THERE are lots of different chemicals or food additives used in our food chain for different reasons, from preserving food to sweetening it, thickening it or colouring it.
All chemicals are tested for safety and when it has been proven that they are safe through robust safety evaluations they are given an ‘E’ number or European number.
Safety evaluations are carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). If a chemical isn’t safe in our food chain it won’t be given an E number.
There are laws to be followed on chemicals when being used by food chain manufacturers where we live which falls under what is known as ‘acceptable daily intake’ (ADI).
ADI is the amount of a chemical which can be consumed on a daily basis over a lifetime with no appreciable health risk to healthy humans. So the amounts used in our food chain will be in line with ADIs and pose no risk to human health in the small amounts used.
Some food additives in very large amounts could be toxic to our livers, but not in the small amounts used within our food chain. This is how the media hook people in as they won’t tell you about the dose or amount and paint all amounts with the same brush, which is completely wrong.
It’s all about the dose or amount in nutrition as small amounts of chemicals within our foods won’t do you any harm.
• Lee McCusker (BA; MSc; MSc; MSc; ANutr; SENr) is a registered nutritionist from Belfast and can be found on Facebook, Instagram and X. Email: attentivenutrition @gmail.com
