors. For example, if studies show that on Sunday people eat three times more sausage than a week ago, when calculating the daily permissible dose is to be borne in mind. What does this mean for us?

Eating food with nutritional supplements can, because their long and hard tested.

But not everything is allowed, it is useful. Additives in amounts which are in the food, do not cause obvious harm, but no good can not be held. A can cause the individual reactions, the same allergy.

In addition, research is ongoing. When something has been resolved cosmetics with lead, and some nutritional supplements from time to time go into the category of "They are more harmful than we thought," as synthetic dyes or salicylic acid. And then there are national standards that differ from the recommended code. For example, additives that are forbidden in one country may be allowed in the other, as a sweetener sodium cyclamate (E952), which is excluded from our SanPin in 2010 goduSanPin 2.3.2.1293-03 "Hygienic requirements for the application of food additives".

There are two more facts that cast doubt on the use of food additives:

1. We can not verify whether the manufacturer complied with all the rules and regulations for product manufacture.
2. The food itself is not always useful. If you live on instant noodles, you will be bad. But not because of the additives, and due to the lack of nutrients, vitamins, fiber and minerals.

What are food additives

Classification of food supplements based on their functions: flavors - to odor, coloring agents - for appearance, preservatives - for long term storage. Such classes of additives is more than 20, we shall understand the basic.

Some supplements are more harmful than others, so their content should be controlled by special methodsUniform sanitary and epidemiological and hygienic requirements for goods subject to sanitary and epidemiological supervision (control). This is a matter of inspection bodies and Rospotrebnadzor, and we, for our part, we can only decide whether there is another product that has a part of a suspicious additive. Such additives are listed in separate frames.

dyes

indices: E100 - E182.

Dyes enhance or change the color of the product. According to the norms of the Customs Union, it is allowed to use them everywhere. Unprocessed foods, for example, have to look for what they are. Meat, milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables, tea and chocolate are good and without dyes. Also it is impossible to tint meals for children up to 3 years.

Dyes are of three types:

1. natural. They are obtained from the leaves, fruit, or even insects. For example, carrot, turmeric, spinach. They also have their own codes of E, that is, it is natural supplements: carotenes (E160a), sugar color (E150), chlorophyll (E140), carmine (E120), paprika derivatives (E160s), anthocyanins (E163), riboflavin (E101). Despite all their naturalness, they have the use of standards.
2. synthetic. This organic dyes that have been created by man. These dyes are used more often natural, because they are more stable and bright, offer a more pleasant color, and more are thus cheaper. But to them and are more questions: some can accumulate in the body, some have a toxic effect. They should not be in baby products, and synthetic dyes in a concentration of any other food should not exceed 0.01%.
3. mineral. Dyes of mineral substances. They are typically used for coloring surfaces.

Dyes, which further control content: azorubin (E122), quinoline yellow (E104), yellow "sunset» (E110), green solid FCF (E143), green S (E142), indigo carmine (E132), brown HT (E155), red amazing AC (E129), Ponceau 4R (E124), brilliant blue FCF (E133) patent blue V (E131), tartrazine (E102), brilliant black PN (E151), annatto (E160b), carmine (E120), curcumin (E100), lutein (E161b), lycopene (E160d).

preservatives

indices: E200 - E299.

Preservatives - compounds that should keep the product from spoiling. Roughly speaking, they have to destroy bacteria, fungi (mold) and all those microorganisms that want to eat this product before us.

Preservatives effects on living organisms, to some extent, to us, so that their use is highly restricted. You can not use preservatives in the production of milk, butter, flour, bread (if it is not ready for long-term storage), raw meat for food production.

Absolutely no preservatives not live: the harm of spoiled product much more than on the carefully calibrated doses of supplements.

For example, one of the main pugalok - nitrates and nitrites (E240 - E259), which simultaneously and preservatives, and dyes. They retain the bright color of meat products and at the same time save the sausages from developing in them botulinum sticksEffect of nitrite and nitrate on toxin production by Clostridium botulinum and on nitrosamine formation in perishable canned comminuted cured meat. If someone does not know, it is a deadly disease, but apparently contaminated product does not differ from the net.

