What types of additives are used in meat and poultry products?
Fresh meats and poultry contain no additives, unless noted on the label. All additives used in preparing (e.g marinating, seasoning, etc.) or processing foods must appear on the product’s ingredient list. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a “food additive” as any substance used to provide a technical effect in foods. All food additives used in meat and poultry products are rigorously evaluated and monitored for safety by both the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the FDA. Many additives are considered to be “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS, and are considered to have a long, safe history of use in foods or have been proven safe by scientific studies. Spices, salt and sugar are examples of GRAS ingredients. Many additives come from plant sources such as pineapple plants (bromelin), fig trees (ficin), seaweed (carrageenan), and papaya trees (papain). Food additives serve many important purposes in food such as improving
