Additives! Food Ingredients

Food additives are grouped by what they do. The additives that you are most likely to come across on food labels are:

* Antioxidants (stop food becoming rancid or changing colour by reducing the chance of fats combining with oxygen)
* Colours
* Emulsifiers, stabilisers, gelling agents and thickeners (help to mix or thicken ingredients)
* Flavour enhancers (used to bring out the flavour of foods)
* Preservatives (used to keep food safer for longer)
* Sweeteners (intense sweeteners are many times sweeter than sugar whereas bulk sweeteners have a similar sweetness to sugar)

E-Numbers represent specific food additives, used by the food industry in the manufacture of various food products. These E-Numbers have been formulated by the European Economic Community (EEC) and are universally adopted by the food industry worldwide.

It is known that many E-numbers contain unlisted haraam ingredients in them. Generally additives derived from animals and insects.

E-numbers are reference numbers used by the European Union to facilitate identification of food additives. All food additives used in the European Union are identified by an E-number. The "E" stands for "Europe" or "European Union". Normally each food additive is assigned a unique number, though occasionally, related additives are given an extension ("a", "b", or "i", "ii") to another E-number.

The Commission of the European Union assigns e-numbers after the additive is cleared by the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF), the body responsible for the safety evaluation of food additives in the European Union.