Nitrates and nitrites are to blame for that are formed in the body nitrosamines, which have harmful: they have a carcinogenic effectIngested nitrate, disinfection by-products, and kidney cancer risk in older womenThey affect the blood pressure. On the whole, the constant use of red meat and nitric acid salts (nitrates and nitrites) are not too helpfulMortality from different causes associated with meat, heme iron, nitrates, and nitrites in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study: population based cohort study.

Nuance is that in principle the formation of nitrosamines in meat - is a natural process. And our bodies are formed, and nitrites, which contribute to this, it is easier to get out of the ordinary beet than from the sausage.

A preservative sulfur dioxide (E220) in general can be omitted on the package if it is small (less than 10 mg / kg).

You can not just go and say what amount of preservatives should be contained in the product, because one and the same substance in different foods may have a different concentration.

For example, a flavored alcoholic beverages - a soda or juice - benzoic acid and its salts may be in an amount of 120 mg / kg, and in a conventional beet - 2 g per kg, in eggs generally up to 5 g These additives cause allergic reactions, but people respond to the blueberries may be much stronger than a cheap sausage.

Hazardous preservatives: benzoic acid and its salts (E210 - E219), dehydroacetic acid (E265) and its salt (E266), biphenyl (E230), nitrates and nitrites (E240 - E259), parabens (E214 - E219), sulfurous acid and its salts (E220 - E228), sorbic acid and its salts sorbates (E200 - E209).

antioxidants

indices: E300 - E399.

Antioxidants for a little more beautiful name "antioxidants" strenuously praise the supporters of healthy eating. They are in green tea and fruit. This and ascorbic acid (E300), citric and (E330) and phosphoric acid (E338), due to which can be cleaned kettles Coke and earn stomach problems, if you overdo it with use.

Antioxidants are needed to keep the fat and regulate taste of the products. For example, tocopherols (E306 - E309) and as contained in certain fatty acids, have useful propertiesVitamin E and, when added to the product in combination with other antioxidants, long retain the freshness of the product.

Many antioxidants are prepared from natural raw materials: guaiac gum (E314), soya, oats - or is made with exactly the same chemical formula as askorbinku.

Synthetic antioxidants, which control and limit the contents, distributed ionol (E321), butylhydroxyanisole (E320), t-butylhydroquinone (E319), propyl, octyl and dodecyl esters of gallic acid (E310 - E312), phosphates (E340 - E349).

stabilizers

indices: E400 - E499.

This additive, which should make the consistency of the product is better, and keep it for a long time. As a rule, these substances have little effect on the body because many hardly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. So that they are rarely to be found in the list of "the most hazardous in the world" additives.

However, this does not mean that they can be eaten in unlimited quantities. They can, for example, spoil the digestion, because it will slow down the absorption of other substances, and the study of their effect on the intestine continuesCommon food additives 'linked' to bowel cancer.

That refers to the stabilizer:

1. thickeners. They need to make gels, jelly, jellies. The products are allowed to add any organic thickeners, or semisynthetic. Natural extract of plants: guar gum (E412), agar (E406), gum arabic (E414), pectins (E440). Semisynthetic also come from plants, but they have been modified in order to achieve certain properties. This methyl cellulose (E461), modified starches (non-genetically modified, is another technology), alginic acid (E400) and its salts (E401 - E405). Synthetic thickeners also exist, but their products are not added.
2. Emulsifiers and stabilizers. They need to have ready-mix does not break up the connection. For example, to mix oil with water and an emulsifier will permanently seal. Due stabilizers and emulsifiers yogurt - a yogurt, not compacted mass in a puddle of water. These substances do based on fatty acids (E470 - E489), esters.

Media that should be monitored: propylene glycol (E490), phosphates (E450 - E459).

Acidity regulators, improvers

indices: E500 - E599.

