Food additives: a natural cocktail of chemicals

We live in an era of ready-to-eat meals and packaged food, which has effectively reduced the time taken up by cooking, in the jam-packed schedule of our lives. However, customers do not want to compromise with taste, colour or freshness of the food when they open the packets. This changing eating habit has significantly transformed the way food is prepared, packaged and preserved, making food additives a very important industry in the global food business.

By Debarati Das

If you have had a sumptuous bowl of ready-to-eat ‘healthy’ porridge a perfect sunset yellow (FCF110) hue, enhanced with a sprinkle of monosodium glutamate 621 and a dash of aspartame 951 sweetness, served fresh out of the microwave with sulphite 220, you probably have no idea what you have just had for lunch.

In an average household, over 60 percent of the food items have some or the other form of a food additive which are nothing but chemicals added to food to keep them fresh for longer durations and enhance their colour, flavour and texture. Food additives can be found in almost every food including bakery & confectionery, beverage, convenience foods, dairy & frozen desserts, sauces, dressings, spices & condiments, meat products, oils & fats, and many others. And the growth of food additives is further accelerated by the growing demand for packaged products, ready-to-eat meals, appetisers and frozen meals. Rising demand for exotic tastes and high-value nutritional products is also encouraging food additive manufacturers to experiment with new ingredients that would enhance the consumers’ gourmet experience.

A Markets and Markets research estimates the food additives market to grow at a CAGR of 5.6 percent from 2015 and reach $52.2 billion by 2020 in terms of value. In 2014, North America contributed to the largest market share for food additives followed by Europe. However, Asia-Pacific is projected to witness the highest growth in the future.

The rise in working population, growing demand for packaged food, need for food preservation, growing concerns towards food safety due to contamination and demand for better quality food is driving the demand for food additives such as acidulants, anticaking agents, colours, emulsifiers, enzymes, flavours, hydrocolloids, preservatives, and sweeteners. Flavours accounts for the largest market share followed by sweeteners to meet the growing demand for sugar alternative in food and beverages. Acidulants and hydrocolloids are projected to become the fastest-growing segments globally.

Food emulsifiers and food enzymes are also expected to witness strong growth. Low-fat food options will drive the demand for fat replacers and antioxidants. “The increasing number of alternatives available to consumers is posing as a major challenge for the food industry. However, increase in the consumption of bakery products, changing food habits and growth in the poultry segment will be a major driver for the food additive industry,” said R S Jalan, managing director, Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Limited (GHCL).

However, the food additives industry will be governed by consumers’ inclination towards healthy eating and natural & organic foods. There are a rising awareness about health hazards associated with the consumption of synthetic additives which has given rise to the demand for clean labels, ‘no additive’ food products or products with natural additives. Off late, the shift to organic foods coupled with limited availability and a high cost of naturally sourced additives has challenged the food additives industry to change its course.

Adding ‘Natural’ enhancers

Traditionally, vinegar was used for food preservation, sulphur dioxide for wines, salt for meat etc. These age-old natural methods were used for increasing the shelf life of food products. However, changing consumer demands have made the food additives industry to experiment with better options.

While synthetic/artificial additives still see a dominant place in the market, the increasing health concerns have resulted in the rise in demand for natural food additives. With this, the natural flavours segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2 percent from 2015 to 2022. Growing consumer demand for low salt, sugar-free, low-fat products owing to their health benefits is further expected to drive this growth. Rising health concerns like diabetes, tooth decay, obesity and increasing importance of low-calorie products is amplifying the demand for natural sugar substitutes.

“There is a trend of replacing sugar with healthier sweeteners. This trend is growing at a rapid pace, but we have a long distance to cover. However, complete replacement of sugar might not be possible because sugar has its own benefits like bulking, taste etc. At Cargill, our brand, Truvia, uses stevia leaves, as a natural sweetener,” said Neelesh Chauhan, commercial director – starches & sweeteners/speciality ingredients, Cargill India.

Flavours are an integral part of the food. Japan-based Kikkoman Corporation, which is into soya sauce, food flavouring and seasoning products, has been undertaking extensive research to manufacturing soya sauce without any adverse health effects. The company’s Mamechikara-Soybean Peptide Soy Sauce was a product developed after extensive research into the properties of soy sauce and studying the brewing conditions that would achieve high soybean peptide content with the correct balance of the enzyme action moulding. Kikkoman also developed various types of soy sauce, including freeze-dried soy sauce and gelee ( jelly) type soy sauce etc.

DuPont Nutrition & Health recently launched Nordic thin bread to target health-conscious customers who see bread as being too high in calories, sugar and carbohydrates. The thin bread contains 50 percent oats, buckwheat and barley in the flour along with DuPont’s new blend of enzymes and vegetable-based emulsifiers made from vegetable oils, organic acids and glycerol which keeps the thin bread soft and fresh for up to 14 days. “Among the fibre and nutrients, the concept contains betaglucan, which helps to reduce high levels of blood cholesterol,” said Jan Charles Hansen, principal bakery application specialist, DuPont.

DuPont is also utilising bioavailable nutrients in sprouted wheat, ancient grains and seeds, and the novel hybrid grain tritordeum, derived from wheat and barley.

Food colour is yet another segment where naturally occurring pigments are widely being promoted instead of chemically manufactured hues. Dark-coloured berries and beets (for blue – purple colour), certain fish and algae (pink/orange), leaves of green plants and algae (green), burnt wood (grey-black), certain insects (red-purple), rusting metal (reddish brown), ground chilly pepper (orange-red), crocus flowers (orange-yellow), turmeric plant root (bright yellow), pumpkin and carrot (orange), are some of the natural ingredients to extract pigments. R&D efforts are working upon more such fruits, vegetables, animal extracts and minerals to increase the range of hues.

The food additive industry will constantly keep innovating on new, safer and healthier ways of adding value to new age food innovations.

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