Status of use of preservatives and criteria for their use(2)

China has strict regulations on the use of preservatives, specifying that preservatives should meet the following standards.

1. not be harmful to human health when used reasonably

2. do not affect the digestive tract flora

3. degrade in the digestive tract to the normal composition of food

4. not interfere with the use of pharmaceutical antimicrobials

5. does not produce harmful components when heat-treating food. China has so far approved only 32 kinds of food preservatives that are allowed to be used, the most commonly used of which are benzoic acid and sorbic acid. The toxicity of benzoic acid is stronger than sorbic acid, and in the same acidity value under the inhibition of bacterial effectiveness is only 1/3 of sorbic acid, so many countries have gradually changed to use sorbic acid. 

However, because of the low price of benzoic acid and its sodium salt, it is still used as the main preservative in China, mainly for carbonated drinks and fruit juices. 

Sorbic acid and its salts have strong antibacterial power, low toxicity, is a kind of unsaturated fatty acid, can participate in the normal metabolism of the human body, and be transformed to produce carbon dioxide and water, sorbic acid because of good preservative effect, no adverse effect on the taste of food, has become more and more popular. In addition, from the future development trend of preservatives, natural preservatives will become the main character of development.

Some manufacturers have added preservatives to their food, but because they are afraid that consumers will have doubts, they do not label the preservatives used; some even use preservatives and advertise on the packaging that "this product does not contain any preservatives", thus misleading and deceiving consumers, which seriously violates consumers' right to know. According to the results of a comparative test conducted by the CCA on 121 types of carbonated beverages in easy-to-open cans, seven types of beverages used preservatives without labeling, accounting for 8% of the total number of beverages tested that contained preservatives.

Consumers should look at preservatives rationally and be clear that they can prevent food spoilage and sometimes food poisoning, which is undoubtedly beneficial to consumers' safety; however, at the same time, preservatives are synthetic and can have certain side effects when used improperly. The laws and regulations on synthetic additives, especially on preservatives, should be continuously improved to keep the production and use of preservatives within the most reasonable limits. More detailed regulations on labelling, such as requiring food manufacturers to clearly state on the product label that it "contains preservatives: XXX, XXX" and to indicate the dosage used, so that consumers can make an objective and clear judgement at a glance when purchasing.