Additive Food and Its Influence for Human Health

ADDITIVE FOOD AND ITS INFLUENCE

FOR HUMAN HEALTH

            Additive food is substances that are added to food in a little amount on purpose to improve shape, composition, or property of food. Meanwhile in “Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia”, additive is substance that is added to a product, for example colouring additive or seasoning, and as preservatives in food.

            Additive stuffs there are two kinds, those are unreasonable additive and reasonable additive.

1.      Unreasonable Additive

Unreasonable additive is additive found in food naturally in limited amount or it can also appear because the presence of mistake during the process. For example, caffeine, blue acid in potato, and so on.

2.      Reasonable Additive

Reasonable additive is additive that is on purposely put into food so the food is interested and durable.

Reasonable additive can be preservatives, sweetener matter, colourant matter, and flavoring.

            a.       Preservatives

Preservatives is additive matter to prevent or inhibit fermentation, decomposition, or acidification that is caused by micro-organism on purpose to preserve food or giving fresh taste in food. The example of preservatives are carboxylate, nitrate/nitrite, and sulphur dioxide.

      Preservatives is separated into two kinds, those are natural preservatives and synthetic preservatives. The synthetic preservatives often disturbs health if used excessively.

            b.      Sweetener Matter

Sweetener matter is food material that only causes sweet taste in the food but has no nutrient value. The example of sweeter matter that is often used is saccharine of sweeteness is 30 times of ordinary sugar.

      Saccharine that is used with high concentration produced bitter and harsh taste. Saccharine is worse used in food because according to research that the use of saccharine can stimulate tumour in the ureter.

            c.       Colourant matter

Colourant matter is additive matter that can improve or give colour to food. In Indonesia, the law about regulation to the use of food colourant matter is not exist yet, so it tend to happen misuse in application of that colourant matter.

There is poisonous colourant, even is textile colourant substance that is used for food colourant. If that textile colourant is used as food colourant then very endangers health of customers because textile colourant substance contains residual of heavy metals that can destroy organs of liver and kidney.

Colouring matter is divided into two kinds, namely natural colouring matter and synthetic colouring substance. The example of natural colouring matter is found in plant such as saffron, that producers yellow colour and suji leaf that produces green colour. Synthetic colouring agent that is legitimated by Health Department of Indonesia is Sunset Yellow PcF for orange colour, Tartrazine and Quinline Yellow for yellow colour, Fast Green PcF for green colour, Briliant Blue and Indigo Carmine for blue colour, and Violet GB for violet colour.

             d.      Flavoring

Flavoring is food additive that can give or sharpen taste and flavor. Flavoring is divided into two kinds, those are natural flavoring and synthetic flavoring.

Natural seasoning is usually called ingredient, consists of spice, such as lengkuas, onion, garlic, salam leaf, celery leaf, and so on. Meanwhile synthetic seasoning that is often used in everyday life in Mono Sodium Glutamat (MSG) or popular with Vetsin.

Several result of researches show that the younger the age of animals used in the experiment of MSG, the more sensitive the damage which occurs in their brains. Hence, it is forbidden to add MSG into a given food consumed by under five. However the other researches show that the metabolism declared to be safe to consume a food with the additive material, MSG. Although JECFA (Joint WVO/FAO expert Committee on Food Additives) suggested in order that giving any food additive material in baby foods is carefully carried out in amount as small as possible.