Legal Considerations of Food Additive
The term “food additive” is an unfortunate one. It is innately pejorative. Intrinsically, it designates something added to food.
Logically, if it is something added to food, it is not itself food. If it is not food, why should it be added?
The characterization of an ingredient as a food additive immediately stimulates suspicion. As a consequence, most people reserve the term for those ingredients of food that they consider unnecessary and at least possibly harmful.
In extension of this concept, many countries, including a number of the major ones, classify food ingredients as:
- Normal ingredients
- Processing aids
- Food Additives
- Contaminants
Normal ingredients are often categorized as such if they can be consumed alone as food. The nature of processing aids is fairly obvious form the name.
The presumption is that these aids will be totally or almost totally lost in processing, thereby not adversely affecting the properties of the food, since as color, flavor, etc., and not presenting problems of safety.
Contaminants are such things as pesticide residues, substances transferred in from packaging or other food transfer surfaces and substances produced by invading organisms, e.g. mycotoxins.
Now considers the applications of this system of flavored ice cream. The strawberries in strawberry ice cream are normal ingredients, because strawberries are eaten as food.
The chocolate in chocolate ice ream is a normal ingredient, because chocolate is sometime eaten as food.
The vanilla in vanilla ice cream, however, and he oil of peppermint in peppermint ice cream are food additives, because these flavorings are not eaten alone.
Another example of the application of this system occurs with leavenings. Yeasts used in making bread is a normal ingredient, because it can be and sometime is consumed alone as food.
The baking powder used in biscuits, however is a food additive, because it would not be consumed alone.
Legal Considerations of Food Additive