Many people enjoy making bread, cakes, wine, beer, and ice cream at home. However, most of todays food is bought from shops and supermarkets. Food made at home is always at its best when eaten straight away. Food produced on the large scale that is needed to supply supermarkets and other food shops has to be transported and stored before it is consumed. It has to stay in top condition over a much longer period of time than home-cooked food.

Food Additives are used so that these foods still have a consistently high quality. In some products, they are so essential that additives are used even in certain organic foods.

 In some countries, lots of food is lost because it goes off due to microbial growth before it can be eaten. Food poisoning also shows the dangers of contaminated food and without the use of preservatives, it would quite likely be more common.

Foodchem Preservatives, colours and flavours are the best known additives but in fact there are many categories of additives, each tailored to a specific purpose.