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Food additives are not antithetical to food safety

Nov 23 - 2023

Food additives are not antithetical to food safety

"Talk about additive color change"

On the short video platform, with "additives" as the keyword search, you can get a lot of emotional content, but the theme is mostly the same: food contains additives, unsafe to eat.

We hope that the public will have a correct understanding of food additives. The article pointed out that rumors circulating on the Internet such as "instant noodles are food additives, and a bowl of instant noodles takes 32 days to detoxify" and "food additives in instant noodles are toxic, and eating too much is bad for your health" are not reliable. Do not eat more instant noodles, not because of food additives, but because it contains high fat and high salt food, nutrition is not comprehensive, excessive consumption will lead to other health problems. "Incomplete nutrition" and "toxic" are obviously two completely different concepts. In this regard, the relevant departments and professionals repeatedly remind that there is no need to "talk about the change of color of food additives."

Going back to the source, many consumers are worried about food additives, which is related to food safety incidents such as "melamine milk powder", "clenbuterol" and "Sudan Red Eggs" in earlier years. Recently, videos such as "fake eggs" and "fake flour" have deepened the public's doubts about food additives.

However, melamine, "clenbuterol" and Sudan red are not allowed to be added to food, which is a typical illegal and illegal addition, "fake eggs" and "fake flour" and other video content is the normal production and development process and the so-called "experimental" editing technology grafting and fusion of media companies in order to attract eyeballs and cheat traffic, false and alarmist. It can be seen that the above issues of food quality and safety education have no social relationship with the use of additives in the food industry.

Is "0 added" more secure?

In some "popular science blogs", it is often heard that "the supervision of food additives in China is less than that in foreign countries", "additives used in China are not allowed to be used in foreign countries" and so on, and sometimes various products will use pictures and domestic and foreign standard information.

It should be noted that although there are more than 15,000 internationally recognized food additives, the varieties and limits of food additives allowed in different countries are not the same, and the food of each country must meet its own regulations. Therefore, it is not rigorous to draw the conclusion that "the strictness of management is different" just from the difference of types.

In response to public concern about food additives, some foods with "zero additives" and "zero preservatives" have appeared in the market.

"This is the opposite of food additives and food safety, the use of consumer misunderstanding of food additives to marketing, but will strengthen the wrong idea that food additives are harmful, is not conducive to the healthy development of the food industry." 

How to break "demonization"?

Whether it is China's food enterprise safety management expert system or practitioners, they have found it difficult to break the "demonization of food additives".

"The public has some negative memories and emotions about food safety. You said food additives weren't that bad, but he said no." It is necessary to provide high-quality food safety scientific materials and methods to transform scientific food safety consensus into social consensus.

In this regard, it is very important to guarantee the right to know. One fan left a message: "The concern is not the use of food additives, but the abuse or illegal addition of food additives, and I hope it is clearly consumed." "

"This is a social problem that we should work towards by authoritative regulatory bodies and relevant technology companies to develop common goals and provide consumers with visible services." Ms. Ju, a consumer who is a fan of existing tea drinks, noticed that recently some brands of existing tea drinks disclosed the formula raw materials, raw material traceability and nutrient composition analysis reports of all products on sale in China. When ordering online, consumers can choose to directly check the main raw materials used in a certain tea, whether there are additives and other information.

She was very much in favour of it. "I often see a lot of additives in milk tea. Now companies publish formulas and test reports, not only for consumers to buy reference, but also means the supervision of the public and regulatory authorities. This is a measure to protect consumers' right to know and should be advocated.

By:Christy