Natural functional food additives into the development of hot spots

With the increasing attention to food quality and safety at home and abroad, the requirements for food nutrition, convenience, speed, diversification and safety are getting higher and higher, and the world has set off an upsurge of "food safety. To meet these requirements, additives will play an essential role in the development of the food industry.

Food additives are an important part of the food industry and a new growth point of the food industry. As the soul of the modern food industry, food additives are developing rapidly and have great potential, and their value far exceeds their own economic value. The development trend of food industry at home and abroad shows that food additives are developing in the direction of green, natural, nutritious and healthy. Therefore, the development of new natural functional food additives, and explore its health function and its composite technology has become a hot spot at home and abroad.

Food additives can be divided into two categories according to their sources: one is natural food additives, which refer to the substances obtained through extraction and processing by using animal and plant tissues or secretions and metabolic products of microorganisms as raw materials. Such as starch syrup, plant pigments, natural flavors, sweeteners, etc.; the second is chemical synthetic additives, which refer to organic or inorganic substances obtained by a series of chemical means, such as saccharin, synthetic pigments, sodium benzoate, etc.

Additives extracted or synthesized from animal and plant tissues, such as syrup, citric acid, lactic acid, β-carotene, vitamin C and other products, account for a large proportion of food additives. The use of biological synthesis of these products is lower than the cost of extracting from natural materials, but its chemical structure is exactly the same as that of natural extraction, and it also has certain nutritional and physiological functions ". Therefore, the natural food additives in the food additives are still the main body of the development of food additives. In the development of new varieties, priority should be given to natural products, but synthetic products should not be neglected. The problem lies in the safe use effect and economy.

In China, many natural extracts with physiological activity have been included in the national GB2760 hygiene standard catalogue, and most of them have been approved as food additives. Functional food additives are necessary resources for the development of functional foods such as fortified foods and health foods, and there are many types of additives for functional evaluation.

Natural pigments are mainly extracted from plants and produced from agricultural and sideline products. At present, China is the use of natural colorants more countries. Many natural pigments with physiological functions have been continuously developed and successfully applied in the food and pharmaceutical industries. For example, carotene and lutein have antioxidant effects, and the strong natural reducing agent currently found-astaxanthin, is also a carotene in red algae. Chlorophyll also has antioxidant function, eat more chlorophyll can be blood. Monascus pigment contains lovastatin and other blood pressure lowering factors, can regulate blood pressure, blood lipid content. In addition, peanut coat red has a blood coagulation effect, grape skin red has a lipid regulating effect, tea green has a lipid regulating effect. Microbial production of coloring agents are no toxicity and mutagenic effect, high safety, widely used in beverage, candy, food and pharmaceutical processing, is the future direction of the development of coloring agent.

At present, new natural preservatives with biological functions have become a research hotspot. For example, as a peptide preservative with a variety of biological functions, lysozyme is widely used in meat products, dairy products, aquatic products and so on. Because lysozyme is a protein with high safety, it has a certain effect of dissolving harmful bacteria, and it does not need heating treatment, which is convenient and efficient, and will not affect the color and flavor of food. Propolis is a kind of natural food preservative of animal origin. Its flavonoids and various active ingredients can significantly improve the immunity of human body, and have strong killing effect on viruses and bacteria. In addition, propolis can be made into natural chewing gum, which has protective and cleaning effect on teeth. The allicin contained in garlic has a strong inhibitory and killing effect on some pathogenic intestinal bacteria such as dysentery bacillus and common food spoilage fungi, so it is used as a natural preservative for the preservation of acidic food. In recent years, there have been many studies on essential oils as food preservatives. For example, clove oil has an inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger, etc., and is stable to heat within 100°C. Its outstanding feature is its strong inhibitory effect on fungi. Nisin produced by fermentation with edible protein raw materials is a polypeptide, which can be digested and metabolized by human body without any toxicity, and can be considered equivalent to natural substances. It has a strong inhibitory effect on Gram-positive bacteria, including Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Micrococcus and other harmful bacteria. It is widely used in dairy products and meat products.

