The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cheerfully tells us that we shouldn’t worry about all the common food additives and ingredients that can legally get added to our food. After all (and I’m quoting directly here), “Our ancestors used salt to preserve meats and fish, added herbs and spices to improve the flavor of foods, preserved fruit with sugar, and pickled cucumbers in a vinegar solution. Today, consumers demand and enjoy a food supply that is flavorful, nutritious, safe, convenient, colorful, and affordable. Food additives and advances in technology help make that possible.”
To ensure consumer confidence in these food additives, the FDA has compiled the GRAS list. GRAS stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe,” and if the low bar and vagueness of that phrase doesn’t trouble you, the following facts might.
The FDA’s GRAS database contains over 3,000 food additives and coloring agents, way more than the few hundred deemed safe by the database maintained by the European Union. How did the FDA come up with that list? Not by rigorous, unbiased testing, that’s for sure. The data FDA regulators use to determine an ingredient’s GRAS status typically comes from the manufacturer of that ingredient. But in the majority of cases, the FDA doesn’t even weigh in at all. In fact, the FDA ruled on only around 40% of the 6,000 safety-related decisions on ingredients submitted between 1990 and 2010. The rest were left up to manufacturers and trade associations to decide upon — without FDA review.
So it’s no wonder that US consumers are confused about whether food additives are actually safe. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of Americans agree that food treated with artificial preservatives, colorings, and other additives comes with some risk. There’s a general preference toward “natural” foods in America, but natural doesn’t always mean what the consumer thinks it does.
This article explains why food additives are used, and takes a closer look at the most commonly used additives in natural and organic foods. What exactly are these additives? And what do we know about their safety?
According to the FDA, food additives may be used for one of three main reasons. First, to maintain or improve safety and freshness; second, to improve or maintain nutritional value; and third, to improve taste, texture, and appearance.
Think about some of your favorite packaged foods and beverages. Have you ever been surprised by how long they stay fresh and maintain their texture, flavor, and coloring? I’ll bet there are junior high school basements still full of Twinkies and Saltines that were bought during the Eisenhower administration. You can thank food additives for that. Because of the ready-to-eat and convenience-focused nature of most foods today, food additives are used widely.
Some of the most common types of food additives include compounds used for specific purposes like:
The end goal of each of these types of additives is to make food more profitable to merchants through decreased spoilage, and more attractive to consumers, whether through improved taste, nutrition, appearance, convenience, or a lower price.
However, the need for food additives would decrease if we relied more on fresh foods in our diets. In general, the faster the food spoils, the better it probably is for you.
Before we go on, take a moment and ask yourself what “natural” means. It’s a nice, comforting word, conjuring up images of flowers, rivers, and placid cows grazing in verdant fields. Who wouldn’t want their food to be “natural” — the way nature intended?
However, the food industry knows that this word creates a halo effect, and so throws it around liberally on food packaging. The problem with the term “natural” is that consumers automatically associate it with 100% natural ingredients and confuse this claim with organic. Unfortunately, natural and organic are not the same thing.
“Natural” is a marketing term that’s not regulated in the US. However, it is regulated in some other countries. In the US, the FDA is dragging its feet on regulating this term. They did ask for public comments on whether “natural” deserves a regulated definition and how its use in food should be allowed back in 2016, but it doesn’t appear that this has gone anywhere since.
So currently, “natural” is very loosely defined to mean “nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food.” Since this definition is so vague, and so rarely enforced anyway, it has become, functionally, a misleading term that has little to no substance.
So what’s the takeaway here? The word natural doesn’t equal safe or healthy. It also doesn’t mean organic or non-GMO.
Organically grown foods don’t include GMOs, and are also free from most pesticide treatments, including glyphosate. Any multi-ingredient or processed product has to contain at least 95% organic ingredients to bear the official organic label. That means there may still be room left for up to 5% non-organic ingredients. But these must be approved for use in the USDA National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.
While thousands of additives can be added to conventional foods, only around 40 agriculturally produced additives, and 65 non-agriculturally produced synthetics and non-synthetics, are allowed in organic food — and only after they’ve received a proper review from experts. These ingredients are permitted for use in organic packaged food only if there is no natural or organic alternative. Overall, organic food additives are considered safer than regular additives, and there are a lot fewer of them. But as you’ll see below, they’re not without their own issues.
Below are some of the most common food additives in many natural and organic foods. Keep in mind that because there are so many additives, and the amount fluctuates over time, this is not nearly a comprehensive list.
Carrageenan is a common food additive that’s made from seaweed. It’s a stabilizing and gelling agent that’s often used as a vegan alternative to animal-derived gelatin and turns up in many plant-based dairy alternatives.
The intake of carrageenan, for the average American, has increased significantly since the 1970s, from 45 mg to 7.7 g per day. (In other words, American’s are consuming 171 times as much carrageenan today as people did when they sat down to watch All in the Family together.) But there’s currently no specified acceptable daily maximum to consume.
While a few studies have seemingly established the safety of carrageenan and support its usage as a food additive, there is also a growing body of evidence that shows carrageenan may have more concerning outcomes than previously determined.
Although carrageenan is allowed and consumed in many natural foods, there are real concerns about its safety. Reported side effects of ingesting carrageenan include digestive issues, and there is some concern around its potential impact on gut health, inflammation, and glucose intolerance.
Interestingly, I’ve noticed that some plant-based brands have been phasing out their use of carrageenan, largely due to consumer demand to do so. More and more products now state that they don’t contain carrageenan, which is encouraging.
Xanthan gum is a thickening agent derived from sugar fermented with a bacteria called Xanthomonas campestris. Xanthan gum is a common food additive used in foods like packaged baked goods, ice cream, soup, sauces, salad dressings, gluten-free foods, and low-fat items.
Even though xanthan gum is derived from fermentation, it’s still considered a synthetic substance because it was created in a lab and doesn’t occur naturally. Because of its synthetic nature, some consumers allege it doesn’t belong in foods perceived as “natural.” But its usage may not be all bad. In fact, it appears to offer some potential health benefits. For instance, some human and animal studies indicate that xanthan gum may help lower high blood sugar, improve bowel regularity, help people with dry mouth, and may have anti-tumor properties.
On the other hand, some evidence suggests xanthan gum may lower blood sugar too much, cause allergic reactions in some people, and cause unwanted digestive symptoms, particularly when consumed in large doses.
An additional consideration is the sugar source used in the fermentation process. The sugar used for xanthan gum production may come from wheat, corn, soy, or dairy, which do not need to be organic and therefore may be genetically modified. Unfortunately, no certified organic xanthan gum variations exist currently, but some brands may be Non-GMO Project verified.
Guar gum is another gel-like thickening agent, and comes from guar beans. As a food additive, it’s often found in pudding, yogurt, sauces and gravies, soups, breakfast cereals, and ice cream.
Some studies show that small amounts of guar gum may offer a few health benefits — acting as a prebiotic, improving blood sugar among people with diabetes, reducing total and LDL “bad” cholesterol, and supporting weight loss. However, there are also some concerning health and environmental aspects of guar gum.
In the 1990s, a weight loss product called Cal-Ban 3,000 caused a stir when serious side effects were reported. In an effort to improve satiation, large amounts of guar gum were used in the product, which swelled to 10-20 times their size. Many people reported esophageal and bowel obstructions — and it even caused a few deaths. Although the amount of guar gum used in this weight loss product was vastly higher than the amounts used in food, some side effects are still being reported from consumption of guar gum, including gas, diarrhea, and bloating. As a result, guar gum is more tightly regulated now, with allowable amounts ranging from .35% in baked goods.
