A review on Food additives from the definition, and types to the method of analysis

Food additives have been used by man since the earliest times. The safety of food additives is an important issue related to the food industry, so the use of additives in food should be controlled by laws in many countries. For example, in the United States, Congress has entrusted the Food and Drug Administration with the responsibility to ensure that additives to be used in food are safe, thus a new food additive must be approved by Food and Drug Administration before it can be used in food. At present, there are up to 2500 food additives being used worldwide. A large number of studies have confirmed that consuming excessive amounts of synthetic food additives may cause gastrointestinal, respiratory, dermatologic, and neurologic adverse reactions. There is a current worldwide interest in finding new and safe additives from natural sources such as plants, animals, and microorganisms to enhance and prevent the deterioration of food. Additives should be continuously checked by regulation. Currently, liquid, gas, and mass/liquid chromatography are the major types of chromatography used in conventional detection techniques for testing food additives.