Nutrition is one of the most important factors determining the health of a nation. Healthy nutrition ensures normal growth and development of children, helps to prolong life, increase performance efficiency, prevent diseases, create conditions for adequate adaptation of an individual to the environment.
At the same time, in recent decades, tremendous demographic and social changes have taken place on the globe; the proportion of sick and elderly people has increased; and living and working conditions have changed. A stratification of society has occurred; the pace of everyday life and the intensity of labour has sharply increased. The ecological situation in the world and in Russia has worsened, and zones unfavourable in terms of radiation have appeared.
The environment is becoming a major source of pollution for raw materials and food products. All this contributes to the development of technological process in the food and processing industries, to a radical improvement in the technology of manufacturing food products that meet the current requirements and reality. These are low calorie functional products with a balanced composition, reduced sugar and fat content, as well as instant and shelf-stable products. Manufacture of food products that meet these requirements is impossible without food additives (A.V. Oreschenko et al.).
The history of use of food additives goes back several millennia. First additives were salt, acetic acid, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey, i.e., additives that improve the taste of a product. However, only in the twentieth century, especially in its second half, they came into sharp focus and took a stable position in the food industry as the most important food ingredients.