What does call attention of consumer?
The color of your food! The aspect and the smell as well!
What do food industries do to improve it?
Add food additivies!
There are thousands of types of food additivies, but today I will clarify just one that has been the center of controversy: Caramel colours.
It is widely used in food industry. Around 80% of colour added in food and drink is based on caramel. It is found in pop drinks, beers and sauces.
The caramelisation is a natural process by heating food carbohydrates in the presence of selected catalysts. The first step is the dehydration reaction and then a polymerisation process begins. The final product is a mixture of different complex molecules of different molecular weight. In case of indutrial process, it is used glucose, fructose or sucrose as a starting material, with controlled heating and the addition of some catalysts.
There are four types of Caramel which will be describe below. The letter E is used in Europe and the roman numbers are used in America.
E150a, Caramel I, Plain Caramel, Caustic Caramel:
Produced using carbohydrates under controlled heating. To improve the caramelisation process it is added acids, alkalis and salts. No sulphites and ammonium compounds are added.
It is the basic process. The difference between the other types of Caramels is the catalysts added.
Let´s see:
E150b, Caramel II, Caustic Sulphite Caramel:
Acids or alkalis could be used, but is added sulphite compounds as sulphurous acid, potassium sulphite, potassium bisulphite, sodium sulphite and sodium bisulphite. No ammonium compounds are used.
E150c, Caramel III, Ammonia Caramel:
Acids or alkalis could be added, but in this case is added ammonium compounds as ammonium hydroxide, ammonium carbonate, ammonium hydrogen carbonate and ammonium phosphate. No sulphites compounds are used.
E150d, Caramel IV, Sulphite Ammonia Caramel (the darkest!):
In this type of Caramel, both sulphite or ammonia are added during the process. Example of compounds:sulphurous acid, potassium sulphite, potassium bisulphite, sodium sulphite, sodium bisulphite, ammonium hydroxide, ammonium carbonate, ammonium hydrogen carbonate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulphate, ammonium sulphite and ammonium hydrogen sulphite.
As you can see, for more intense colour more chemicals are added! The whole of catalits is participate the reaction accelerating it, and should be found totally separate from the final product. However, it is possible to find some trace of these compounds cited above.
Why are they widely used?
Because they show great stability to pH, heat, light and oxidation.
And what is the Aceptable Daily Intake?
JECFA (Joint Expert Committe on Food Additives) set ADI:
Caramel I _ "not specified"
Caramel II _ 0-160 mg/Kg body weight
Caramel III _ 0 - 200 mg/Kg body weight
Caramel IV _ 0 - 200 mg/Kg body weight
Now my question is:
Do you really need it?
I don´t think so...
The most common Caramel type found is Class IV. Then, I suggest you to read the labels. You don´t need it and you can avoid it. It´s not a simple "melted sugar". Take care!
Barbara Francisco ;)
References:
1.A. P. DAMANT, Food Standards Agency, UK, Food Colourants. Charpter 8.
2. A. Kendrick , LycoRed Limited, UK, Natural food and beverage colourings. Chapter 2.
3 Oreste V. Brenna. Antioxidant Capacity of Soft Drinks. Charpter 6.
