Tartrazine Research Paper

Tartrazine, saccharin, BHT, and sodium nitrate: typical ingredients you will find in foods in a stroll down any supermarket aisle. I have always pondered about the effects of such additives that are prevalent within food. One would think that the long-standing existence of such substances would validate their safety, yet, I remain doubtful due to the controversy and safety concerns of their usage. During my middle school years, while on a school-run food interest trip, I was enlightened to the significance of ingredients and nutrition in foods. One of the activities was to differentiate between freshly squeezed fruit juice and artificially flavored fruit drinks by scrutinizing the ingredients and nutritional labels as well as by taste testing. Upon inspection, there were several recurring additives, such as the coloring agent tartrazine. Later that day, a bolt of curiosity surged through me, and an impromptu Internet search on tartrazine irrevocably changed the way I looked at food. …show more content…
Web pages abounded with criticisms of the coloring agent, and testimonials pointed to the detrimental effects of consumption, ranging from allergic reactions to hyperactivity in children. Thus, I was compelled to probe further into the effects of other additives, not just coloring - fillers, preservatives, sweeteners, flavorings and so on, some of which were even claimed to be potentially carcinogenic. The more I read about the purported effects of these additives, the more concerned and dubious I became of processed foods. Before long, I had appealed to my parents to read the ingredient statements of processed foods to check for synthetic ingredients, later even going so far as to making a blacklist of ingredients to