Additives and drinks

  Additives have been part of our lives for several centuries. For example, sulphur dioxide has been used as a preservative in the manufacturing of wines. And in domestic baking, baking powder has been used to raise dough for decades.

During the last 30-40 years, the quantity of industrially produced food - and the use of additives - has increased.

In industrially produced foods, additives are necessary to ensure preservability because they prevent the spread of food poisoning bacteria. Additives are also necessary to maintain the structure of foods. For example in many diet products, the removed fat and sugar have been replaced with additives to maintain the integrity of the product's structure and appearance.

Certain additives are chemical, while others are synthetic. Many people complete their chemistry courses in school without realising that in a way our ordinary foods, for example fruits, berries, meat and milk, are nothing but chemical compounds.

Many consumers are afraid of the additives' often lengthy and intimidating-sounding names, or the mystical E-codes that replace the long names in product descriptions. For that reason the manufacturers of food products have attempted to replace so-called pure additives with various kinds of bacterial cultures that are often marked on packages as souring agents or bacterial cultures. These are however also additives.

The safety of additives can be precisely determined in advance and possible toxic effects can always be clarified. Long-range research projects are attempting to determine if the long-term use of additives causes diseases or are inherited.

Additive regulations in Finland conform with the statutes of other EU Member States.

Source: Evira, http://www.evira.fi/

Read more at Evira's website (in Finnish):
http://www.evira.fi/portal/fi/elintarvikkeet/elintarviketietoa/lisaaineet/