Substances that are added to food to maintain or improve its safety, freshness, taste, texture, or appearance are called food additives. Some of them have been used for centuries to preserve food, such as salt, which is applied in meats such as bacon and dried fish, also sugar, in the case of jams or sulfur dioxide used in the elaboration of wines.
Over the years, a great variety of new additives have been obtained to satisfy the needs of food production in the world, since the conditions for preparing food on a large scale are totally different from those in households. For this reason, these substances are necessary to preserve the safety of processed foods and in addition to keeping them in good condition during their transport from the place where they are made to the final consumers, passing through the various warehouses and commercial premises where they are sold to the public..
The use of food additives can only be justified if it fulfills a technological need, does not induce errors to the consumer and is used with a technological function that is well defined, such as the case of preserving the nutritional quality of food or failing that to improve its stability.
The reasons why additives are used in the food industry are mainly economic and social.
Using some of these substances allows certain foods to last longer, which allows a greater use of them and what consequently allows prices to be lowered and there may be a more homogeneous distribution of them. An example of this is when substances are added to certain canned products that allow the Ph of said product to be reduced, its duration is prolonged over time, which gives the possibility that in times when the production of the same decrease is possible its consumption at a price accessible to the public.
