Food Additives and Hypersensitivity: A Review

Abstract

Food additives are ―substances intentionally added to preserve, maintain or improve its safety, freshness, taste, texture, or appearance of foods‖. They are added to food at any stage of production, processing, treatment, packaging, or storage. For centuries, food additives derived from natural sources have been used to perform variety of technical functions, later synthetic food additives were introduced and are now commonly used. Presently, there are more than 3000 food additives listed by the FDA. They are classified according to the functions they perform, i.e. as preservatives, antioxidants, sweeteners, colourants, flavourings, flavour enhancers, fat replacers, nutrients, emulsifiers, stabilizers and thickeners, binders, texturizers, pH control agents and acidulants, leavening International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 10 Number 02 (2021) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com