Processed Foods and the Consumer: Additives, Labelling, Standards and Nutrition

368 Pages·1976·16.45 MB·English

by  Vernal S. Packard

Processed Foods and the Consumer
Published with assistance from
the Roger E. Joseph Memorial Fund
for greater understanding of
public affairs, a cause in which
Roger Joseph believed
Processed Foods
and
the Consumer
A dditives, Labeling,
Standards,
and
Nutrition
by Vernal S. Packard, Jr.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS D MINNEAPOLIS
Copyright © 1976 by the University of Minnesota.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Published in Canada by Burns & MacEachern Limited,
Don Mills, Ontario
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-32670
ISBN 0-8166-0778-8
Preface
This is a book about food—what's in food, why it's there, and how it came
to be there. The volume is an overview of the food industry focusing on many
of the major issues now being raised about food safety, ecology and the envi-
ronment, and mankind's ability to feed itself. It deals with regulations govern-
ing food producers and processors; it relates supermarket foods to the latest
nutritional recommendations of the Food and Nutrition Board, National
Academy of Sciences/National Research Council; it provides a basis for under-
standing food labels and the use of label information in marking purchases of
food and vitamin supplements; and it brings together under one cover the
health-related issues of food additives and nutrition.
If I were to point to one objective of this work, it would be to guide stu-
dent and consumer alike through the maze of food ingredients, regulations,
and standards in order to make as clear as present knowledge allows the criti-
cal issues confronting government and citizens in the development of a na-
tional food policy, a policy that must consider human health and nutrition—
and food for the world's hungry. Like scattered bits of flint and steel, infor-
mation pierces our sensitivities from a host of sources when an additive, a
pesticide, or some disease is associated with the food we eat. There's a flash,
an eyecatcher that holds our attention momentarily, then is gone; but usually
a doubt lingers, a question is unanswered, there is a hesitance the next time
we sit down to eat. Even for those who by profession find themselves teach-
ing or doing research in the food sciences, there is seldom sufficient time to
track down pertinent literature on any but a few of the questions that assail
v
vi Preface
them. This book may not provide all the answers, but it is an attempt to as-
semble the scattered details and to weave into some kind of logical sequence
what appears to be the scientific consensus at this time. Obviously new re-
search may lead to conclusions and views different from those now seeming
to materialize. Likewise it is inherent in a work such as this that details will
change, additives be developed or discarded, food standards be revised, new
food names be conjured up to describe the products of the future. Yet it is
equally certain that questions we now seek to answer—about food's relation
to health, about the use of pesticides and drugs, about the relationship and
responsibility of consumer and government in dealing wisely with this, our
greatest of natural resources—will remain with us for the foreseeable future. If
there is value in viewing a problem more or less in its totality, and with an eye
to current research findings, may this book serve that purpose. Especially is it
dedicated to the beginning student, the homemaker, the extension specialist
and home agent, the supermarket home economist, and the institutional diet-
itian, to those persons who, each day, strive to understand food, to communi-
cate what they learn about it, and to use wisely this resource so abundantly
given to our much-blessed nation.
V. S. P.
July 1, 1975
Contents
I Food Definitions and Standards 3
II Food Names 26
III Food Additives 43
IV Food Flavor 60
V Food Color 79
VI Food Preservatives 97
VII Emulsifiers and Stabilizers (Binders and Thickeners) 119
VIII Toxic Metals in Food 126
IX Poisons and Antinutritional Factors in "Natural" Foods 145
X Natural/Organic Foods 169
XI Nutrients, Nutrient Sources, and Label Information 178
XII Foods and Food Supplements, Their Labels and Use 220
XIII Nutritional Quality Guidelines 246
Appendixes
I Standards of Identity for Foods 265
II Categories of Additive Functions as
Used in the Regulation of Food Ingredients 293
III 101 Varieties of Food Additives 296
IV Food Categories Used in the Regulation of Food Ingredients 310
V A Listing of Some Natural and
Artificial Flavoring Compounds 313
VI Some Commonly Used Chemical Preservatives 329
VII Cyclamates: A Chronology of Confusion 332
Glossary of Terms 337
Select Bibliography 345
Index 353
This page intentionally left blank
Processed Foods and the Consumer