and thereby makes the food product safe for consumption along with an extent shelf life [91, 93].
Hurdle technology is the technology where appropriate types of hurdles are selected and combined to provide microbial safety, stability, sensory, nutritional value, and economic viability to products.
The concept of combining several factors is known as hurdle effect. Food preservation can be attained by different types of hurdles. The different types of hurdles used for preservation are classified into three types.
1 1. Physical
2 2. Physicochemical
3 3. Microbial hurdles
These hurdles also influence the quality and safety of foods depending on the intensity of different types of hurdles used, and their effect on food quality may be either positive or negative. The main objective of the hurdles is to eliminate and inactivate or inhibit the growth of microorganisms present in food. Common salt used as hurdles to control the microbial load in foods [95]. Natural antimicrobials also called as bio preservatives like nisin, bacteriocins, and essential oils can also be used as one of the hurdles.
1.10.1 Advantages of Food Additives and Preservatives
Nowadays, food preservatives play an important role in our daily routine food. They give us safety from the bacteria and microorganisms that can damage the food as well as our health. We cannot take preservatives as for granted as they also play useful function in food. They improve the nutritional value of some food weakening unhealthy things from it and improving the quality of the product. Preservatives are play important role by increasing the life of a food and prevent from spoilage. Even though additives and preservatives are necessary for maintaining food safety, they are also danger for health [97–100]. The reasons of adding additives in food are as follows:
i) For maintaining consistency: by emulsifier, stabilizers and thickeners give food a good texture and prevent them from separating.
ii) For maintain quality: as they improve food texture, flavors, appearance, enrich in nutritional value, and maintain food consistency.
iii) For maintaining nutritional value: vitamins and minerals are adding in some product like milk cereals and flour for those likely to be lacking in a person’s diet.
iv) For maintaining acidity or alkalinity: as we add baking soda for help cakes, biscuits, and other baked goods to rise during making.
1.10.2 Disadvantages of Food Additives and Preservatives
Even though additives and preservatives are necessary for food, they can cause many health problems. They can cause different kinds of allergies like hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder in some people who are sensitive to specific chemical [82, 91]. They also can cause asthma, hay fever, tight chest, headache, hives, and allergy like rashes. Some of the danger food additives are as follows:
• Benzoate: it causes allergies like rashes and asthma. It can also cause brain damage.
• Red dye 40: it can causes certain birth defects and possibly cancer.
• Caramel: it commonly used in flavoring and coloring agent. It causes vitamin B6 deficiencies, genetic defect and cancer.
• Saccharin: it causes bladder cancer, tumors, affecting skin, and toxic reaction.
• Caffeine: it is used as color and flavoring agent in food. It causes nervousness, occasionally heart defect.
• Sodium chloride: it can cause high blood pressure, kidney failure, stroke, and heart attack.
We should avoid the food which contains danger additives and preservatives for minimizing the risk of health problems. We should check the ingredients of sealed food before purchasing them from markets. We should eat organic food because they do not have any artificial additives and preservatives in food. We should try to eat freshly prepared food as much as possible rather than eating sealed food.
1.10.3 Effects of Food Additives and Food Preservatives
The first step toward increasing our health and lowering our risk of disease is to avoid toxins in our food. Food additives can cause immediate effect or harmful in a long run if you have constant exposure. Headache, change in energy level, and immune responses are the example of immediate effects [65]. Risks of cancer and cardiovascular diseases are the example of longterm effect.
Some food additives side effects are as follows:
i) Boric acids: it is a boron compound and it can be soluble and circulates in the plasma. It is a white powder water soluble solution which is usually used as pesticides to kill insects, fungi, bacteria, and cockroaches. In food, it is used as preservative. It is use for preserving meats, dairy products. Boric acid is toxic to cells. It harms more effectively if it takes in higher amount. It was reported by several times. It was tested on animals. Animals were treated with boric acid in higher amount [52–57]. It observed that boric acid suppressed the sperm release from testes, and hence, it reduces the fertility in male.
ii) Vinegar: it was reported for Esophageal injury. Different vinegar is varies in different content and pH. So, ingestion of heavy vinegar for long time could cause hyperreninemia, hypokalemia, and osteoporosis.
iii) Aspartame: it is a controversial artificial sweetener. One of the fact about aspartame is that it does not metabolized, so it causes metabolism disorder (phenylketonuria).
iv) Nitrites and nitrates: it causes blue color of skin because nitrites binds to hemoglobin, so it chemically altered hemoglobin which results in impair oxygen delivery to tissue. This disease is known as blue baby syndrome. Higher amount of nitrates and nitrites consuming can cause cancer and brain tumors.
v) Annatto: annatto is safe if it is consumes in small amount. Otherwise, it can cause allergies to people who are sensitive to it.
1.10.4 Safety of Food Additives and Preservatives
The limitation should be followed with due importance to factor. The SCF has introduced some guidelines of some test that must be carried out on food additives in order to their safety. It requires numbers of animals and other testes to access every conceivable risk to the consumer:
• Study for understanding how the body absorbs, metabolizes, and eliminates the substance.
• Study for potential of gene and chromosome damages.
• Life time studies and potential of fertility and birth defects.
• Study of causing cancer.
Every additive is safe if it takes in small amount, but if it take in high amount, they have their some causes [58–61]. The aim of doing test on animal with additives is to find their effects. The tests have been done both low and high doses. As observing that low doses are safe for health but some additives are harmful if it takes in high doses. Therefore, we should check the information about the additives that are labeled on packed food before consuming them. We should try to eat more organic food rather than eating processed food.
Nourishment is tainted if its quality is brought down or influenced by the expansion of substances which are damaging to well-being or by the evacuation of substances which are nutritious. It is characterized as the demonstration of deliberately degrading the nature of nourishment offered available to be purchased either by the admixture or substitution of subpar substances or by the evacuation of some important fixing.
Nourishment is proclaimed debased if:
• A substance is included which deteriorates or harmfully influences it.
• Cheaper or substandard substances are subbed entirely or to a limited extent.