What are the common food additives, and what do they do? Preservatives: Extend the shelf life of food. Commonly used are: benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, sorbic acid, potassium sorbate, etc. Mostly used in carbonated beverages, jams, preserves, pickles, soy sauce, vinegar, juice drinks and other foods. Coloring agent: replenish the pigment lost in the process of production and storage to ensure the uniform color of finished products. Commonly used are: amaranth red, carmine, lemon yellow, sunset yellow, caramel pigment and other synthetic pigments. Mainly used in carbonated beverages, juice drinks, pastries on the color, candy, hawthorn products, pickled vegetables, ice cream, jelly, chocolate, cream, instant coffee and other types of food. Sweetener: It is an additive that gives food a sweet taste. Commonly used are: saccharin, sodium cyclohexylaminosulfonate (sweetener), maltitol, sorbitol, xylitol, etc. There are many foods that use sweeteners, like: beverages, sauces, pastries, cookies, bread, ice cream, preserves, candies, seasonings, canned meats, and almost all common foods in daily life are sweetened with different kinds of sweeteners. Flavorings: There are several types of flavoring oils, flavorings, and powdered spice infusions generally found in candy and chocolate. Each type has countless varieties, such as in candy and chocolate, according to the fragrance can be divided into fruit, nut, frankincense, floral, wine and other different varieties. Acidity regulator: with the function of improving the quality of food, commonly used: citric acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, malic acid. Commonly used in various types of food, for example: a significant portion of candy and chocolate products, especially fruit-based products. Other additives in food Antioxidants, bleaching agents, flour treatment agents, mineral salts, emulsifiers, biochemical enzymes, etc. And recently the famous “plasticizer” is a toxic chemical industry with plastic softeners, not only can not be added to the food, and even not allowed to use in the food packaging.