Much of our food contains additives and preservatives to enhance flavor, increase the nutritional value of foods, enhance visual perception (i.e. color), prevent contamination, and extend shelf life.
Find three food items - including one organic product - in your pantry, freezer, refrigerator or grocery store, and look at the list of ingredients. Use/search the FDA website to determine what additives your food items contain and the purpose of the additives in your food items.
Please be specific and answer all of the questions. The answers should show evidence that you examined and compared the food additives in the 3 foods you selected.
- What 3 foods did you choose? (Be specific - include the brand and type of food, e.g. Honeymaid Graham Crackers, cinnamon flavored)
- Which additives did each food contain and what were each of the additives used for? (*Be sure to include the following outline/template in your response and then explain the results in your own words.)
Food Item #1:
Additives Identified:
Purpose of each additive in the food item you selected:
Other examples of how this additive is used:
Food Item #2:
Additives Identified:
Purpose of each additive in the food item you selected:
Other examples of how this additive is used:
Food Item #3:
Additives Identified:
Purpose of each additive in the food item you selected:
Other examples of how this additive is used:
- Did you see a difference in terms of the number and types of additives for each of the 3 foods?
- Which food source had the most additives? (Be sure to compare the number of additives for each of the 3 foods). How do you account for this discrepancy?
- What did you find most interesting or surprising from completing this activity?