When shopping for children's food, you don't have to worry too much about additives

"Food additives affect children's intellectual development, leading to obesity, precocious puberty" and "don't let pigment accumulate into children's childhood" and other statements bring parents various worries
about children's food safety.
In fact, these statements contain a lot of misleading and even rumorous elements
.

Wang Bei, deputy dean of the School of Food and Health of Beijing Technology and Business University, said that food additives have long been accompanied by human beings, are the daily composition of the public diet, and are also an indispensable foundation of the modern food industry, and the formulation and implementation of China's food additive standards are very strict, parents do not need to worry too much about additives when purchasing children's food
.
Compared with food additives, parents should pay more attention to the nutritional content of children's food, and do not "stare at sesame seeds and lose watermelon"
.

The types of additives allowed in infant food are small

"There are more than 10,000 kinds of food additives allowed in the world, and there are only more than 2,000 in
China.
A large number of food additives that have been allowed to be used abroad have not been included in the national standards
in China due to the consideration of food safety and the characteristics of China's food culture.
In general, China's food additive use standards are quite strict, especially infant food
.
Wang Bei said
.

Wang Bei introduced that the food additives allowed to be used in infant food in China are mainly emulsifiers, thickeners, acidity regulators, and leavening agents, which are more than 20 kinds of four categories
.
The National Food Safety Standard Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760) strictly stipulates
the type, function and maximum amount of food allowed for each food additive allowed to be used in infant food.
For example, infant formula is divided into infant formula, larger infant and toddler formula, and infant formula for special medical purposes
.
Although these three types of food belong to infant formula, the types of food additives between the three categories cannot be universal.

For example, guar gum is a common food thickener that can only be used in larger infant and toddler formulas, but not in infant
formulas.
In addition, the standard also strictly stipulates that any food spices shall not be added to infant formula food covering 0-6 months, and the standard is very strict
.

"Therefore, the use of food additives according to national standards is legal and safe, and consumers do not have to worry
excessively.
" Wang Bei said
.

Attention should be paid to the nutritional content of food

Wang Bei pointed out that children are in an important stage of physical development, and the functions of the body are still not perfect, so the state is very cautious
in the selection of the list of food additives allowed in infant food and the maximum amount of food additives when formulating food additive standards.
In addition, the amount of food additives added to food is very small, so its impact on children's growth and development can be basically ignored
.

"However, more noteworthy than food additives is the food nutrition content itself
.
When buying snacks for their children, parents should buy more foods with high nutritional value, such as milk, yogurt, etc
.
, so that children can consume more protein, calcium, lutein and other nutrients.
As for some highly processed foods with high sugar, high fat and high salt, they should be eaten
less.
Compared to food additives, the nutrients ingested actually have a much
greater impact on a child's body.
Wang Bei analyzed that when buying food for children, parents should pay more attention to choosing products
based on the nutritional needs of children at different stages of growth and development.

Rumors are not credible

Wang Bei bluntly said that "food additives cause precocious puberty in children" without any scientific basis
.
Wang Bei analyzed that the chemical components that cause precocious puberty must be related to hormones, but there are no components related to hormone function or similar structure in food additives, so legal food additives cannot cause precocious puberty
.

"This rumor may be related to
phthalates.
In the early years, studies have found that phthalates in infant food containers such as plastic feeding bottles can exert estrogen-like effects
in the human body.
However, since 2011, China has banned the production of baby food containers
containing this chemical.
So, this question has become history
.
”

Wang Bei believes that such claims are very similar to rumors such as "soy milk causes precocious puberty", which may be the result of
false rumors.
She advises consumers to trust foods made through legitimate food manufacturers that use safe amounts of additives and don't have to worry
too much about either adults or children.

(Sun Mingyuan)

China Food News(Version 06, December 22, 2022)

(Responsible editor: Zhu Meiqiao)