Food Additives: What We Eat Today Is NOT What Our Great Grandparents Ate

The food we eat today looks nothing like what our ancestors ate, even those from a generation or two ago! Food is no longer just food. The vast majority of food in grocery stores is processed to some degree and contains some form of food additives.

 'Ingredients': An Eye-Opening Look At The Additives In Our Food

We may eat a lot of food additives, but most consumers know very little about them. These often misunderstood substances go by unwieldy names like "diacetyl" or "azodicarbonamide." They are in everything from salad dressings to Twinkies. But how many of us actually know what they look like or, more important, what they're doing in our food?

 Beyond the Label

What do those additives in your Doritos and Twinkies actually look like? See what really ends up in the food you eat.

 Busting the myth that all food additives are bad: a quick guide for label readers

Processed foods are often energy dense and light on nutrients. They also often contain additives with intimidating chemical names, or referred to just by their standardised additive numbers. But, the additives themselves are not necessarily the problem. Natural additives can make foods act in unexpected ways, which enhance the consumer experience and often prolong shelf life.

 Food additive or carcinogen? The growing list of chemicals banned by EU but used in US

Chemical safety processes in the EU and US work in starkly different ways. Where European policy tends to take a precautionary approach – trying to prevent harm before it happens – the US is usually more reactive.

 Food Additives: What We Eat Today Is NOT What Our Great Grandparents Ate

The food we eat today looks nothing like what our ancestors ate, even those from a generation or two ago! Food is no longer just food. The vast majority of food in grocery stores is processed to some degree and contains some form of food additives.

 The dark side of convenience food, and what the future holds for ready-to-eat meals

The back of a typical cheese-and-lunch-meat meal box reads like the instruction manual to a science experiment. Included on the ingredients list are things like sodium nitrite, a compound that gives some deli meat its signature red color; butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), a chemical used to prevent certain foods from turning rancid; and calcium propionate, which inhibits the growth of mold. All told, it takes more than 53 ingredients — some natural, many synthetic — to ensure your snack pack stays “fresh” for its months-long shelf life.

 What banned substances might be hiding in your groceries?

If you live in the US, your grocery store is full of substances banned in Europe. Use our handy tool to find out what they are and how to avoid them.

Could You Be Allergic to Additives in Food or Drugs?

In recent years, however, as consumer demand for natural foods has risen, food manufacturers have been replacing synthetic additives with natural ones derived from plants, insects and other animal products. These natural substances are more likely to provoke an allergic reaction because they contain proteins that our immune systems might react to...

Dangerous Food Additives Hidden In Your Diet

Food additives are chemical substances involved in the food processing or storage, found in foods, beverages and drugs. Realistic examples include BHT in cornflakes, MSG in some potato chips & some noodles, Sodium benzoate in bottled juice, BHA in ultra low fat ranch dressing, and Sodium nitrite in Turkey frankfurters.

Explainer: what are E numbers and should you avoid them in your diet?

Food additives have been used for centuries. The ancient Romans would use spices such as saffron to give foods a rich yellow colour. Salt and vinegar were used to preserve meats and vegetables for long voyages.

Food additives and chronic disease risk: what role do emulsifiers play?

A recent study suggests emulsifiers – detergent-like food additives found in a variety of processed foods – have the potential to damage the intestinal barrier, leading to inflammation and increasing our risk of chronic disease. The research was done on mice, so it’s too early to say humans should stop eating emulsifiers, but let’s examine the mechanisms involved.

Food additives: The battle of factual science vs. consumer perception

In the age of social media and clean eating trends, the average consumer’s limited understanding of organic chemistry and food science has led to them shunning perceived “chemicals” in their foods. But when you break down a standard banana, a lot of the chemicals you would find in processed foods are also found in the all-natural banana.

Italy’s War on Food Additives

But the ban on additives doesn’t apply to industrial manufacturers. (Eateries are free to serve as much packaged, processed food as they want.) Why have individual chefs been singled out while mass-producers are off the hook?

Medicine: Food Additives: Blessing or Bane?

For many reasons, laboratory technicians and manufacturers have had to infuse foods with an infinite variety of chemicals. Two vital questions now nag both consumers and pure-food authorities: 1) Are these additives necessary or even desirable? and 2) Are they safe? In virtually no case is a simple declarative answer possible.

Panera is the latest food company to join the war on scary-sounding chemicals

Call it the war on scary-sounding chemicals. Even though everything is made of chemicals — and it would be impossible to live a chemical-free world — activists are increasingly targeting compounds that seem "artificial." And companies like Kraft and Subway are often bowing to their demands.

The FDA has failed the public by letting companies determine ‘safe’ food additives

Food companies use additives to flavor food, enhance its color, prevent spoilage, and more. It includes chemicals used in packaging and food processing equipment that may get into food and covers more than just the ingredients listed on the label. Of the 10,000 or so additives, about 1,000 have been deemed by companies in secret to be generally recognized as safe.

The New Science of Food Additives

Americans want bolder flavors but also less artificial ingredients. What's a food company to do?

Titanium Dioxide, banned in Europe, is one of the most common food additives in the U.S.

A significant body of research, mostly from rodent models and in vitro studies, has linked titanium dioxide with health risks related to the gut, including intestinal inflammation, alterations to the gut microbiota, and more. It is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Group 2B, as possibly carcinogenic to humans. As a food additive, titanium dioxide and its nanoparticles in particular have been associated with DNA damage and cell mutations, which in turn, have potential to cause cancer. When used as a food coloring, it is known as E171.

Two States Have Proposed Bans on Common Food Additives Linked to Health Concerns

Here’s what to know about the five chemicals, which most often show up in baked goods, candy and soda.

What Foods Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.?

The European Union prohibits many food additives and various drugs that are widely used in American foods.

What's added takes away

We barely know about the effects of chemical food additives, and our governments don't care.

Why Ditching Additives and Sweeteners Made Me a Better Peruvian Chef

Why use colourants when you can dye things with plants from the Andes?

Why the FDA Doesn't Ban Food Colors, BPA, and Other Chemicals

The difficulty of doing research on low-dose chemicals -- and the food industry's insistence that they're safe -- explains the reluctance to act.

Why The FDA Has Never Looked At Some Of The Additives In Our Food

Companies have added thousands of ingredients to foods with little to no government oversight. That's thanks to a loophole in a decades-old law that allows them to deem an additive to be "generally recognized as safe" — or GRAS — without the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's blessing, or even its knowledge. The loophole was originally intended to allow manufacturers of common ingredients like vinegar and table salt — when added to processed foods — to bypass the FDA's lengthy safety-review process.