The twelfth chapter provides a succinct overview of various conventional food additives and preservatives with a major emphasis on their type, functionality, mode of action, and significance for food applications. Furthermore, it stipulates various technological advancements made over the years with novel alternative ingredients and discusses the opportunities shaped by the advent of technologies like nanoencapsulation. The last chapter discusses the broader concept of using nondestructive methods in quality assessment of food products and their applications for food evaluation and quality. The overall quality measurement in the food industry is attributed to the sensor fusion technique, which is a collaborative multi-sensor approach to enhance the quality assessment of agro-food products. These methods, which help to ensure customer satisfaction of products by providing good quality products without rupturing the food product, are discussed in this chapter.
In conclusion, I am very grateful for all the hard work and efforts of the many contributors to this book. I would like to thank all the authors for sharing their insightful research and information with us. I am also very much thankful to Aarushi Sen for her unending encouragement and support throughout the creation of this book. Her help was much appreciated. I am also most grateful for the efforts put in by Martin Scrivener of Scrivener Publishing, whose help made this book possible. I thank him for his patience and consistent support throughout the journey. Finally, I express my sincere thanks to the Department of Chemistry, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh for all the help and support I have received.
Dr. Mousumi Sen
October 2021
1
Food Chemistry: Role of Additives, Preservatives, and Adulteration
Mousumi Sen
Amity Institute of Applied Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
Food is one of the most important substances for survival, it contains all the components that are required for nutrition to maintain a healthy life. Nowadays, due to tremendous advancement, synthetic and natural supplements are added to food items and beverages in huge amount. The synthetic or artificial colors need a strong accreditation from the administrative bodies for their consumption [1–4].
When color preservatives overshoot the sanctioned limit it gradually causes hyperactivity in children. It is mandatory to oversee food quality and the supplements being added to the food for consumption. Also, natural color is rapidly being replaced with artificial or synthetic colors [5].
It is very crucial and critical to understand the effects of each preservation methods and their handling procedure on various foods because each step of storage, handling, processing, and distribution affects the various characteristics of food which could be desirable/undesirable.
Adulteration of food is a demonstration of deliberately corrupting the nature of nourishment offered available to be purchased either by the admixture or substitution of second rate substances and which antagonistically influence nature of food sources, yet in addition their coincidental pollution during the time of development, reaping, capacity, preparing, transport, and dispersion [6–8].
Keywords: Synthetic and natural supplements, artificial colors, food colors, chemical food preservation, sophisticated techniques, adulteration of food, health hazards, pollution
1.1 Introduction
Food colors are basically the supplements that are called as pigments or dyes. When these supplements are added to the food, these improve color of the eatables. These type of color supplements are basically increased within the food just to overcome the color loss that is caused due to the prolong storage conditions. These additives also provide color to the colorless food that makes them more attractive [9]. Food colorants are being added to food in one or another form since many years. Food color plays an eminent role in today’s scenario.
Colorant are different from one another on the basis of their chemical properties and physical properties such as structure, sources, and usage purpose. Colorants are usually added to processed food such as candies, snacks, margarine, cheese, soft drinks, jam/jelly, gelatin, pudding, and pastry fillings [10, 14]. It is known that in medieval ages nitrate was used to enhance the color of meat and to prevent botulism apart from salt and smoke that were used as preservatives.
Food colorants were used by Egyptians in 400 BC to regulate the color of wine and confectionery products. Around the mid-1800 some of the natural colorants added to food were vegetable-derived products such as saffron, carrot, mulberry and flower, various animal originated pigments, and minerals from copper and iron. Around the end of 19th century, the first synthetic dye obtained from organic coal tar was used in butter and cheese [11, 13]. It has been reported that food colorants were used in Europe during the Bronze age.
1.2 Categories of Food Colors
Food colors are classified into three categories:
➢ Natural colors: Natural colors are the pigments that are made by living organisms. For example: beetroot extract, lutein, and annatto.
➢ Nature-identical colors: Nature-identical colors are the manmade pigments which are basically found in nature. For example: beta-carotene and canthaxanthin.
➢ Artificial colors: Artificial colors are purely man-made colors. For example: allura red, and brilliant blue.
1.3 Natural Colors Are Best Over Artificial Colors
Artificial food coloring causes many ill effects mainly to the health. Some of them are mentioned below:
➢ The major effect caused is the behavioral problems especially in children.
➢ Depression in youth is observed on a large scale.
➢ Food allergies and food poisoning are quite common.
➢ Headaches and migraines in people are also seen.
1.4 Classification of Food Colorants
1.4.1 Natural Colorants
Natural food colorants are used worldwide, are known to have significant benefits when consumed, and are demanded by people for their reliability, functionality, biological potential, and health effects [12]. Many consumers associate good and natural looking food and drinks with high quality while they think the other way around when it comes to faded and artificial shining products. In addition, the production of colorants from known sources such as beetroot, grape, cabbage, and paprika makes the consumer feel safe and makes it easier to familiarize and accept the product. Natural colorants are less stable to heat, light, or pH, and their production is inadequate to meet industrial demand. Chemical classification of natural colorants is shown in Table 1.1 [17, 18].
They quickly fade when exposed to light and show low resistance to acidity