Food additives main functions are roughly as follows：
1.Prevent deterioration
For example: preservatives can prevent food spoilage caused by microorganisms, extend the shelf life of food, and also have the effect of preventing food poisoning caused by microbial contamination.
Another example: antioxidants can prevent or postpone the oxidative deterioration of food to provide food stability and storage resistance, while also preventing the formation of potentially harmful fats and oils auto-oxidizing substances. In addition, it can also be used to prevent enzymatic browning and non-enzymatic browning of foods, especially fruits and vegetables. These are of certain significance to the preservation of food.
2.Improve the sensory properties of food
Food color, aroma, taste, shape and texture are important indicators to measure food quality. Appropriate use of food additives such as coloring agents, color retention agents, bleaching agents, edible fragrances, emulsifiers, thickeners, etc. can significantly improve the sensory quality of food and meet people's different needs.
3.Maintain or improve the nutritional value of food
Appropriate addition of certain food nutrition fortifiers that belong to the natural nutrition range during food processing can greatly improve the nutritional value of food, which is of great significance to prevent malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies, promote nutritional balance, and improve people's health.
4.Increase the variety and convenience of food
There are now more than 20,000 kinds of foods on the market for consumers to choose from. Although most of these foods are produced through certain packaging and different processing methods, in the production process, some products with complete colors, aromas and tastes, Most of them have added coloring, flavoring, flavoring and even other food additives to varying degrees.
It is the supply of these numerous foods, especially convenience foods, that bring great convenience to people's lives and work.
5.Good for food processing
The use of defoamers, filter aids, stabilizers and coagulants in food processing can be beneficial to food processing operations. For example, when glucono delta lactone is used as a tofu coagulant, it can be beneficial to the mechanization and automation of tofu production.
6.Meet other special needs
Food should meet the different needs of people as much as possible. For example, if people with diabetes cannot eat sugar, they can use non-nutritive sweeteners or low-calorie sweeteners, such as sucralose or aspartame, to make sugar-free food supplies.