4 Life Supplements

 Food additives are substances added to food to improve their safety, increase shelf life, preserve or improve their taste, texture or appearance.

Before using food additives, you must ensure that there is no potential harm to human health.

The Joint FAO / WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is the international body responsible for performing the safety assessment of food additives.

In the manufacture of food for international trade, only those food additives that have been evaluated by JECFA as safe, based on the maximum allowable dosage values ​​set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, may be used.

Substances that are added to food to increase their safety, increase their shelf life, preserve or improve their taste, texture or appearance are called food additives. Some food additives have been used since time immemorial to increase shelf life, such as salt (meat products such as bacon or dried fish), or sugar (jam, preserves) or sulfur dioxide (wine).

Many different nutritional supplements have evolved in response to the needs of the food industry, since mass food production is very different from home cooking in its nature. Additives are necessary to ensure the safety and preservation of the presentation of industrial food products at all stages: from a production workshop or a kitchen factory to reaching the consumer's table, including transportation to warehouses and stores.

The use of food additives is justified only in cases where it is due to the specifics of the technological process, does not mislead consumers and meets a clearly defined technological need, for example, the need to preserve the nutritional value of a food product or increase its stability.

Food supplements can be of plant, animal, or mineral origin. There are also synthetic additives. They are deliberately introduced into the composition of food products, which serves to achieve special technological goals, which the consumer, as a rule, does not even know about. Today, several thousand food additives are used, each of which has a specific function and serves to ensure the safety or improve the appearance of food. WHO, together with FAO, categorizes food additives into 3 broad categories based on their function.

Flavoring additives - added to foods to enhance their aroma or taste - are the most abundant group of additives used in the food industry. In the production of a wide range of food products, from confectionery and soft drinks to cereals, cakes and yogh 4 Life Supplements urt. Natural flavors include, for example, mixtures of nuts, fruits or spices, as well as additives made from vegetables or wine. In addition, there are flavors that mimic natural flavors and aromas.

Enzyme preparations are additives that may or may not be present in the final product. Enzymes are naturally occurring proteins that accelerate biochemical reactions by breaking down larger molecules into smaller pieces. They are isolated from plant or animal raw materials or from microorganisms, such as bacteria, and are used as an alternative to chemical catalysts. They are mainly used in bakery (to improve the properties of the dough), in the production of fruit juices (to increase the yield of the product), in winemaking and brewing (to improve the fermentation process), as well as in cheese making (to improve the coagulation of milk).

There are other types of food additives that are used for different purposes, such as to increase shelf life, add color, or sweet taste. They are added at different stages during the preparation, packaging, shipping or storage of food and ultimately become part of the food product.

Preservatives slow down the degradation of food by mold, air, bacteria or yeast. In addition to preserving the quality of food, preservatives help to combat contamination with pathogens that can cause a variety of foodborne diseases, including the life-threatening disease botulism.

Dyes are added to food products to restore color lost during the cooking process, or to make them look more attractive.

Non-sugar sweeteners are often used as an alternative to sugar because of their low or no energy value.

WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is responsible for carrying out a health risk assessment of food additives. The risk assessment of food additives is carried out by an independent group of international experts - the Joint FAO / WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).

https://jiji.co.rw/kigali/other-services/4-life-supplements-pX8XB1CstSaOxLXykGgqzhAJ.html