Food Additive Effects on Human Health - إشعار خبر .esharekhabar./اشعارخبرنيوز

شارك الخبر

This research tested whether information on positive food additives and negative food additives had an effect on consumers’ risk perception and their Willingness To Accept (WTA) food with additives. Consumers’ WTA was examined via a random nth-price auction of exchanging freshly squeezed orange juice without additives for orange juice with additives. Results show that consumers’ WTA differs with the order in which information was provided. Consumers are generally more sensitive to negative than positive information on additives. Female, middle-educated consumers are more susceptible to additive information and their WTA is more likely to change, while postgraduate-educated consumers are less sensitive to additive information. Consumers with higher food-safety satisfaction have lower WTA than those who are not satisfied with food safety. However, their satisfaction is easily affected by the negative-information intervention. Interestingly, consumers with relatively good knowledge of additives had higher WTA than those with no such knowledge.

~~Introduction~~

Food additives are the basis of the modern food industry, and play an important role in improving the color, smell, and taste of food, altering its nutritional structure, perfecting its processing conditions, and extending its shelf life ^[1]. Although the use of additives during food processing has become common practice on a global scale, consumers’ concerns about their potential risks have not abated ^[2]. In recent years, with continuous improvement in consumers’ quality of life, the demand for all-natural, no-additive food has kept increasing. As a result, a number of synthetic food additives have been included in the list of potential food-safety hazards, and many customers believe that the use of food additives is actually unnecessary or unwarranted ^[3].

In China

Food-safety issues that are related to food additives, such as their misuse or overuse due to anthropogenic stressors, or the reckless use of nonedible chemical substances, have become increasingly prominent. Studies have shown that, between 2006 and 2015, a total of 253,617 food-safety incidents were reported in China, of which 75.5 percent were caused by anthropogenic factors. Moreover, the highest number of food-safety incidents was caused by the illegal use of food additives, which accounted for 34.36 percent of the total ^[4]. Indeed, the latest information that has been released by China’s State Food and Drug Administration revealed that, out of 257,000 batches of food samples that were collected nationwide, there were 8224 batches of substandard food, 33.6 percent of which was caused by the misuse or overuse of food additives by food production and processing organizations ^[5].

What is worse?

Some illegal enterprises used nonedible chemical substances in order to pursue their economic interests, which have caused real or potential damage to consumers’ health ^[6]. A typical example is when an infant formula was contaminated with melamine, which occurred in October 2008 and resulted in 296,000 infants and young children having varying degrees of a urinary-system abnormality. The social impact of this incident was devastating in China, and, as a result, many customers have become increasingly worried about the safety of food additives ^[7]. Indeed, there is a great amount of evidence that has repeatedly shown that food-safety incidents occur frequently in China, which is mainly due to the abuse of food additives (The abuse of food additives refers to the practice of misuse or overuse of food additives, as well as the use of fake, shoddy, or expired food additives.) by food-production operators, whose goal is to pursue economic benefits regardless of their moral duty. It is therefore not surprising that such illegal practices have become one of the most worrying aspects of food-safety risks in the country ^[8].

According to the existing classification system in China, there are 23 categories and over 2000 varieties of food additives. Such complexity in the diversity and functionality of food additives makes it very difficult for consumers to comprehensively understand food additives ^[9]. Indeed, even food scientists and engineers may not have a clear understanding of the subject.
Due to the limitations of knowledge, false or negative information about food additives has been widely considered as correct ones. Additionally, some illegal additives or nonedible chemical substances are wrongly categorized as food additives, which can cause further harm.As a result, when information is dominated by the potential risks of food additives, authentic or scientific information is often in a disadvantageous position, and this can lead to customers worrying too much about the hazards of food additives and even cause food scares. Against this background, this study tries to investigate the impact of orange-juice additive information on customers’ risk perception and their WTA. In particular, the study uses a random nth-price auction to evaluate consumers’ willingness to accept some form of compensation when they exchange freshly squeezed orange juice without additives for orange juice containing additives. We used a Tobit model to examine whether the intervention of positive and negative information that is related to orange-juice additives had an effect on consumers’ WTA, as well as the main factors that influence their WTA ^[9].
Food additive

Are any of various chemical substances added to foods to produce specific desirable effects. Additives such as salt, spices, and sulfites have been used since ancient times to preserve foods and make them more palatable. With 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. Many modern products, such as low-calorie, snack, and ready-to-eat convenience foods, would not be possible without food additives ^[1].

