Food additives are used to enhance flavour, increase shelf life, facilitate manufacturing processes and improve the external appearance of food products. There are currently nearly 400 substances on the list of permitted additives.
The main EU legislation laying down rules on food additives is Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on food additives, as amended. According to the definition given in that Regulation, “food additive” means any substance not normally consumed as a food in itself and not normally used as a characteristic ingredient of food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packaging, transport or storage of such food results, or may be reasonably expected to result, in it or its by-products becoming directly or indirectly a component of such foods.
Our laboratory at J.S. Hamilton Poland most commonly labels the following food additives:
- Preservatives: benzoic acid and its salts, sorbic acid and its salts, sulfur dioxide and sulfites, nitrites and nitrates,
- Antioxidants: ascorbic acid and its salts, butylhydroxyanisole (BHA), butylhydroxytoluene (BHT),
- Taste enhancers: glutamic acid and its salts,
- Colourants: Sudan I, II, III and IV,
- Water binding agents: phosphorus added as P2O5 (in meat and fish preparations),
- Sweeteners: acesulfame K, saccharin, aspartame.
Sweeteners are one of the most recently accredited analyses at J.S. Hamilton Poland. High performance liquid chromatography with spectrophotometric detection (HPLC-UV/Vis, HPLC-DAD) is used for final determinations.
If you want to learn more about additives and food testing, contact our team to schedule a meeting – or simply book tests with our laboratory today.
