Identifying additives

Not all additives are undesirable. Many are natural products and there is no documented evidence that the proper use of them is harmful to the majority of the population. More people get food poisoning from badly preserved food than suffer ill-effects from additives, so it is important to keep them in perspective. However, constant research work in this field continues to uncover new information, and the list of additives known to provoke or exacerbate certain conditions in some people continues to grow. Given the painstaking nature of this research, there can often be a considerable time lapse between the discovery of harmful side effects and the eventual ban on the additive. Those particularly criticized are tartrazine, for its possible link with hyperactivity in children, and sodium nitrates and nitrites, implicated in cancer of the stomach.