Chemicals In Food

With coming up of restaurants and chain food joints, the culture of eating out and consuming packaged food has become not just a necessity but a habit. The habit has grown into addiction to such levels that consumption of outside food is common even among kids, leave alone the young and adults. Such high intake of junk food is exposing the our body system to a number of unwanted chemical foods. Chemical foods do not necessarily imply food products with higher quantities of harmful food chemicals and additives. It refers to all those foods that use chemical food additives in whatever quantity, in some way or the other.

Some of the main chemical foods are potato chips in the market, pizzas, burgers, fries, ice creams, packaged drinks, foods with longer shelf lives and other foods that are a part of the daily consumption of many. Let's understand some of the main categories of chemicals in foods that are harming our bodies in a major way.

Anti Caking Agents

Anti caking agent is an additive that performs functions as per its name. Its prevents caking of powdery and liquid substances. Some of the popular products that use these anti caking agents are salt, milk powder, tea, coffee, sugar, etc. Anti caking agents are added to such products to prevent from coagulating and allow free flow and mix. Icing sugar, soups, coffee and baking powder are a few of the food products that use anti caking agents.

Lake Food Dyes

Lake food colors are also known as lake pigments. Lake pigments are oil soluble colors that are used in a lot of industries. Some of the examples pf lake colors are allura red, amaranth, tartrazine, brilliant blue, etc. Though lake colors do not have any side effects in general, but they should be consumed with care, anyways. The common chemical foods that consist lake colors in the name of chemicals in food are, pet food, medicines and and other drugs, cosmetic products, can linings, packaged products, and bakery and dairy products.

Preservatives

Preservatives are substances that are added to food additives with an aim of increasing the shelf life of the food products. Sugar, salt and lemon are some of natural food preservatives, but apart from them, synthetic food preservatives like benzoates, nitrites, sulphites, sorbates and others are also common in our everyday packaged foods consumption.

The main idea communicated here is that chemical foods have become an unavoidable part of our everyday lives, and the only way to stay away from them, as far as possible, and stick to home made and home cooked foods.