Chemicals in Food- Definition, Artificial Sweetening Agents, Food Preservatives, Methods of Food Preservatives, Antioxidants, Practice Problems, FAQs

You might find this interesting when you see colourful sweets in restaurants, cakes, and many chocolates candy which look colourful. Why these are coloured have you ever asked yourself or your teachers?
You must have encountered some old people around you facing a disease called diabetes, sweet food items are restricted to them, but there are substitutes available to them also. They can also enjoy sweet food items, which are sugar-free! What are these sugar-free things? We will discuss these things in detail here. 

Chemists play a vital role in our daily lives. Chemicals are utilised to provide the most basic needs, including shelter, food, clothing, and medication. Organic, analytical, physical, inorganic, and biological concerns are all considered in pharmaceutical chemistry.

Approximately 80% of the packaged foods we consume include a range of toxins. Some of these chemicals are harmful to your health, while others are necessary to keep food fresh and edible. Let's look at these substances in food in more detail.

Related topics:

• What are food chemicals?
• Artificial sweetening agents
• Food preservatives
• Methods of food preservatives
• Antioxidants
• Practice Problems
• Frequently asked questions-FAQs

What are food chemicals?

Chemistry has assisted the modern world in a variety of ways. Chemicals introduced into our regular meals have had a big impact. When chemicals are added to food, they accomplish three goals

1. They aid in the long-term preservation of the food. Most processed foods have a shelf life of a few months to many years. We can only do this because we utilise chemicals as preservatives in these meals.

2. Chemicals are occasionally used to improve the physical appearance of foods. Certain chemicals will help manufacturers make their items more desirable to buyers by improving their appeal. They're only there for show.

3. Chemicals included in foods are known as additives. Today, we employ a variety of chemicals that are considered safe for human consumption. However, not all of them are beneficial to your health. Meal colours, trans fats, and other additives are used in our food.

Here are some of the chemicals that we utilise in our food:

• Artificial sweetening agents
• Artificial flavours
• Stabilizing agents
• Food preservatives
• Antioxidants

We're going one by one over them in-depth right now.

Artificial sweetening agents:

Artificial sweetening agents are chemicals that sweeten food. They do not increase the number of calories in our bodies. They don't harm our body in any way. Aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and alitame are among a few of them.

Natural sweeteners, such as sucrose, increase calorie consumption, and many people prefer to utilise artificial sweeteners.

Saccharin, also known as ortho-sulphobenzimide, was the first widely used artificial sweetening ingredient. It has been used as a sweetening agent since its discovery in 1879. It has a sweetness of 550 times that of cane sugar. When it exits the body and is excreted in urine, it is unaltered. It looks to be fully inactive and harmless when consumed. Its use is extremely beneficial to diabetics and individuals who need to keep their calorie consumption under control.

The most popular and commonly used artificial sweetener is aspartame. It has 100 times the sweetness of cane sugar. It's a methyl esterified dipeptide made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Aspartame is exclusively used in cold meals and soft drinks because it is unstable at boiling temperatures. 

Alitame is a high-potency sweetener that, while more stable than aspartame, presents difficulties in managing food sweetness. Sucralose is a sucrose trichloro derivative. It has a sugary appearance and flavour. At cooking temperature, it remains stable. It does not include any calories.

Structures of a few artificial sweeteners are below drawn:

Artificial flavours:

Natural or artificial flavours can be used. Natural and artificial flavours are used to improve the taste of food and make it more appealing.

Natural Flavours and Natural Flavouring Substances: These are flavour preparations or single substances derived by physical procedures from vegetables.

Nature-Identical Flavouring Compounds: These substances have the same chemical composition as natural products and are chemically refined from aromatic sources or produced.

Artificial Flavoring Compounds: These substances are chemically distinct from natural products and are not present in them.

Examples: Alcohols, esters, ketones, pyrazines, phenolics, and terpenoids are the most often utilised chemical flavouring compounds.

Stabilizing agents:

Stabilizing agents are employed in foods for a variety of purposes, the most important of which is to act as a thickening agent, allowing foods to gel to the desired consistency. Polysaccharides (a type of carbohydrate), such as starches, gums, and proteins like gelatin, are the most common stabilising and thickening agents. Salad dressings, frozen desserts, confections, snack meals, beverages, cereal goods, pudding mixes, jams, and jellies all use stabilising agents like starch and gum.

Example: Phosphates are also utilised in various dairy products because they combine with the gelatin in the milk to provide a gelling effect without the use of heat, and they are employed in instant pudding formulations.

Food Preservatives:

The sun aids in the drying of perishable items such as fruits, vegetables, and seafood in warmer climes. Nature assists in the preservation of perishable goods such as meat and fish for longer periods of time in cold climates.

Man was also aided in the availability of a few crucial items by natural fermentation and salting. Heat and cold are the two most important factors in food storage. Because many of these food preservation processes are based on scientific principles, the food preservation industry has grown to become the world's largest industry. When added to food, a preservative suppresses, delays, or prevents the fermentation, acidification, or other breakdowns of the food caused by the multiplication of microorganisms.

