Are Food Preservatives Safe? 5 Side Effects Of Preservatives You Must Know About

Source: The Health Site /image: - / Author: Satata Karmakar

Are Food Preservatives Safe? 5 Side Effects of Preservatives You Must Know About

Food preservatives are essential for many reasons. They are used to maintain the consistency and texture of foods, improve or retain nutritional properties of the products, delay spoilage and increase shelf life, and enhance the flavours, textures, and colours of the foods. But how much do you really know about the side effects of these preservatives? In this article, Dr Eileen Canday, HOD, Nutrition and Dietetics, Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai, has shared some important facts about food preservatives and explained the various side effects associated with them.

Types of Food Preservatives

Not all food preservatives are bad or harmful though. One needs to learn how to differentiate the good ones from the unhealthy ones. There are two different types of preservatives:

Natural or class I preservatives

This category of preservatives includes salt, sugar, alcohol, vinegar, spices, syrup, edible oil, and honey. For generations, people have been using natural preservatives for homemade preserved pickles, papads, jams, etc.

Chemical or Class II Preservatives

To stop microbial growth and physical changes in colour, texture, and flavour that leads to deterioration in commercial foods, artificial preservatives like sorbates, nitrites, benzoates, sulfites, sodium or potassium nitrates, glycerides, glutamates, and others are used widely for longer shelf life.

Side Effects of Food Preservatives You Should Know

Some food additives can worsen gut health leading to symptoms like diarrhoea and colicky pains; hyperactivity, insomnia and irritability, respiratory issues like asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis, and skin ailments like hives, itching, rashes and swelling. Some of these food additives include Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), artificial food colours, high fructose corn syrups, Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).

Preservation of food marks an important step in the food industry today when there is a need to preserve foods for a metro lifestyle since it delays microbial infections and ensures the availability of foods all around the year, hence preservation of the food remains a necessity. Following a balanced diet including freshly cooked meals along with minimally preserved foods will prevent health risks and help in maintaining good health.