Food Additives
They are added intentionally to food to perform certain technological purposes which consumers often take for granted.
Food additives. Food additive any of various chemical substances added to foods to produce specific desirable effectsadditives such as salt spices and sulfites have been used since ancient times to preserve foods and make them more palatablewith the increased processing of foods in the 20th century there came a need for both the greater use of and new types of food additives. Monosodium glutamate or msg is a common food additive used to intensify and enhance the flavor of savory dishes. For example preserving food by pickling with vinegar salting as with bacon preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as with wineswith the advent of processed foods in the second half of the twentieth century many more. Food additives can be derived from plants animals or minerals or they can be synthetic.
Some additives have been used for centuries.