Chemical Additives: History of Chemical Food Additives

Salt was probably the first important chemical food additive. Because its use began in prehistory, no dating can be ascribed to it. In primitive cultures with no refrigeration, salt was an important commodity for flavoring, for health, and as a preservative. There are suggestions that spices were being used in the Middle East as early as 5000 bce, and certainly they were in use in Egypt as part of the mummification process as far back as 3000 bce. Pliny the Elder, in the first century CE, mentions wine (which he diluted with eight parts water, as was the custom then), making garum or liquamen (a fermented condiment made from fish) and cabbage preserved with a salt brine. Interestingly, in the Americas salting was an unknown technique until Europeans arrived.