Food Additives

Abstract

This Food Additives chapter is in the newly named Aspects of Food Processing section of the text. The other chapters covering food preservation and food packaging components of the food processing section are discussed in Chaps. 16 and 18, respectively.

Glossary

Additive

Substance added to foods for specific physical or technical effects.

Delaney Clause

Clause added to Food Additives Amendment stating that no additive shown to cause cancer in man or laboratory animals could be used in foods.

Drugs

Intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or function of the body.

Enrichment

The addition of nutrients to achieve established concentrations specified by the standards of identity.

Foods

Products primarily consumed for their taste, aroma, or nutritive value.

Fortification

The addition of nutrients at levels higher than those found in the original or comparable food.

Functional foods

Any modified food or food ingredient that may provide a health benefit beyond that obtained by the original food; the term has no legal or general acceptance in the United States but is accepted by some as food for specified health use.

Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS)

Substances in use, not shown to be unsafe.

Health claims

Describe an association between a nutrient or food substance and disease or health-related condition.

Nutraceuticals

The name given to a proposed new regulatory category of food components that may be considered a food or part of a food and may supply medical or health benefits including the treatment or prevention of disease; a term not recognized by the FDA.

Phytochemicals

Plant chemicals; natural compounds other than nutrients in fresh plant material that function in disease prevention; they protect against oxidative cell damage or facilitate carcinogen excretion from the body and exhibit a potential for reducing the risk of cancer.