Food preservatives prevent the spoilage of food due to microbial growth. The most common food preservatives include table salt, sugar, vegetable oils, sodium benzoate etc.

Methods of food preservation:

There are two types of food preservative methods:

• Physical Methods
• Chemical methods

Physical Methods:

By removal of heat: Refrigeration, freezing preservation, dehydro-freezing preservation, and carbonation are all methods for removing heat. Foods including fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish can be frozen to increase their storage life. Cooling reduces the temperature, which prevents microbes from growing.

By the addition of heat: Pasteurization or sterilisation can be done statically or stirred with the use of heat. Heat is the first and most popular method of preservation. It's also known as canning or heat processing. Heating kills bacteria, hence this method is widely employed to preserve solid and liquid commodities.

By removing water: Sun drying, low-temperature evaporation, freeze-drying, puff driving, and other methods are employed to remove water. Around the world, sun drying is a widespread method for drying a wide variety of foods, vegetables, grains, and other objects. Several advancements have been done in order to get high-quality dried products. As water is removed from the mixture, the growth of germs is slowed.

By Irradiation: Ultraviolet (UV) or ionising radiation is used to preserve food. Higher-intensity ultraviolet lights are used for irradiation in the food industry to restrict microorganism development. For instance, baking items. Because it delivers desired nutritional effects while not causing food to become radioactive, high-energy electromagnetic radiation is used.

Chemical Methods:

Adding sugar: Adding sugar and then applying heat to preserve fruits for jams, jellies, and marmalades is a vital stage in the process. This method is straightforward, low-cost, and easy to implement.

By Salting: Salting is also used in food storage to keep fungus and germs at bay. It's mostly used to preserve raw mango, lemon, and chilli pickles, as well as seafood. The process through which a cell loses water, dies, goes dormant or stops working is known as osmosis. It's one of the oldest methods of preserving food.

By adding vinegar: Vinegar is commonly used to preserve foods like pickles, salad dressings, mustard, seafood, and other similar goods. The word vinegar comes from the French word ‘vinaigre’, which means sour wine.

By adding other chemicals: Preservatives such as sodium benzoate, sorbic acid salts, and propionic acid are only a few examples of other chemicals.

Antioxidants:

Antioxidants are chemicals that delay or stop food from oxidising when added to it. Fats and oils oxidise quickly, becoming rancid and unpleasant to consume. To keep them from oxidising and getting rancid, antioxidants are added. During the oxidation of food, free radicals are produced. Antioxidants bind to free radicals, preventing further oxidation of food.

An example of an antioxidant is Butylated hydroxytoluene or BHT, 

Practice problems: 

Q1. __________ is the number of sp2 carbon atoms present in Aspartame.

a. 5
b. 6
c. 8
d. 9

Answer: D

There are in total 9 sp² carbon atoms present in Aspartame. Here is the structure showing sp² carbon atoms

Q2. Artificial sweetener ____________ contain chlorine atom.

a. Alitame
b. Saccharin
c. Aspartame
d. Sucralose

Answer: D

Sucralose is a chlorine-containing artificial sweetener. It's a sucrose trichloro derivative. It has 600 times the sweetness of cane sugar.

Q3.____________ is sulphur-containing antioxidants.

a. Ammonium sulphate
b. Sulphur dioxide
c. Sulphonamide
d. Sulphur trioxide

Answer: B

SO2 has adaptability and technological efficiency which makes it ideal for usage as a food additive. Antimicrobials, structural modifiers, antioxidants, and enzyme inhibitors are just a few of the roles they play.

Q4. Icecreams and cupcakes generally contain ____________ as artificial sweetener.

a. Alitame
b. Saccharin
c. Aspartame
d. Sucralose.

Answer: A

The most popular and commonly used artificial sweetener is aspartame. It's around 100 times sweeter than cane sugar. It's a dipeptide made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine that's methyl esterified. Aspartame is exclusively used in cold meals and soft drinks because it is unstable at boiling temperatures.

Frequently asked questions- FAQ

Q1. Who was the first to invent artificial sweeteners?
Answer: Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist working on coal tar compounds in Ira Remsen's laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, created saccharin for the first time in 1879. One evening, Fahlberg detected a pleasant taste on his fingers and linked it to the molecule benzoic sulfimide he had been working on that day.

Q2. Do preservatives help to keep nutrients fresh?
Answer: Food preservatives are essential for avoiding food degradation and preventing spoiling from mould, yeast, life-threatening botulism, and other organisms that can cause food poisoning. Preservatives, as a result, lower food costs, enhance convenience, extend shelf life, and reduce food waste.

Q3.Is it safe to use food colouring?
Answer: Both natural and artificial chemicals can be used to make food colouring. Both are safe and controlled by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States (FDA). These colourings can be found in a range of foods, including ice cream, yoghurt, soft drinks, cereals, sausage casings, and cheeses, in addition to baked products.

Q4.What is the difference between gel food colouring and regular food colouring?
Answer: Synthetic food colouring is mixed with water and corn syrup or glycerin base to make gel food colouring. It has an extremely viscous viscosity because of corn syrup and/or glycerin. As a result, this type of food colouring is highly concentrated and does not have the same "liquidy" properties as liquid food colouring.

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