What harm do preservatives do to human health?

Preservatives refer to natural or synthetic chemical ingredients added to food, medicines, pigments, biological specimens and the like to delay spoilage caused by microbial growth or chemical changes. When preservatives are mentioned, people often think they are harmful, but in fact, within the range of safe use, they are non-toxic and have no side effects on the human body. Let's take a look below at what harm preservatives do to people!

What harm do preservatives do to people?

Preservatives may bring certain trouble to people's health. The vast majority of preservatives used in food production in China are artificially synthesized, and improper use can have certain side effects. Some preservatives even contain trace toxins, and long-term excessive intake can cause certain damage to human health. Take the widely used food preservative benzoic acid as an example. Internationally, there has always been controversy over its use. For instance, because there have been reports of cumulative poisoning from benzoic acid and its sodium salt, the European Community's child protection group believes it is not suitable for use in children's food, and Japan has also imposed strict restrictions on its use. Even sorbic acid and potassium sorbate, which are among the preservatives internationally recognized as safe, can affect the balance of human metabolism when consumed in excess.

The mechanism of action of food preservatives

1. Food preservatives can coagulate or denature the proteins of microorganisms, thereby interfering with their growth and reproduction.

2. Food preservatives can destroy or damage the cell wall or interfere with the mechanism of cell wall synthesis, causing intracellular substances to leak out or affecting the membrane-related respiratory chain electron transport system, thereby having an antimicrobial effect.

3. Food preservatives act on genetic material or the structure of genetic particles, thereby affecting the replication, transcription and protein translation of genetic material, etc.

4. Food preservatives act on the enzyme systems within microorganisms, inhibiting enzyme activity and interfering with their normal metabolism.

Development trends of food preservatives

1. Developing from higher toxicity toward lower toxicity and greater safety: As people's demands for health increase, food safety standards are becoming increasingly strict. While rapidly revising food safety standards to improve food safety levels and national health levels, governments of various countries also use "green barriers" to protect their own food industries and reduce the impact of foreign food on their domestic food industries.

2. Developing from chemically synthesized preservatives toward natural preservatives: In view of the safety issues and other defects of chemically synthesized food preservatives, humanity is exploring safer and more convenient natural food preservatives, such as microbial-source nisin, natamycin, monascus red pigment, etc.; animal-source lysozyme, chitosan, protamine, propolis, etc.; and plant-source agar oligosaccharides, eucommia extract, spices, cloves, dark plum extract, etc.

3. Developing from single-item preservation toward broad-spectrum preservation: The antibacterial range of preservatives is relatively narrow. Some have an inhibitory effect on fungi but are ineffective against bacteria, and some only have an inhibitory effect on a few microorganisms. Therefore, most food production enterprises add multiple preservatives to achieve the purpose of preservation. People long for a food preservative in the broad sense that can both kill bacteria and inhibit bacteria when used alone.

4. Developing from harsh usage environments toward convenient use: For example, some are sensitive to the pH value of food, heating temperature, etc., some have poor water solubility, some have too strong an off-flavor, and some cause food to fade, etc. The development trend should be toward food preservatives that do not have harsh requirements for the food production environment.

5. Developing from higher-priced natural food preservatives toward lower prices: Natural food preservatives are non-toxic and harmless but relatively expensive, and most food production enterprises find them hard to afford, such as lysozyme, nisin, natamycin, protamine, etc. Greatly reducing the cost of natural food preservatives is one of the prerequisites for the large-scale promotion and application of natural food preservatives.