Why are people putting chemicals in our food?

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Why are people putting chemicals in our food?

"‘We know that there’s about 12,000 materials responsible for the flavour and aroma of food... if we analyze a raspberry, for example, we’ll find that there are 250 components responsible for the flavor of that raspberry. You can't make a raspberry flavor commercially with 250 components and try and match it. So what you have to do is, is look at how you combine those materials to make a raspberry flavor say from 12 components, and then use those materials to make that, that flavor that'll work technically in the end application. So the raspberry flavor we’ll  make for ice cream will be different to what we might make for a yogurt, which might be different than what we might make that might go into a cake or a biscuit... at different fat levels, for example, and the fact that if you're going to eat ice cream that's very cold, your flavor perception is different. So you might need to emphasize different aspects of that flavor.’...

‘Phytochemicals are small… secondary metabolytes. So plants produce those chemicals to defend themselves from pests and diseases. So they're a defense mechanism to most plants. So they serve really almost the same purpose to humans who eat it, they are good antioxidants’...

‘They're also involved in some pretty wacky projects like recreating the smell of space’…

‘Many years ago, I got approached by the curator of an art gallery in the north of England and he wanted to do a project called impossible smells. So to begin with, he had ideas like what would it smell like inside a coffin? After someone was buried and things like that. So after we left behind some other crazy ideas like that we concentrated on things like what would it smell like inside the Mir space station when it was allowed to crash back to earth and burn up. And because of that, I got approached them by other people and one of them was a project to help train astronauts for NASA. And when the astronauts are walking outside the the space capsule and what have you, when they get back inside they and they repressurize they experience a particular sensation of smell... we had interviews with three or four astronauts that had walked outside. They were very consistent actually in their descriptions, and they were typically along the lines of hot metal and fried steak... You almost get the idea that this is your barbecue, right? So so that's the kind of thing that we created’...

'A bag of salad. The ingredients that as you might expect, mix leaves, spinach, lamb’s lettuce, red chard and beetroot leaves. Sounds pretty unprocessed, but my research suggests there might be other ingredients in this salad that aren't on the label. For instance, to ensure it's safe, salad can be washed in a chlorine solution. There may also be processing aids that stop the leaves from turning yellow or wilting. The bag might be pumped with gases, which keep the food from rotting. But as I look at this label, I would be none the wiser to any of these possible processes.'...
‘In the US do people really care about whether something's natural or synthetic?’

‘Absolutely. There is a great amount of interest and I would say an unprecedented interest in food. I usually say never before has food and what's in food been blamed for what ails humanity today, and never before has it been more important to understand what's in food and what should be in food. Not only to understand the problem, but also as a solution and to make a tangible difference. So, today, Americans tend to be more accepting than the rest of the world. Maybe because it is their culture to adopt things quickly. They've, you know, the entire country is made up of people that came from somewhere else and adopted and adapted to different things.

The reason why I believe synthetic products are not as demonized in the United States, as they are in the rest of the world may come from the lack of education and knowledge and a state of ignorance. And let me explain that. There's a fear of packaged foods in the rest of the world. And there's a fear that what is being consumed might harm you. But these are the same foods that supported us, our troops during wars and the disadvantaged when disasters strike. When you go to a relief camp, we are giving them packaged foods. But people now have this fear of sugar and salt and chemical substances, which actually can make food better for you, accessible. They fear preservatives, synthetics that can make food safer, and they fear flavors and colours that add so much more to the enjoyment of food. But there's another concept and that is dose makes the poison. So there's a concept of moderation’...

‘Synthetic vanilla, I think a lot of it's used with the petrochemical precursor and so you say you know blame is placed on these, the idea that there's something dangerous in our food, but those don't sound like things we should be eating’

‘Right, but petroleum for that matter, what could be more natural than petroleum?’...

‘The two main versions of vanillin that are made at the moment, one comes from the wood pulp industry. So that is not considered a natural source. And one of the most common areas in this product is allowed in the USA as well is converting eugenol, so chemistry. If you look at the chemistry, the eugenol molecule that comes from clove oil is very close to being the same molecule as vanillin. So it's quite a simple piece of chemistry. In Europe, we don't allow that to be called natural.’...

‘As someone who teaches food safety regulations and works very closely with the regulatory clearance of ingredients, I can tell you this much. In the United States, the FDA will not allow an ingredient unless it has been tested and shown to be safe. There's another aspect of it and that is the testing part of it. Although today people want things that are natural in their food products, it must be pointed out that using a synthetic molecule that has been highly tested is safer than this molecule that is come from something natural has not been tested and that may come with some other molecules, which may not be as safe for continued use’"