Food Additives - Leavening Agents

Doughs and batters if not of the required texture can lead to making and baking of worse breads. Must have observed at home how chapathi dough when too hard produces a dry rough chapathi and when too soft it is a sticky mass of mess. So, for these doughs and batters to rise and form a required texture, a leavening agent is required. In the presence of moisture, heat, acidity, or other triggers the leavening agent reacts to produce gas (often carbon dioxide) that becomes trapped as bubbles within the dough. When a dough or batter is baked, it “sets” and the holes left by the gas bubbles remain. This is what gives breads, cakes, and other baked goods their soft, sponge-like textures.

The alternative or supplement to leavening agents is mechanical leavening by which air is incorporated by mechanical means. Remember? the proper mixing of cake batters and kneading of dough. Most leavening agents are synthetic chemical compounds, but carbon dioxide can also be produced by biological agents. 

Biological Agents	Chemical Agents	Other Leaveners
Saccharomyces cerevisiae producing Carbon dioxide found in: Baker’s yeast Beer (unpasteurized – live yeast) Buttermilk Ginger bread Sourdough Starter Clostridium perfringens producing hydrogen found in salt-rising bread	Chemical leaveners are mixtures or compounds that release gases (usually carbon dioxide) when they react with each other, with moisture, or with heat. Most are based on a combination of acid and a salt of bicarbonate. After they act, these compounds leave behind a chemical salt. Chemical leaveners are used in quick breads and cakes, as well as cookies and numerous other applications where a long biological fermentation is impractical or undesirable.	Steam and air are used as leavening agents when they expand upon heating. To take advantage of this style of leavening, the baking must be done at high enough temperatures to flash the water to steam, with a batter that is capable of holding the steam in until set.

Creaming is the process of beating sugar crystals and solid fat (typically butter) together in a mixer. This integrates tiny air bubbles into the mixture, since the sugar crystals physically cut through the structure of the fat. Creamed mixtures are usually further leavened by a chemical leavener like baking soda. This is often used in cookies.

Using a whisk on certain liquids, notably cream or egg whites can also create foams through mechanical action. This is the method employed in the making of sponge cakes, where an egg protein matrix produced by vigorous whipping provides almost all the structure of the finished product.

 Below are leavening agents found in a variety of foods:

There are foods or ingredients not leavened, although they are mistaken for leavening or leavened food:

Puffed cereals:  Some food products are “puffed up” by mechanical means.  They are just puffed up by air and are not chemically leavened.  They include: popcorn, beaten eggs, and air puffed cereal like puffed rice or wheat. 

Brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae): is inactive yeast, meaning the yeasts have been killed and have no leavening power. It is the yeast remaining after beer making. It is used as a nutrient supplement to increase the intake of B vitamins.

Yeast extract, autolyzed yeast extract: When yeast cells die, they automatically break up, a process called autolysis in which the yeasts’ digestive enzymes break their proteins down into simpler compounds. What remains is a collection of protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer.

Post by Faiz Lahori

Food Additives - Firming Agents

As the name suggests, “Firming agents” are the substances which bring about firming action in food and gives it a firm structure. These are food additives added in order to precipitate residual pectin. It thus strengthens the structure of the food and prevents its collapse during processing.

Firming agents are used in food and beverage applications to give a product consistency in texture, shelf life and strength by improved binding ability.

Firming agents are used in various types of processed foods. Some of these food products are processed or canned vegetables and fruits. Firming agents are also used in certain types of cheese. Firming agents can also be used in fish products.

Typical firming agents which are used in different types of food are:

Additive	Permitted in or Upon
Aluminum Sulphate	Canned crabmeat, lobster, salmon, shrimp and tuna; Pickles and relishes
Ammonium Sulphate	Pickles and relishes
Calcium Chloride	Canned apples, Canned grapefruit, Cheddar cheese, Cottage cheese, Glaze for frozen fish, Olives, Pickles and relishes, Canned Tomatoes, Canned apricots, Frozen apples
Calcium Citrate	Canned vegetables, Canned apples, Frozen apples
Calcium Lactate	Canned grapefruit, Canned peas
Calcium Phosphate, monobasic	Canned Tomatoes, Canned apples, Frozen Apples
Calcium Sulphate	Canned Tomatoes, Canned apples, Frozen Apples
Potassium Aluminum Sulphate	Pickles and relishes, Sea urchin roe
Sodium Aluminum Sulphate	Pickles and relishes

Post by Faiz Lahori

Food Additives - Emulsifiers

Experiments in school and accidental discoveries at home have always taught us that oil and water do not mix. Oil floats on water. With years of growth and knowledge now we know that oil and water can form emulsions with the help of chemical substances called emulsifiers which acts to mix oil and water and form a homogeneous mixture.

An emulsifier is a molecule with one oil-loving and one water-loving end. Water loving end in food emulsifier is called hydrophilic tail and oil-loving end is called hydrophobic head. Food emulsifiers are also called emulgents. To make oil-in-water emulsion, such as mayonnaise, droplets of oil molecules are surrounded by the oil-loving end of the emulsifier molecules. This leaves the water-loving ends on the outside of the droplet, and so they stay in water, giving a homogeneous liquid rather than an unappealing mixture of water and oily droplets. In mayonnaise, the emulsifier is the phospholipids present in egg yolks – they are such successful emulsifiers that as much as 80% oil can be dispersed in the aqueous phase.

