Best Lists of Food Additives and Preservatives

The following list of great links to food additive lists is becoming one of my new favorite resources. I recently found myself looking up food additives and preservatives as I was doing some online shopping for bulk. It’s always a challenge to navigate the labyrinth of what goes in our food, and ensure that what goes in our bodies is chemical free!

For safety, we make nearly all our foods from scratch, but frugality and stressful days mean that a few of our grocery buys do come in cans or boxes. I’ve found that a little bit of extra time scanning those ingredient lists does yield positive results!

For example, products like mustard, dressings, and mayonnaise all contain relatively high acid content through simple, age-old ingredients like vinegar or lemon juice. This means the pH is lower, so it’s possible to manufacture them “preservative free”, especially when they are packed vacuum sealed. Yet, wouldn’t you know it, scanning ingredient lists I tend to find only one or two examples that choose the chemical free route! So I do take the time, make the most natural choice, and remember my choice next time I’m out.

Best Online Links for Food Preservatives to Avoid

As you scan ingredient labels you tend to find some of the same stuff over and over — those of us who do this already have probably found this to be true. For the most part, you can just choose another brand and leave out anything that sounds like something vague and fuzzy from Freshman Chemistry.

But sometimes there’s no chemical-free ingredient choice!

Leading me to wonder, which food preservatives are the real baddies?

There are several lists of additives online that are formatted in tables to make lookup quick and easy. It’s been a long time coming, but I plan to try to get more familiar with these lists, especially for more common ingredients.

Be sure to cross check these additive lists, as not all sources agree as to which preservatives are dangerous or safe.

I’ve placed these links in order by how conservative their assessments are. Lists that indicate more caution are first, lists that label more chemicals as “safe” are at the bottom.

• CureZone.com Food Additives - E-Numbers. Easy to follow and comprehensive. Compiled from information “from the Ministries of Health of the United States, France, UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia & Italy.”
• CNN.com - Common Food Additives. This is from an older part of their site (copyright 2001) with no references. Includes side effects and common sources.
• TraditionalOven.com - Dangerous Food Additives to Avoid. No references but a well laid out table indicating whether each substance has links to hyperactivity (ADD), asthma (allergies) and cancer.
• Lactose.co.uk Food Preservatives. A list directed at allergy sufferers and those with digestive difficulties. Straightforward comments, no references.
• CSPINet.org Food Safety - Food Additives. Most comprehensive list. Includes some interesting historical info. and a straightforward coding system.

Choosing Chemical-Free Foods for Better Health

The best way to avoid chemicals is to “shop the perimeter” as many of us know, with the exception of the deli and the bakery. Sticking with the dairy, meat and veggies sections avoids most processed foods and hence most chemical additives. Whole foods also tend to have more nutrients than those that have been processed to increase shelf life.

But even these sections are not always worry-free, especially when it comes to meats. And there are always exceptions when we need to buy things packaged to save money or time — it’s just a matter of being conscientious when we do so!

In our house, ever since the money-tree dried up in the backyard (hee! hee!) we’ve learned to be frugal and we follow a budget very seriously. That means we buy certain items canned and packaged: tomatoes, pasta, occasionally pasta sauce, canned fish, and a couple of packages of thai soup for those emergency nights when we’re all wiped and the eating out budget is cached! Then there’s always the staples as I mentioned: mayonnaise, mustard, capers, thai fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegars, oils. While some of these items are “one ingredient deals” many of them do require a look see at the ingredient list!

Rather than bore you with any further details of our shopping habits, I’ll save that for another post. If you’re all about gettin’ out the nasties these days, this list makes a nice parallel to my earlier list on cosmetic ingredients to avoid.

Would that I could always buy organic, or make all of my mayonnaise from scratch, but in our house frugality is a component, as well as time! The delicacies of homemade mayonnaise tend to be reserved for hubbie’s extra special batches of cole slaw, or a special lunch treat of roast veggies, arugula and the real stuff on homemade bread. What special days! For the rest of the week, it’s all about compromise and doing the best we can.

We try to use the same approach when setting meal plans and shopping — awareness, balance and compromise. Hopefully these lists will help build your awareness of the difference between some of the additives we find out there, and how to avoid the ones we need to without losing too much sleep!

Good luck to you and good health!

Mama Hope

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