Types and potential risks of food flavors

There are many kinds of food flavors, which have penetrated into the corners of People's Daily life. With the frequent occurrence of food safety issues such as "plasticizer" incidents, dyed steamed buns, and Sudan red, consumers are worried: Will excessive addition of food flavors bring potential food safety problems?

There are more than 5,000 kinds of raw materials that can extract food flavors in the world, and there are about 1,500 kinds of food flavors approved for trial in China. It is no exaggeration to say that "in all of our deeply processed foods, almost all can see the shadow of flavor."

Food flavor refers to the fragrance of natural food, the use of natural or equivalent natural spices, synthetic spices carefully prepared into a variety of flavors with natural flavor. Food flavors include fruit water quality and oil, milk, poultry, meat, vegetables, nuts, preserves, emulsification and alcohol, etc., suitable for beverages, biscuits, pastries, frozen food, candy, seasonings, dairy products, canned food, wine and other foods, and its dosage forms are liquid, powder, microcapsules, pulp, etc.

According to the source division, food flavor is divided into a variety of. Includes:

1, natural flavor. It is a completely natural substance extracted from natural plants and animals (spices) by physical methods. Usually, the carriers of natural aroma substances can be obtained from fruits, animal organs, leaves, tea and seeds. The extraction methods are extraction, distillation and concentration.

2, equivalent to natural flavor. This kind of flavor is obtained from natural raw materials through chemical methods or artificial synthesis and natural flavor substances are exactly the same chemical substances.

3, artificial synthetic flavor. A substance that is obtained mainly by chemical methods such as artificial synthesis and has not been proven to have such chemical molecules in nature. As long as there is a raw material in the essence is synthetic, that is, artificial synthetic essence.

4. Essence prepared by microbial method. It is an essence obtained by microbial fermentation or enzymatic reaction.

5, reactive flavor. This kind of flavor is the protein and reducing sugar heating "Maillard reaction" to get, often used in meat, chocolate, coffee, malt aroma.

In addition, according to the classification of state, food flavor is divided into: liquid flavor (water-soluble, oil-soluble, emulsifying), of which aroma substances accounted for 10%-20%, solvent (water, propylene glycol, etc.) accounted for 80%-90%; Emulsion flavor, including solvent, emulsifier, glue, stabilizer, pigment, acid and antioxidant, 80% -- 90%; Powder flavor, in which the aroma substance accounted for 10%-20%, the carrier accounted for 80%-90%.

As a food additive, the function of food flavor is mainly manifested in two aspects: one is to provide flavor for food; The second is to supplement and improve food flavor. Some processed foods due to processing technology, processing time and other limitations, the flavor is often insufficient, or the flavor is not correct, the flavor characteristics are not strong, adding food flavors and spices can make food flavor to supplement, strengthen and improve. However, at present, the edible flavors and spices on the market in China are uneven, and illegal use often occurs. This to China's food flavor and fragrance industry sounded the alarm.

However, there are risks associated with the widespread use of food flavors. Although the flavor has been tested many times in the laboratory before being used in food, and the flavor also has the characteristics of self-limitation, and the amount of use is relatively small, but as a special food additive, it cannot be considered that they must be safe because the amount added is extremely small.

Some food flavors may accumulate in the human body after long-term consumption of a small amount of food together, resulting in chronic poisoning such as carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and teratogenicity. Especially young children and adolescents, they are the main consumer groups of various snacks, and the metabolic organs are not fully developed, and the abused flavor may cause potential harm to their health.

In particular, those compounds that are listed as toxic substances in chemical reagent manuals or chemical product manuals, once added to food as food flavors, increase the possibility of this potential harm.