Emulsions are crucial to the consistency of a number of foodstuffs. Nature is good at making emulsions, and the classic example is milk, where a complex mixture of fat droplets is suspended in an aqueous solution. Nature uses proteins and phospholipids, and many emulsifiers used in modern food production are based on these natural substances.

Emulsifiers are used in creams and sauces, bakery, and dairy products. They may be derived from the natural products or chemicals. Common emulsifiers are lecithins, mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids esters of monoglycerides of fatty acids and phosphated monoglycerides. 

Food emulsifiers make the food very appealing. Apart from this they impart the freshness and quality to the food. Natural food emulsifiers also prevent the growth of molds in food. 

Natural food emulsifiers are used in variety of foods. Some basic foods having food emulsifiers are: Biscuits, extruded snacks, cakes, soft drinks, toffees, frozen desserts, bread, margarine, coffee whitener, caramels etc.

Ice cream is another food that would not exist were it not for emulsifiers. It is both foam and an emulsion, and its texture results from the ice crystals and unfrozen water it contains. Emulsifiers are also important in bread and other baked products, where solid particles are dispersed in airy foam, are enhanced by emulsifiers.

The most frequently used raw materials for emulsifiers include palm oil, rapeseed oil, soy bean oil, sunflower oil or lard/tallow. Egg is the oldest emulsifier. Food drugs and cosmetics and pigment emulsions also require one or other kind of emulsifier. 

The emulsifiers that are used commercially come from both natural and synthetic sources include:

Emulsifiers	Note
Lecithins	These are mixtures of phospholipids and are usually extracted from sources such as egg yolk and soybeans. Uses include salad dressings, baked goods and chocolate.
Esters of mono-glycerides of fatty acids	These are made from natural fatty acids, glycerol and an organic acid such as acetic, citric, lactic or tartaric acid. The fatty acids are usually from a vegetable source, though animal fats can be used. Products that use them include ice cream, cakes and crisps.
Mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids	semi-synthetic emulsifiers made from glycerol and natural fatty acids, which can be from either plant or animal sources. They are used in products like breads, cakes and margarines.

Some emulsifiers also act as anti-caking agents like Magnesium Stearate, Sodium, potassium and calcium salts of fatty acids. Few others like Sorbitan monostearate are emulsifier as well as stabilizer.

Post by Faiz Lahori

Food Additives - Antioxidants

It is a known fact that certain foods contain natural antioxidants but little do we know that antioxidants are added to certain foods artificially. Antioxidants which are added to the food as additives help in improving certain qualities of the food especially the keeping quality of food.

So now we move on to the next type of Food Additive – Antioxidants - Antioxidants is used as food additives to preserve food for a longer period of time by preventing oxidation of foods. Antioxidants act as oxygen scavengers. In the absence of antioxidant, oxidation of unsaturated fats takes place rendering to foul smell and discoloration of food. 

Oxidation in food is a destructive process which leads to the spoilage of food and changes the chemical composition as well as nutritional value of food when it is exposed to oxygen. To prevent this or delay the process of oxidation, antioxidants are added to the food. They increase the shelf life of the food.

Different kinds of antioxidants act in different ways to delay or minimize the process of oxidation in food. Some antioxidants combine with oxygen to prevent oxidation and other prevent the oxygen from reacting with the food leading to its spoilage.

Fats and oils and any food containing them are more prone to oxidation. So antioxidants are added to these to prevent oxidation. The list of foods where antioxidants are added are vegetable oil, animal fat, meat, fish, poultry, baked products, potato products, margarine, salad dressing etc.

Some popular antioxidant food additives are listed below:

Antioxidant Vitamins - Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C): This antioxidant vitamin is used in beers, cut fruits, dried potatoes and jams. The antioxidant vitamins in these foods help in preventing the discoloration of food by preventing the oxidation. It can also act as a substitute of vitamin C in potatoes that is lost during processing.

Citric Acid: It is used in biscuits, jams, tinned fruits, alcoholic drinks, cheese and dried soup. It has many uses like it prevents the discoloration of food, increases the anti-oxidant effect of other substances and regulates pH in jams and jellies.

Tocopherols: This antioxidant food additive is used in the meat pies and oils to reduce the oxidation of fatty acids and vitamins.

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA): Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is used in margarine, oils, crisps and cheese. This antioxidant helps in preventing the reactions leading to the breakdown of fats.

There are many benefits of using antioxidant food additives. Antioxidants prevent the blockage of arteries with fatty deposits that prevents the heart attacks. Also these are associated with the prevention of certain types of cancers, arthritis and more conditions of these kinds.

Antioxidants Food Additives List

Ascorbic acid

Sodium ascorbate

Calcium ascorbate

Fatty acid esters of ascorbic acid

Tocopherols

Alpha-tocopherol

Gamma-tocopherol

Delta-tocopherol

Propyl gallate

Octyl gallate

Dodecyl gallate

Erythorbic acid

Sodium erythorbate

Tertiary-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ)

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)

Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)

Citric Acid

Hexylresorcinol

Next time you see a fat containing food gone rancid or smelling foul then you know what it doesn't contain.  Know your food, Educate yourself. 

Post by Faiz Lahori