Food Additive Categories
Flavor enhancer enhance a food's existing flavours. They maybe extracted from natural sources (through distillation, solvent extraction, maceration, among other methods) or created artificially.
Flour treatment agents are added to flour to improve its colour or its use in baking.
Humectant prevent foods from drying out.
Preservatives prevent or inhibit spoilage of food due to fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms.
Stabilizers, thickeners and gelling agents, like agar or pectin (used in jam for example) give foods a firmer texture. While they are not true emulsifiers, they help to stabilize emulsions.
Sweeteners are added to foods for flavouring. Sweeteners other than sugar are added to keep the food energy (calories) low, or because they have beneficial effects for diabetes mellitus and tooth decay and diarrhoea.
Thickeners are substances which, when added to the mixture, increase its viscosity without substantially modifying its other properties.
Acids Food acids are added to make flavours "sharper", and also act as preservatives and antioxidants. Common food acids include vinegar, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, fumaric acid, lactic acid.
Acidity regulator are used to change or otherwise control the acidity and alkalinity of foods.
Anticaking agent keep powders such as milk powder from caking or sticking.
Antifoaming agent reduce or prevent foaming in foods.
Antioxidants such as vitamin C act as preservatives by inhibiting the effects of oxygen on food, and can be beneficial to health.
Bulking agent such as starch are additives that increase the bulk of a food without affecting its nutritional value.
Food colouring is added to food to replace colours lost during preparation, or to make food look more attractive.
Food emulsifiers allow water and oils to remain mixed together in an emulsion, as in mayonnaise, ice cream, and homogenized milk.
Flavours are additives that give food a particular taste or smell, and may be derived from natural ingredients or created artificially.