The Truth about Additives

Reading the labels on ready meals and snacks can help us make healthier choices. Here's the low-down on what gets added to food

- By Su Karney. Photographs by Getty

It saves us time, but the downside of grabbing convenience food, rather than cooking from fresh, is we don't always know what we're eating. According to a report by the British Medical Journal, 60% of the average diet in the UK is made up of ultra-processed foods, which often contain a cocktail of colour enhancers, shelf-life boosters, sweeteners and artificial flavourings. This means the average Brit is ingesting 8kg* of non-food chemicals each year. And while not all additives are bad for the key to healthy eating is getting the balance just right.

UNDERSTANDING ADDITIVES

'Almost any food made in a factory will contain additives,' says clinical nutritionist Nishtha Patel (thegutexpert.com). These are added to enhance the colour, texture or flavour of foods, and others work to extend their shelf life. 'It is how foods stay fresh and do not spoil,' says Nishtha.

Some additives are natural substances extracted from one food to use in another - such as beetroot juice to colour sweets. Others may be 'nature identical', meaning they're a man-made copy of a natural substance. Registered nutritionist Dr Laura Wyness says these can be found in tinned produce that contains acidity regulators such as citric acid, and preservatives such as ascorbic acid. 'Both are naturally found in fruits and vegetables. Ascorbic acid is better known as vitamin C [E300], which is important to our health, while citric acid (E330] is what gives lemons and limes their tang.'

However, it is the artificial, 'synthetically made' additives in foods that have the bad rep- and it's these that are worth looking out for on food labels.

PASSING THE SAFETY TEST