Prepared by Assistant Professor Dr. Hussain Jassim Al-Hadithi

Department of Food Sciences / College of Agriculture / University of Anbar

      Preservatives are a subject of constant debate between the academic and research community, the legislative, supervisory and executive bodies, and the food industry. The importance of this topic lies in the large and diverse numbers of these substances and the growing doubts about their relationship to diseases, especially cancer and allergies, and the inability of the regulatory authorities to follow up on their uses and rates of presence in the huge amount of food products.

Preservatives are substances that are added to food in order to keep it from spoiling for long periods of time. These substances prevent or delay chemical changes, such as in the interaction of oxygen with oils or fats, as well as fat-soluble vitamins that lead to rancidity. Rancidity spoils food and makes it harmful to human health. Preservatives, like other food additives, are symbolized by the symbol (E), followed by the numbers 200 to 299.

These materials cause a large number of health and general harms, which can be summarized as follows:

- Some types of preservatives are characterized by their ability to accumulate in certain tissues, causing the emergence of multiple disease states.

 Some of them are responsible for some types of allergies-

- Underestimating the quality of the quality (the quality of eating, drinking, or otherwise)

- Reducing the desired health benefits from eating some foods, sometimes up to 40%, especially in fruits and vegetables.

- It is possible that when a person eats a lot of them, he is more likely to be obese than the one who consumes fresh materials.

 Prevents the body's immunity from the bacteria that cause rashes-

- It prevents the body from resisting the damage caused by infection with some pathogenic factors such as viruses and most microorganisms.

- The flavor of preservatives is less than fresh food by 20% as a minimum, and it may increase as the percentage of preservatives in manufactured cans increases.

- Reducing calories by 40-80% and these calories may fade as the expiration date of preservatives approaches.

The damage caused by preservatives to public health has received a huge number of studies, for example, in an official study of seven types of preservatives, it was found that children’s intelligence is severely affected by those substances that have the letter “E” in front of the number that symbolizes them, which made them known as substances: After presenting the results of that study, Food Control Agency officials recommended removing six of the preservatives in the study by the end of the year the study ended.

Civic groups concerned with public health criticized the Food Agency for its failure to ban these preservatives after the release of the results of the study, which was funded by the agency with 750,000 dollars. Rather than taking immediate action, the agency said it would negotiate with manufacturers about the most effective way to remove these substances, but it is waiting. That Professor Jim Stevenson, who led the research team, sent a letter to the United States Food Control Agency asking it to “take immediate action.”

A recent study showed that preservatives found in products such as soap, toothpaste and mouthwash may be linked to an increased risk of allergies in children.

The researchers used data from surveys of 860 children aged 6 to 18 years to investigate the link between levels of urine and preservatives found in many personal care products and the presence of IgE antibodies in the children's blood.

Immune globulin antibodies are part of the immune system in the body, and their level in the blood increases in response to many causes, including allergies, so it increases at a noticeable level in people with allergies

The researchers said that they found a relationship between the level of exposure by measuring the amount of preservative in the urine and the possibility of allergy, referring to the presence of antibodies in the blood related to certain allergens, and it was found beyond any doubt that the children with the highest levels of the preservative propylparaben had the possibility of developing environmental allergies. Twice as high compared to children who had the lowest levels of the preservative, but levels of propylparaben were not associated with the risk of developing food allergies.

These legislative authorities have taken other precautions to protect the consumer from the harm of additives allowed for use in food, as the totals of foods to which the additive is allowed to be added, and the permissible concentrations of that substance have been determined, in addition to adopting a quality control method capable of monitoring the use of additives in food. In an efficient manner that ensures safety and security.

It should be noted that the situation is completely different in many developing countries, as the legislative authorities are unable to take adequate precautions to protect the consumer from the harm of preservatives added to some manufactured products