Chemical Properties and Applications of Food Additives: Flavor, Sweeteners, Food Colors, and Texturizers

Abstract

Foods are nutrients. Besides nutrition, there are other major parameters that affect a person’s like of or preference for various foods, such as appearance, odor, and taste. The environment, including noise made when biting food and background sound such as music, also has an effect. The addition of flavorings, sweeteners, and acids, either natural or synthetic, to processed foods is meant to make up the loss of odor and taste that occurs during processing, or to enhance the quality of the food. Similarly, natural or synthetic colorants are used to improve the appearance of food. Starches, emulsifiers, and hydrocolloids are food texturizers with different chemical properties that affect taste via their respective characteristics. Recently, there have been many studies on the production of foodstuffs with specific and unique characteristics in which additives were used.