As per FSSAI, 2011, the non-permitted synthetic food color includes Rhodamine, Amaranth, Metanil Yellow, Malachite Green, Acid Magenta, Orange G, and Butter Yellow.
2.3.5 Texturizing Agent
The role of texturizing agent as food additive is to modify the overall texture and mouthfeel of food. It includes emulsifier, thickener, stabilizer, and bulking agent.
a. Emulsifier: It allows water and oil to mix together to form an emulsion. Naturally occurring emulsifying agent is lecithin, milk protein, and legume peotein. Emulsifiers are molecules having both hydrophobic and hydrophilic end.
b. Thickener: It increases the viscosity of food without affecting other properties. Starch, albumen are used as thickener.
c. Stabilizer: Its function is to stabilize the foodstuff structure. Gelatin, pectin, and alginate are used as stabilizer to stabilize the emulsion formed. These additives prevent separation of emulsion, suspension, and foam. They are used in frozen dessert to improve mouth feel. Some of the stabilizers are antioxidants, some are emulsifiers, some may be ultraviolet stabilizer, and some may be sequestrants.
d. Bulking agent: It increases the bulk of food without upsetting the nutritional value. Starch is used as bulking agent [15, 16].
Other than these, phosphates are used as the meat binder in sausage and in processed cheese to get smooth consistency.
2.3.6 Miscellaneous Additives
2.3.6.1 Acidity Regulator
Acidity regulators are food additives that are used to change or keep the pH. They can be acid, bases, and buffering agents. Commonly used acidity regulators are citric acid, lactic acid, and acetic acid. They are used as they are organic acids [17].
2.3.6.2 Anti-Caking Agent
Anti-caking agents are anhydrous compounds that are added in dry food in small quantity. The purpose for the addition of this additive is to prevent the particles caking together and keep the product dry, free flowing. Without anti-caking agents, the dry products like cake and biscuit mix and soup powder will be clumped. The anti-caking agent either adsorbs excess moisture or coats particles and makes them water repellent. Some anti-caking agents are water soluble and some are soluble in organic solvent. Different anti-caking agents are starch, magnesium carbonate, and silica. They are added to food products with table salt, flour, coffee, and sugar. Calcium silicate is an anti-caking agent that is added to table salt. It is able to adsorb water and oil both.
2.3.6.3 Antifoaming Agent
They are also known as defoamer. They reduce and hinder the formation of foam in industrial processed liquid. They are classified as oil based, powder based, water based etc. When used, they reduce the effervescence in a preparation. Silicone oil is added in commercial cooking oil to prevent the froth formation in deep frying food.
2.3.6.4 Flour Treatment Agents
They are also called improver or flour improving agent as they improve the baking functionality of flour. These agents are of following four types:
a. oxidizing and reducing agent
b. enzymes
c. bleaching agents
d. emulsifier
These agents are used to speed up the process of dough rising and also to expand the strength of dough.
a. Oxidizing and reducing agents: Aging of flour occurs naturally when it is exposed to atmosphere. The oxidizing agents affect the sulfur-containing amino acids and aid to form disulfide bridges between the gluten molecules. The dough becomes stronger with the addition of these compounds. Examples of oxidizing agent include dehydroascorbic acid and potassium bromate, and they particularly oxidize the glutathione molecule. Potassium bromate acts directly and number of conversion steps are also less.Reducing agents make the flour weak by breaking the protein network. Benefits of the addition of reducing agents are reduction in mixing time, dough elasticity, proofing time, and improved machinability. Examples of reducing agent include cysteine and bisulfite.
b. Enzymes: Different enzymes are used to improve the processing characteristics of dough. Examples of enzymes that are added for this purpose includes the following• Amylases: It breaks down the starch into simple sugars. Yeast uses it up and can ferment quickly. Malt is used as it is the natural amylase source.• Proteases: It improves the extensibility of dough by breaking the gluten.• Lipoxygenase: It is used to oxidize flour.
c. Bleaching agents: Objective of addition of this additive is to make the flour whiter. Nitrogen dioxide is used for that purpose. In presence of high voltage, it is converted to nitrogen tetra oxide which is effective bleaching agent. Benzoyl peroxide is also used and it is better than nitrogen dioxide.
d. Emulsifier: Lecithin, monoglyceride, and diglyceride are used as emulsifier to disperse fat evenly through the dough that helps to trap carbon dioxide more. Addition of emulsifier produces softer crumb and fine grain with increased baked volume.
2.3.6.5 Fat Replacers
There is a growing consciousness developing in world to the ratio of saturated fatty acid to poly- and mono-saturated fatty acids in the diet. It is concluded that calories from fat in the diet should not be more than 30%. There is growing market demand for low fat food that encourage research on low fat content of food. Whenever fat content is reduced, it will automatically affect organoleptic property and physical property of food. To get desirable character, there is a need to use fat replacers. Fat replacers are carbohydrate, protein, and fat-based compound that replace fat to reduce calories in food. They can be synthetic fat substitute, emulsifier, starch derivative, hemicellulose, bulking agent, etc. They can be classified as follows:
a. Fat substitute: It is a synthetic compound that can replace fat on weight by weight basis. These compounds are having similar chemical structure to fat but they are resistant to digestive juices.
b. Fat mimetics: These are the substances that imitate the physical or organoleptic properties. They are also known as “texturizing agent”. They require high amount of water for their action.
c. Fat analogs: These compounds have similar characteristics of fat but digestibility and nutritional value are different.
d. Fat extenders: They allow decrease in the amount of fat in the product [18].
Carbohydrate-based fat replacers are not used for frying purpose. Protein-based fat replacers are made from milk protein or egg protein. They can be heated and be converted to microparticle that give the same mouth feel as fat. They are used in butter, cheese, mayonnaise, and salad dressings. They cannot be used for frying and baking. Fat-based fat replacers are fat molecules that are modified so that they can be partially absorbed.
2.3.6.6 Sweeteners
Sweeteners are added to improve the taste of food. They also contribute to energy value. Some sweeteners like polyols are the modified sweetener that are popular nowadays. They are natural compounds and often added to boost