Code of honor
Back in 1963, at the beginning of the invasion of the food industry of chemical preservatives and dye, WHO issued an official document - Codex Alimcnlarius. To date, it has a huge number of permissible additives. To use them without violating the law, producers must write on the package the name of the component, or its index and class, for example: "sorbic acid" or "preservative E-200". Also, companies must not exceed the permissible number of additives "E". In this case, the products are considered safe.
Ole, the champion!
In the first place in the top three champions - chewing gum. Of the "shortcomings" only a rubber base. In second place - diet cola. Natural origin in it water, carbon dioxide, and caffeine. What makes her a cola, has a purely laboratory origin: sweeteners, acidity regulators, dyes, preservatives and so on. Closes the top three "most harmful" bouillon cube. Natural ingredients in it a little: vegetable fat of unknown origin, a little vegetable and dried chicken meat. Well, salt with sugar. All the rest are flavor and odor enhancers (glutamate, inosinate, sodium guanylate), maltodextrin, starch, flavors and colorant. As they say, a pleasant appetite!
One hundred thousand additives "E"
Flavors and flavor enhancers (E-600 - E-699) are found in sausages harmful to the waist, sodas and fast food, and in many Korean salads, soy sauce, yoghurts and vegetable seasonings, beloved by many. Flavors in general often mislead us. The fact is that in addition to natural (spices, concentrates of vegetables and fruits) and synthetic (chemical substances like ethylmaltol) there are also so-called identical natural. In fact, they have little in common with their natural brethren. In America and Europe there is no such term at all. At us he is often used to hide unattractive names of chemical substances. Agree, a raspberry kitten, ethyl acetate or amyl acetate in the yogurt sound less attractive than a flavor identical to natural. Other additives of the E-600-E-699 series are taste enhancers. They allow companies to save on expensive ingredients. A typical example is sodium glutamate, which is often found in sauces, spices and sausages. It advantageously enhances the taste of fresh vegetables and meat, allowing them to partially replace them with cheap analogues. According to the dieticians of the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, for adults, sodium glutamate is dangerous only in case of exceeding the permissible norm (1.5 g per day, or no more than 0.5 g at a time). It's not easy to control this, especially if you are keen on Korean salads and ready-to-use dressings. It is better to cook your own, with natural spices. Dyes (E-100 - E-199) and preservatives (E-200 - E-299) are found even where they seemingly have nothing to do, for example, in low-fat cheese and grainy cottage cheese. "E" groups 100-199 are both chemical and close to natural. The latter include carotene and carotenoids (carrot extracts), Appato (Bixa orcllana L. bush seed extract, which grows in South America), curcumin (a substance from the root of turmeric), riboflavin (vitamin B2). Nutritionists (except for centuries of vinegar, apple and other natural acids), nutritionists have long been classified as conditionally safe. This means that healthy people are better not to use them, and those who have problems with metabolism, allergies and children, they are generally contraindicated. Interestingly, the popular bio-yogurt, which, according to GOST, should not have any preservatives at all, can stand in the refrigerator for several days, although, logically, they should sour within a few hours ... Stabilizers, thickeners and emulsifiers (Е-400-Е -499) can be found both in chocolate, and in less-calorie desserts - jelly, marmalade, ice cream. Moreover, without these additives, the listed sweets would not exist at all. For example, the use of E-476 (ethers, similar to ordinary soap) is provided by technology for the production of chocolate. They give the delicacy plasticity, due to which it melts in the mouth. Like other E-components, stabilizers, thickeners and emulsifiers are natural and synthetic. Of the time-tested - egg yolk and protein, as well as vegetable lecithins. Do not be afraid of agar-agar and alganates (extracts of seaweed), humicarrabica (acacia extract), pectin (vegetable fiber), gelatin (protein gelling agent) and chitosan (substance from the carapace of the crab). They are often used in the manufacture of dietary products, which doctors advise people with excess weight. However, synthetic and semi-synthetic polymers and surfactants (surfactants) are much less expensive. They can be calculated using a sophisticated chemical name, as well as the cost of the product in which they are contained. For example, in ice cream varieties manufactured according to GOST, natural lecithin is more often used, and for cheap varieties (according to TU) "chemistry" is used. The group of other additives (E-900-E-999) includes flour improvers and other substances. They can be found both in a white loaf and bread rolls, and in popular with slimming bread and cereals. Now, without these additives, almost none of the bread-baking plants can do. They allow you to save a lot on the main ingredient - quality flour. Wheat of the third class is ideal for bakery. There is enough gluten in it, which will impart porosity and splendor to the bread crumb. However, now bakeries are increasingly using fourth-grade wheat flour, which used to feed livestock. Thanks to cheap E improvers, it is possible to disguise ingredients of poor quality. To protect yourself from "chemistry" in daily bread, it is better to buy popular types of rye or rye-wheat bread, which are made according to old GOSTs. This bread has a dense consistency, so "airiness" of loaves and rolls to him to anything.