A preservative is a substance added to food to prevent decomposition. The reason preservatives are used is to prevent microbial growth such as fungi and bacteria. Preservatives can be natural such as salt, vinegar, and
sugar. They can also be
synthetic such as
chemicals (potassium
bromate, BHT & BHA,
sodium benzoate).
What are preservatives?
Preservatives can cause harsh effects on the human body. For example potassium bromate, which is often used in bread, can turn into benzene, which is a carcinogen. This means it encourages growth of cancer and it also causes DNA damage. Sodium nitrate has also been shown to cause cancer in adults as well as brain tumors. Potassium Bromate as well as other harmful preservatives are banned from Europe but are still available in the United States. It is important to note that not all preservatives contain harmful effects. For example Sodium Benzoate, often used in fruit juice and carbonated drinks, does is not known to cause harmful effects. Preservatives are important for keeping food safe for consumption but more regulations need to be made on the type of preservatives allowed in food.
All about preservatives
What makes preservatives Bad?
The experiment
Mcdonalds fries
Mcdonalds chicken nuggets
beef lo mein
Pizza/cheese ravioli
To roughly measure the amounts of preservatives in food from France and from the U.S. we conducted an experiment. We predicted that if the food has less preservatives, then mold would grow faster. Mold grew more and much faster on the French food, so we have concluded that it most likely contains less preservatives.