Sweeteners are a type of additive industry that is developing rapidly and increasing in demand. The research on sweeteners at home and abroad mainly focuses on the development of natural non-sugar sweeteners with high sweetness and low calories, focusing on the people with obesity, diabetes and dental caries, and providing them with functional foods that do not contain sugar but have sweet taste. At present, the development of protein sugar and polyhydric sugar alcohol can not only meet people's needs for sweets, but also will not cause side effects, and can increase human immunity. High-sweetness biological sweeteners are also an important direction for future development. Stevia is a new type of natural sweetener extracted from the Compositae herbaceous plant Stevia rebaudiana. It has the characteristics of high sweetness and low energy. Its sweetness is 200-300 times that of sucrose, and its calorific value is only 1/300 of sucrose. Stevioside has no toxic and side effects, is extremely stable to heat, acid, alkali, salts, etc., and has no carcinogens. It is a very ideal sweetener that can replace sucrose. It is widely used in pastries, beverages, medicine, wine making and other industries. It is the third natural sucrose substitute with development value and health promotion after sugarcane and beet sugar, and is internationally known as "the third sugar source in the world". Mogroside has a good health care effect, has the effect of regulating the stomach and detoxification and beauty. Glycyrrhizin is a natural licorice extract, suitable for diabetic patients, widely used in beverages, preserves, puffed food, chewing gum, meat processing, etc. As nutritive sweeteners, sugar alcohols, such as maltitol and mannitol, have the function of preventing dental caries and not affecting blood sugar value, and can be used as sugar substitutes for diabetic patients.

As a natural antioxidant, tea polyphenols in tea have a variety of physiological functions and are natural, efficient and non-toxic and side effects. Tea polyphenols have good quality preservation and anti-damage effect on meat and its pickled products such as sausage, canned meat and bacon, especially on heat-resistant bacillus in canned food, and have the effect of deodorizing, removing fishy smell and preventing oxidation. In addition, tea polyphenols can also be used for the preservation of vegetables and fruits, which can delay the ripening of fruits and vegetables, protect the color and the loss of nutrients, especially vitamin C. Lycopene and flavonoids are also highly active antioxidants. Lycopene has certain functions in delaying aging, enhancing immunity and resisting ultraviolet radiation. Flavonoids have a variety of physiological activities and pharmacological effects, which are widely distributed in ferns in nature. The polyphenols extracted from grapes, including anthocyanins and flavonoids, have good antioxidant function. At present, grape extracts have been used as health products at home and abroad.

Other natural food additives, a wide range of new natural functional additives, and have been found, such as acidulants, thickeners, emulsifiers and so on. Natural emulsifiers include soybean phospholipids, lecithin, plant sterols, sophora saponins, tea saponin and so on. Phytosterols are widely found in vegetable oils, nuts and plant seeds, and are widely used in health foods and drugs. Hydrolyzed protein is a product of protein-rich animal tissue hydrolysis, rich in active peptides and amino acids, can be used as a nutritional fortifier added to beverages, baked goods and candy, but also as a natural seasoning. Citric acid is a natural acidulant, and its allowable dosage is added as needed, that is, without limitation. Most natural thickeners are polysaccharides extracted from plants, algae and microorganisms, such as pectin, sodium alginate, guar gum, xanthan gum, etc. In addition, the new functional additives newly developed in domestic and foreign markets include natural peptide preservatives, high-efficiency and low-heat fruit fiber, pea protein, spirulina, etc., and their industrial markets have good development prospects.

At present, the development requirements of food additives at home and abroad are based on "safety, nutrition, and multi-function". The obvious effects of functional food additives, especially some natural extracts, have been internationally recognized.

The main development trends of the additive industry are as follows: First, the production of natural food additives with agricultural and sideline products as the main raw materials, especially the use of microbial metabolites as raw materials, through extraction, enzymatic conversion or fermentation and other technologies to produce biological functions The research and development of food additives has become a hot spot in the development of natural functional food additives. The second is to identify and develop the health function of natural food additives. For example, oligosaccharides, sugar alcohols, phospholipids, etc., have good physiological activities in regulating human gastrointestinal function, preventing dental caries, and delaying human aging. The research and development of traditional medicinal and edible plants will make some natural extracts develop into food additives with dual-purpose functions, which will become a major trend of research at home and abroad, thus providing a broad space for the application of food additives. The third is to develop and study the compounding technology of food additives. Many food additives can produce synergy or derive some new effects through compounding, and the study of compounding can not only reduce the amount of food additives, but also further improve food quality, improve the nutritional value and edible safety of food.