There are four general categories of food additives: nutritional additives, processing agents, preservatives, and sensory agents. These are not strict classifications, as many additives fall into more than one category ^[2]. For more information on additives, see emulsifier; food colouring ; nutritional supplement; and preservative. Nutritional additives are used for the purpose of restoring nutrients lost or degraded during production, fortifying or enriching certain foods in order to correct dietary deficiencies, or adding nutrients to food substitutes. The fortification of foods began in 1924 when iodine was added to table salt for the prevention of goitre ^[3]. Vitamins are commonly added to many foods in order to enrich their nutritional value. For example, vitamins A and D are added to dairy and cereal products, several of the B vitamins are added to flour, cereals, baked goods, and pasta, and vitamin C is added to fruit beverages, cereals, dairy products, and confectioneries. Other nutritional additives include the essential fatty acid linoleic acid, minerals such as calcium and iron, and dietary fibre ^[3].

Numbering

To regulate these additives and inform consumers, each additive is assigned a unique number called an “E number“, which is used in Europe for all approved additives. This numbering scheme has now been adopted and extended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission to internationally identify all additives,^[4]regardless of whether they are approved for use.

E numbers are all prefixed by “E“, but countries outside Europe use only the number, whether the additive is approved in Europe or not. For example, acetic acid is written as E260 on products sold in Europe, but is simply known as additive 260 in some countries. Additive 103, alkannin, is not approved for use in Europe so does not have an E number, although it is approved for use in Australia and New Zealand. Since 1987, Australia has had an approved system of labelling for additives in packaged foods. Each food additive has to be named or numbered. The numbers are the same as in Europe, but without the prefix “E”.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists these items as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS);^[4] they are listed under both their Chemical Abstracts Service number and FDA regulation under the United States Code of Federal Regulations^[5].

References

[1] “Food Additives & Ingredients-Overview of Food Ingredients, Additives & Colors”. FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition , Retrieved 11 April, 2017.

[2] “Food Ingredients and Packaging Terms”. FDA. January 4, 2018. [3] [3] Some Common Food Additives May Pose Health Risks to Children”. American Academy of Pediatrics. July 23, 2018.

[4] Bucci , Luke (1995). Nutrition applied to injury rehabilitation and sports medicine. Boca Raton: CRC Press. p. 151. ISBN 0-8493-7913-X.

[5] Assessment of technologies for determining cancer risks from the environment. Darby, Pennsylvania, USA: DIANE publishing. 1981. p. 177. ISBN 1-4289-2437-X.

[6] Whysner, J.; Williams, GM. (1996). “Saccharin mechanistic data and risk assessment: urine composition, enhanced cell proliferation, and tumor promotion”. Pharmacol Ther. 71 (1–2): 225–52. PMID 17825405.

[7] Dybing, E. (2002). “Development and implementation of the IPCS conceptual framework for evaluating mode of action of chemical carcinogens”. Toxicology. 181-182: 121–5. PMID 17825405. [8] McCann, D; Barrett, A; Cooper, A; Crumpler, D; Dalen, L; Grimshaw, K; Kitchin, E; Lok, K; et al. (2007). “Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial”. Lancet. 370 (9598): 1560–7. PMID 17825405.

[9] Amchova, Petra; Kotolova, Hana; Ruda-Kucerova, Jana “Health safety issues of synthetic food colorants” Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (2015), 73(3), 914-922.

Author Profile

اشعار خبر نيوز

موقع الكترونى اخبارى اجتماعى تنموى يهتم بكل ماهو جديد على الساحة المحلية والإقليمية والعالميه
من اخبار وفن ورياضة واقتصاد واحداث جارية ويهتم بالصحة والتعليم والتنمية المحلية

https://esharekhabar.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@esharekhabar