People who live in the modern world can readily enjoy a variety of delicious foods such as hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, and even sushi rolls. These meals, in many cases, do not require people to spend much time to prepare them. Instead of time-consuming preparation, people only have to mix up all packed ingredients and then put them into a microwave. In respect of sushi roles, they are usually sold after every cooking process is finished. In other words, all consumers have to do is just open up the package. Because these prepared food products are processed in big factories, most people who prefer to eat these dishes do not seem to know how to cook them from scratch. However, during industrial manufacturing, ingredients that are usually not found in the house kitchen are used frequently−food additives. Food additives are eatable chemicals which make food appetizing and keep it fresh. The final goal to utilize these chemicals is to save production cost. For instance, strawberry gummies people eat are usually flavored with food additives to mimic “strawberrish” smell, taste, and color. Manufacturers paint gummies with red, orange, blue, and green dye because the cost of food dyes is incredibly cheaper than the cost of real fruit to flavor the same amount of gummies. Alternatively, orange juice is another typical example of food products with food additives. The amount of juice squeezed from one orange is really small. It cannot fill even a small cup. Therefore, juice
Today many of the foods we buy from the store, especially packaged foods contain food additives and food dyes and majority of the population knows chemicals that are added to foods are not healthy choices and may lead to negative health effects. In this paper I will be discussing how food additives and food dyes promote and trigger a health problem known as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According to Health Canada “a food additive is any chemical substance that is added to food during preparation or storage and either becomes a part of the food or affects its characteristics for the purpose of achieving a particular technical effect (1).” Food products containing food additives
Most Americans love the low cost, prepackaged, great tasting food that is convenient to buy and prepare. These prepackaged or processed foods are normally made to be faster, cheaper and usually taste great but they are loaded with bizarre, unpronounceable chemicals that, if you saw them in their pre-processed state, you would never consider putting in your mouth. Emulsifiers, preservatives, colorants, stabilizers, artificial sweeteners, texturizers and even bleach can be found in most processed foods. On average, Americans spend 90% of their food budget on these types of foods which is found to contribute to the leading causes of obesity, auto immune disease, diabetes and even cancer.
maximizing the flavor of every dish. By bringing in comfort food to the scene of higher end
People’s ability to assess certain courses of action brings about two distinct paths: it either hinders the person’s ability to gauge their surroundings or it enables them to see and act based on a completely new perspective. It is our seemingly competent nature, as generalists, that has led to the rise of the phenomenon known as the “national eating disorder.” Skewing food culture and trend patterns, we have come to trust in our natural aptitude for survival as a way to pave our way through sustaining nourishment while coming into terms with the opportunity costs that accompany all of our decisions. There is something about food that grabs people; it is the individual tastes and textures, the unique stories of each and every ingredient that is used to make food, and the smell of spices that brings familiarity that
The food industry has a large impact on individuals and will affect wider communities in the future. The rush of today’s society has pushed food production to become more commercialized with prepackaged/premade based foods. For numerous reasons such as time, work and costs of living, people are wanting meals that are cheap, fast, easy and don’t require much effort. This is due to many obligations and priorities in life that are put above
In chapter thirty-two of the kitchen as laboratory, César Vega and David J. McClements discuss what it means to cook from scratch in the context of modern society. Vega begins the chapter by introducing the topic of the importance of knowing where our food comes from, and how it is modified into the ingredients we know today. Although consumers should know where their food comes from, Vega and McClements claim that the consumers should also educate themselves about the process of how food is transformed to provide a better understanding of their food. The authors cite Michael Pollan, an author who writes primarily about food. Pollan claims that consumers should purchase food with a limited number of ingredients, or ingredients that are easy to identify. The authors disagree with Pollan’s point, citing that some foods are enriched to make people healthier, and if the additives were removed there would be a impact on everyone’s health.
Lunchables, Twinkies, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, or even a trip to McDonald’s after school are just few of the memorable foods as a child that always seemed so exciting and delicious. As a child, I wondered why these scrumptious foods were always just a treat, but never an every day meal on my diet that I could enjoy. But what I did not know was the dirty truth behind these foods: what they are really made out of. Behind food corporation doors lies the truth about processed foods,
With this increase in the productivity of farmers, came a proliferation of food processing industries and fast food restaurants. These food processing industries and restaurants capitalized on the abundant, overly cheap commodity crops to their advantage; to make profit, and to the disadvantage of poor Americans. During processing of these commodity crops, the natural nutrients that give these foods their natural flavors are destroyed. To replace these, food additives and flavorings are added to restore their taste and prolong their shelf life. Often these chemicals contain some harmful elements that affect the way our bodies use food. These highly processed foods, dense in calories,
Nowadays classical food and traditional food still exist. In a way of preserving cultural value, some people still use traditional cooking equipment, style even serving meal in a traditional way. Since the last decade, food production has evolved from supplier cook to more technological and modern cook
Food dyes are additives that help to give food and other items a more colorful and appealing look. Originally, food dyes were made out of natural ingredients such as fruit juice, vegetables, and in some cases, bugs. However, as time went on, other ways to make food dyes were created. Natural food dyes lead to synthetic coal tar food dyes, and eventually synthetic coal tar food dyes led to petroleum based synthetic food dyes. Synthetic food dye colors certified for food use are Food Drug and Cosmetic (FD&C) Blue No. 1, FD&C Blue No. 2, Citrus Red No. 2, FD&C Green No. 3, Orange B, FD&C Red No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, and FD&C Yellow No. 6 (Kobylewski, 2010). Using just these nine dyes, there are over 360,000 different color combinations available.
To begin with, food additives should be clearly explained and understood that food additives are any substances found in food that is not a part of the normal ingredients. (Chris Hayhurst, 2002) There are six kinds of additives. The six kinds are nutrients, flavoring agents, coloring agents, preservations, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, acids and alkalis. (Graddy W. Chism, 2006) These six are both good and bad. Nutrients such as minerals and vitamins, which make food more nourishing. For instance, adding of the B-complex vitamins folic acid and niacin to flour, pasta, and rice has helped reduce the
The greatest disadvantage of the food industry is unhealthy eating. This is derived from high amounts of sodium which can be found in most fast food industries. The manner in which these foods are cooked also plays a pivotal role in the unhealthy aspects of certain menu items. Ingredients which are not understood by consumers who are becoming more health conscious has
Major labor-saving technological changes of the 20th century gave rise to the industrial processing of food. In the 1950’s and 60’s we saw a rise of supermarkets and the spread of fast-food eateries. The growth of supermarkets and fast-food eateries gave way to a new method of consumption. No longer was food’s route from the local farm or ranch to the
Home Chef is a well-performing meal kit company with dramatic growth rate. The company, has successfully built a healthy brand image by offering nutritious menus in a sustainable platform. However, in its ambitious effort to
Food preservatives are described as natural means or man-made chemicals that are used in foods to prevent them from spoiling. A subgroup of preservatives are food additives, which differ from preservatives in the way that additives are not only used to lengthen the life of food, but also to improve taste and appearance. The ultimate goal of preservatives and additives are to improve the quality and lifespan of food by slowing down the decomposition process using chemicals or natural methods, such as salt and dehydration.