Foods ingredient are substances that are added to food to achieve a desired effect. The term “food ingredient” includes food additives, which are substances added to foods for specific technical and/or functional purposes during processing, storage or packaging.
Food ingredients have been used for many years to preserve, flavour, blend, thicken and colour foods, and have played an important role in reducing serious nutritional deficiencies. These ingredients also help ensure the availability of flavourful, nutritious, safe, convenient, colourful and affordable foods that meet consumer expectations.
Food ingredients provide convenience and allow food makers to produce a wide variety of foods that are safe, appetizing, consistent, nutritious and tasty. They are used in very small quantities, but contribute significantly to our vast and varied food supply - ensuring that the foods we love look, taste and feel the way we have come to expect.
There are two types of food ingredients which are direct and indirect:
There are various kinds of food ingredients such as preservatives, sweeteners, colour additives, flavour enhancers, stabilizers, leavening agents and emulsifiers. For a variety of food ingredients available in Zambian stores, feel free to browse.
A food ingredient is any substance that is added to a food to achieve a desired effect. The term “food ingredient” includes food additives, which are substances added to foods for specific technical and/or functional purposes during processing, storage or packaging.
The ingredient list shows each ingredient in a food by its common or usual name. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, so the ingredient that weighs the most in the product is listed first, and the ingredient that weighs the least is listed last.
There are thousands of ingredients used to make foods. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of over 3000 ingredients in its data base "Everything Added to Food in the United States", many of which we use at home every day (e.g., sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla, yeast, spices and colours).
The ingredients in packaged food and beverage items are listed separately from (and often below) the Nutrition Facts label. This information lists each ingredient in the product by its common or usual name, and in descending order by weight.