Categories of food additives and analytical techniques for their determination

The food industries can use up to 230 different compounds, classified into 25 classes of food additives, in food production. Despite their importance in food production, if inappropriately employed, some food additives may provoke adverse consumer health effects, such as allergies, diabetics, obesity, and metabolic disorders. Thus this chapter shows all the food additive classes, indicating their respective functions, main compounds in each class, foodstuff applications, and possible adverse human health effects. The main analytical instrumental techniques employed in the detection of food additives are also described in this chapter, including the basic instrumentation in each technique and the main advantages and drawbacks of their use in foodstuff analysis. Other topics covered are the sampling descriptions, sample preparations and pretreatments, the adequate choice of the analytical techniques, and the validation parameters considered by regulatory agencies and control quality laboratories in the food industries.