This group of substances is somewhat similar to the previous. The meaning of the regulators - to keep the consistency of the product. For example, to make the flour slozhivalas using ammonium sulfate (E517).

Flavoring agents and flavor enhancers

indices: E600 - E699.

Under indices in this range largely hidden flavor enhancers, because in this way regulate flavoring unrealistic. in the world of aromatics is not just a lot, their incredibly much. Not all aromatic substances harmless, so their use is limited and regulated by separate applications, documents and lists.

several thousands of substances can be used in Russia, of which compiled flavors. Smells that we feel are composed of several aromatic compounds, which act upon our receptors.

Scary chemical names in the notation of flavorings does not mean that everything is bad. Chemists do not call strawberry scent "smell of strawberries," if only because that dozens of strawberry aromas with terrible names such as nonalactone or benzyl.

Understand without special education and experience, what is allowed and what is not, impossible, the more so manufacturers are not required to specify exactly which flavoring substances used in flavors.

We can only see, it is a natural or synthetic flavoring. Natural - is one in which all components are derived from natural sources. To include all the other synthetic.

Notice is now no "identical to natural" flavorings should not be, the classification has changed.

In any case, remember that you can not add flavors to mimic the smell of the product. For example, flavoring "bread" in the actual bread or "milk" in the milk. But in the dairy product it is already possible. More can not be flavored foods to hide the smell of corruption.

Flavor Enhancers are needed to enhance the natural flavor of the product and make it more attractive. The most famous among them - monosodium glutamate (E621). Around him a lot of controversy: whether to believe that he is to blame for all the ills from obesity to headache, or admit it absolutely harmless.

One way or another, but our laws are recommended to treat glutamate, guanyl and inosinic acid and at the same time their salts (E620 - E633), as well as 5'- ribonucleotides (E634 - E635) with caution.

Sweeteners, other ingredients and defoamers

indices: E700 - E900.

All have found that sugar - evil. But in the world there are natural (stevioside, amino acids) and synthetic (saccharin, xylitol, cyclamates) substances which are much sweeter than sugar, and the harm from them is less. Sweeteners are needed for the diet, they are recommended for people with diabetes. However, certain sweetening agents have side effects. Cyclamates (E952), for example, excluded from the list of permitted in Russia in 2010.

Remember that if there is isomalt (E953), xylitol (E967), lactitol (E966), maltitol (E965), mannitol (E421), sorbitol (E420), erythritol (E968) in the product, they can have a laxative effect.

Sweeteners, which should be monitored: aspartame (E951), acesulfame (E950) aspartame-acesulfame salt (E962), neohesperidin dihydrochalcone (E959), saccharin (E954), sucralose (E955), thaumatin (E957).

additional substances

Index: E900 - E1999.

This is a huge group of substances that do not fit in the previous sections. Here and additives that are needed for packaging products, and stabilizers, and everything else.

Should be monitored: diacetin (E1517), triacetin (E1518), benzyl alcohol (E1519), triethyl citrate (E1505).

How to understand that the product may have

Expect that and in what quantities laid manufacturer in the product, a thankless task. It is clear that food additives - it's a way to make food cheaper, or turn something conditionally edible into something delicious. The same sausage without meat can be harmless. And absolutely useless.

Therefore, the principle of "The less product additives, the better" works.

But even high-quality and useful products can not do without additives, even if there are only two, rather than 20.

According to the norms of each additive on the packaging should be described in detail: why (its function), the index (if any) or the name. The idea is that an honest manufacturer will not be write a "flavor". It is necessary to specify which is the flavor of what is or what is the name. A complex supplements should be decrypted.

Should I write separately, what supplements are forbidden, and check this list every box? Not worth it. Even if someone of the manufacturers decide to somehow get and use an illegal product, it is unlikely he in his right mind will indicate this on the packaging. If in doubt, check it is best done by checking the packaging with SanPin or regulations Customs Union.

By 2020, the EFSA should overestimate the dietary supplements that have been resolved in the EU until January 20, 2009Official Journal of the European Union. This means that we can still wait for news about the mass that we eat.