The best way to be sure that what you eat has been produced without any cruelty to animals is to plant it, watch it grow and then harvest it yourself. But only a small proportion of UK residents are in a position to obtain an optimum fresh and varied Vegan diet exclusively from home-grown or otherwise locally produced food. Added to which, not all people who are in this position are Vegans. Therefore, mass produced, preserved and packaged food, gathered from diverse and distant places, will be relied upon to some extent by nearly all Vegans in the UK. So, Vegans need to be able to trust, read and understand the food labelling information available on packaging, as well as to evaluate the acceptability of products with regard to cruelty to animals.

The article is intended to help.

FOOD ADDITIVES

The food we eat is chemically complex. Many different chemicals exist within a given foodstuff, and we do not know how one ingredient reacts with others over time or within a recipe. Scientists are making incredibly clever discoveries about food and body chemistry, but this knowledge is not widely broadcast, easily acted upon nor very extensive. Much of our culinary knowledge is passed on by ancient traditions of practice, or we follow recipe books, and glean principles from these through experimentation, which gradually metamorphose into our own style of artistry.

We rely upon our ‘senses’, ‘memories’ and ‘manual skills’ to obtain the food we need, whether this involves growing it ourselves from seeds, or buying it ready-made from a shop. But nutrients are used by our bodies on a molecular level, which is more distant in scale to the senses we rely upon than humans are small in contrast to the Galaxy which surrounds us. If we change what we eat, and the environments in which it is produced, the lessons of trial and error passed on through history can no longer serve us. We do not really know what we eat at the best of times: our requirement for food is a very mysterious thing, although central to our health, happiness and survival.

Food additives compound the problem. Food producers add them to their products because they react chemically with the foodstuffs in ways that increase their commercial usefulness. Edible things decay and have limited shelf-life. Best eaten fresh, their appearance, taste and nutritional value deteriorates with time. Additives benefit food producers by making their foods’ look more appealing, taste pleasing and pass nutritional tests for as long a time as possible. In this way, they remain marketable following journeys through a wide a variety of environmental conditions to the plates of potential customers. Foods with additives can never be as healthy as fresh foods without them, and the side-effects of their chemical reactions are still not known. Their purpose is primarily to deceive.

The reason we eat is so that we may have health, happiness and life. If we eat the wrong things, or don’t eat anything at all, we become miserable, sick and die. “Health” is now understood as the body’s capacity to fight against disease rather than the absence of any threats to its wellbeing, and our bodies have incredible mechanisms for resisting illness. . Added to which, different species of creature, and different individual creatures within each species (including humans), also have slightly different nutritional requirements and chemical defences. Our digestive needs and self-defence mechanisms also change during the different stages of each life. Generally, we can say that some things are good for us, and some things are bad for us, and that each thing whether good or bad has thresholds within which it may do good, be survived, or cause grievous bodily harm, or even fatality. There are also numerous good and bad things within each identifiable food.

The art of successful eating would therefore seem to be to maximise the variety of good things digested in optimum quantities, whilst minimising the range of bad things consumed without ever exceeding the body’s capacities for self-defence. Food is an everyday matter of life and death even where only plants are considered as being suitable for food.

To help safeguard life in dubious circumstances, we have a useful tendency to formulate dietary laws. To use a USA term, legally permitted ingredients added to food by producers are “Generally Regarded As Safe” (or “GRAS” for short). This does not mean that they are known to be safe, only that there is no firm knowledge yet available to prove that they are harmful. In the kitchen we know that as a general rule it is healthy to eat fruits and vegetables, but in the Pharmacist’s laboratory we are also aware that there are plants which are poisonous or ought only be consumed or applied carefully to our body surfaces in small quantity by prescription. These plants may grow side by side in the same gardens, fields and hedgerows or even be different parts of the same plants. In recreational gardens, they may just seem to be bursts of colour and patterns of similar botanical forms, and the only perceived consequence of touching them or subjecting our olfactory senses to them may be a reprimand or explanation from a watchful gardener. The knowledge we receive about our food is very compartmentalised and disconnected.

For example, from the Flax plant we obtain decorative blooms for flower displays, linnen fibre to make our clothes and furnishings, oil to make our paints and clean our paint brushes, and seed to supply essential nutrition and properties to our baking and breakfast cereals, and more besides. These different products are from the same plant but do not have interchangeable uses. Processing each of these distinct products differently can bring about an even wider variety of results. Similarly, one single food additive will result in a different chemical change when used for different purposes, in different foodstuffs, and as a result of different conditions and processes. Furthermore, the same chemical may be obtained from a variety of sources, wider than even the same family of plants. We do not yet have the ability to predict the chemical changes that can occur, let alone to assess them on a level appropriate to establishing what they do within our bodies when we consume them as food.

Where quite a lot is known about an ingredient, standard amounts have been agreed to define a “GRAS” level. This falls between a Minimum Tolerable Daily intake, and a Maximum Tolerable Daily intake (MTDI) with a Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) somewhere in between. This knowledge may have been obtained through experimentation on other species. What is known about an ingredient does not usually include information about the long-term effects of toxins upon human health amongst different groups of people living in different lands and climates, or amongst those at different stages of bodily or mental development. (The other foodstuffs that it may react with in the bowels after consumption are not considered in advance of serious illness resulting. How often do you see health warnings on foods saying “Not to be eaten with” an incompatible product?)

All the countries in the European Union share a common list of additives. They are preceded with an ‘E’ to show that they have been approved for use within the Union, and they must be displayed on the labels of foods containing them. Some additives, which do not have E numbers, do not need to be declared. These include solvents used to dilute other additives (such as colourings) and to extract flavours. Flavourings constitute the largest group of non-E additives. Additives permitted in the EU can be known to give rise to illnesses such as eczema, hyperactivity, nausea, allergies, asthma and migraine in some people.

In children, the effects of toxins may not become noticeable until undeveloped tissues and organs ought to be effective. It may then be impossible to associate the malformation with the particular chemical responsible, or to identify its source. That being said, sufficient evidence does continue to arise and continues to result in many GRAS substances being reclassified as toxic and prohibited. But more new, untested additives find their way onto the shelves each year.

Uses for Food Additives fall into 12 broad categories:

1. Preservatives or antimicrobials

These are substances (or processes) which are used to prevent foods being spoiled by bacteria, fungus and mould, so that they maintain appetising appearance and edibility for a longer period of time.

Benzoic Acid and its sodium (Na) salts.

Sulfur Dioxide (HSO3 etc) and Sulphites.