Preservativos

Food Preservatives:
Harmful Preservatives Used in Food


Dilenia Santiago de Grullón
Environmental Science 108
Professor Polonia
April 5, 2012

Harmful Preservatives Used in Food
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient
in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the prevention of disease."
- Thomas A. Edison
Due to the demands of modernlife, industrialization, environmental changes, and other variables that compel alterations in one’s lifestyle, people’s habits of eating have changed. Individuals regularly opt to have fast and easy choices for food. Fresh food and non-processed food are virtually nonexistent in the market; therefore, individuals have no choice but to consume processed and synthetic foods. Vegetable and animalorigin products are mostly available in frozen, canned, and dried form. Synthetic and altered foods are more readily available, so they have become the main option for daily consumption. Most often, shoppers tend to prefer these alternatives for practical and economic reasons. For instance, canned fruits are easier to preserve, carry, and store, can be retained longer, and in most cases are lessexpensive than fresh fruit. Likewise, in order to make them more attractive, labels of canned foods claim that they contain more vitamins per serving or are enhanced with extra vitamins and minerals. These tactics make the product as appear to be a more convenient option, which distracts the consumer from analyzing the nutrition labeling, thus, the consumer does not critically analyze or determine ifhe or she is truly eating a healthy product. People are mostly unacquainted with the negative impact that altered, processed, and synthetic foods can have on human health. This is of concern in today's climate because science has demonstrated that commonly used preservatives have a capacity to harm human health.
Preservatives are natural or artificial chemical agents that are added to food inorder to prevent its decomposition. The use of preservatives became necessary to avoid the development of microbial growth in food. In addition to deteriorating food, pathogenic microorganisms within food are infectious and toxinogenic, which may cause human diseases and fungal infections that spoil crops, resulting in economic losses (Russell & Gould, 2003, pp. 1-2). Besides food safety, thegood appearance and quality of food are other benefits that producers obtain from the use of preservatives. As Russell and Gould (2003) state, “the microbial stability and safety as well as the sensory and nutritional quality of almost all foods are based on a combination of several preservative methods” (p. 138), among which, adding artificial preservatives is included. Therefore, from this point ofview, it is necessary to add preservatives to food. However, since preservatives may have side effects and potential long-term effects on human health, consumers should be aware that preservatives may pose a potential threat to health. Likewise, there are hurtful preservatives that should be avoided.
The safety of food preservatives is a controversial topic. As accepted by the Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization (FAO/WHO), most scientists believe that preservatives can be used wisely (Friis, 2007); therefore they are safe for human consumption. Nonetheless, there is a permanent point of skepticism about their safety. For instance, Doug Cook, a notable dietitian and nutritionist, after conducting exhaustive research on biomedicalliterature concluded that “no one can confidently say [that] artificial food preservatives are dangerous and the source of chronic diseases, nor can they say with certainty that they are completely safe” (Cook, 2012, para. 4). Similarly, Parke and Lewis (1992) argue that although most preservatives are considered to be without potential adverse effects and are classified as GRAS (generally recognized as...