Different chemicals are added to food for various purposes such as preservation of food, enhancing its appearance, adding nutritive value in food, etc.
These chemicals as food additives are mainly categorised as follows:
1. Food colours
2. Food flavours and sweeteners.
3. Fat emulsifiers and food stabilising agents
4. Bleaches and antioxidants
5. Food preservatives
6. Food supplements as nutritional agents like proteins, vitamins, etc., in food.
All these food additives are made up of chemicals, and except for food supplements that have some nutritional value, others do not provide any nutrition to us. In this context, we will study artificial sweeteners in detail: