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Preservatives of three categories: Natural, artificial and microbial
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Saturday, 01 June, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Fazli Azwan Manaff Md. Fajar, Faridah Haji Hassan
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Did you know that some of the ancient preservation methods were devised long before bacteria was found by the father of microbiology – Anthony Leeuwenhoek in the late 1670s? (Stewart, 2014). It is an interesting fact since one of the reasons why food is being subjected to preservatives nowadays is to kill bacteria! This is a very extraordinary scene where the solution was found long ago, before they found the bacteria.
Nowadays, the preservation process has been evolved from time to time to meet market demand and awareness of healthy lifestyles had been increased, which lead to more research and development (R&D) on this area. For example, a study made by Penn State University recently found that natural antioxidant found in the grain plant such as wheat, rye and barley could act as a food preservative, which could be momentous to meet the demand for clean ingredients (Askew, 2019).
Functional name for a wide variety
So, what are food preservatives? The term “preservatives” refers to the functional name for a wide variety of compounds that help slow or prevent bacterial growth in a wide range of products, including foods, medicines, and personal care products (ChemicalSafetyFacts.org).
In Halal view, food preservatives are defined as any substance that, when added to food are capable of inhibiting, retarding or arresting the process of decomposition, fermentation or acidification of such food, but shall not include herb, spice, vinegar or wood smoke (JAKIM, 2006).
Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) is the competent authority that being responsible for Halal certification in Malaysia. How important are preservatives for food industry? Robert Brackett, PhD, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Health says that removing the preservatives compromises food safety, and there is no good scientific reason to avoid them (Zelman, 2017).
Three categories
Basically, food preservatives can be categorised into three categories as Natural, Artificial, and Microbial Preservatives. A substance is a natural preservative when its chemical composition is not altered and it is not mixed with any synthetic items either. Naturally occurring preservatives include oil, sugar and salt. Some of the natural preservative methods still in use today are boiling, sugaring and salting.
Sugaring is the process by which a concentrated solution of sugar extracts water from bacterial cells, thereby dehydrating them. Bacteria cannot survive without water. Salting or brining has been used to preserve foods since around 2000 B.C.
Pickles can last for years because of a potent combination of salt and oil – that acts like a natural preservative for the vegetable chunks. Second, is artificial preservatives and also known as chemical preservatives. This type of preservative is the chemical substance, which also is used to delay spoilage and contamination in foods, but these are artificially produced or synthetically in nature. The microbial preservative is processed to inhibit the oxidation of food constituents by inhibiting the growth of bacteria and fungi, or antioxidants such as oxygen absorbers (Manavalan et al., 2011).
Chemicals, preserved foods
It is an obligation on every Muslim to look for Halal at all aspects of everyday life. All preservative techniques and additives used during the preservation process is Halal for Muslims except those produced from an animal, which is prohibited by Islamic law. Lawful and illegal laws, according to Islamic law that is anything that can be harmful is prohibited. This is inclusive of foods that contain chemicals, preserved foods and contain high levels of dyes. Whenever there is doubt about the Halal status of a food, then it is obligatory to avoid or Muslims call it “Shubhah”.
Chemical transformations
However, the Islamic law, in spite of its meticulous and rigorous nature, is still a simple and lenient code of practice. It is, therefore, useful to point out two things right at the outset. First, is “Istihalah”. It is when some of the raw ingredients used in manufacturing food and drink go through definite chemical transformations that radically change its nature, from their original condition to another condition and that does not return it to the original nature of the substance, in the sense that it becomes a new and different matter. Such a transformation would remove it from the list of forbidden items. Secondly, during emergency situations, in the view of a very urgent situation that forces someone to do things that are forbidden to save religion, life, intellect, ancestry and wealth. In this kind of situation, with no certain knowledge about the origin of such an item, it is not necessary to investigate and it is permissible to eat that doubtful item (Baharuddin et al., 2018).
The food industry has continually created new chemicals to manipulate, preserve, and transform our food. Food preservatives allow food to be transported from overseas, country to another country. Preservation technique has been improved also by adding the modern packaging techniques, such as vacuum and hypobaric.
Though preservatives have been used for many years, and generally enhance the freshness, nutritional value and appearance of many foods, one should still be conscious of its harmful effects. Now there are even “foods” that are made entirely from chemicals such as coffee creamers, sugar substitutes and the flavour enhancer – MSG consist almost completely of artificial ingredients. Nevertheless, misconceptions on food preservation have made consumers become more focussed on avoiding food that goes through preservation process, which believe had used dangerous ingredients during the manufacturing, rather than being serious in taking a well-balanced diet.
Air, water, sugar and salt
Some people believe that ingredients used in preservation process are chemicals. In the context of food science, the word ‘chemicals’ is actually quite insignificant since air, water, sugar and salt are also chemicals. Food additives that are used during the preservation process also actually can be obtained from the nature, such as lecithin used as emulsifier are obtained from egg yolk (Lee, 2018).
Thus, how do you know what's good and what isn't? If you choose to avoid preservatives, one of the best ways is by eating organic foods. However, organic food can taste bland as it isn't enhanced by artificial additives. Typically preservatives and other additives improve taste. Literally, when you begin to realise the health risks associated with food, it makes good sense to start eating less of them. Changing your eating routines isn’t something you can easily do overnight. The first step is to sharpen your awareness about what you’re currently eating.
Meanwhile, we need to start educating ourselves to read food labels before buying foods. If you are allergic to certain foods, food additives or ingredients that been used in the preservation process, you should always read the labels to identify the foods and additives which you are allergic to and avoid them. Checking the label and looking for products that contain ingredients that you understand is very helpful when making your food selection.
(The authors are professors at Institute of Quality and Knowledge Advancement, Malaysia)
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