The use of additives in cooking and preserving food has become more popular in modern society. What are the positive and negative effects of this substance on human’s health and lives?

Scientific advances have made enormous contributions in many industries including food manufacture. One of these developments that has been applied to food is additives. However, the use of added substances are claimed to be both helpful and harmful to humans’ health and lives. Initially, food additives do people good as being considered a breakthrough since its invention. Additives might act as the food protector in that it can preserve vegetables, meat and other kinds of food from getting sour or stale. Therefore, to some extent, added substances help farmers, manufacturers and sellers who are using them, maintain food’s nutrition value, which is in line with financial value. On the other hand, additives’ advantages are said to align with its adverse consequences on the health and lives of consumers and users. First, additives are basically chemical substances, thus however financially-targeted or health-concerned their uses are, the accumulation of them still does a disservice to the community. According to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), nitrates or nitrites administered to animals in preserving meat are catalysts of cancer diseases. Furthermore, chemical substances are often labelled under the names which are too specialized for ordinary people to understand. For this reason, no matter how attentive to labelled ingredients the customers are, they still have the inclination to opt for undesirable products which will be both costly and unhealthy. In conclusion, the uses of added substances bring the users benefits. Meanwhile, additives in food cooking and preservation are raising controversies because of their overt disadvantages to humans’ health and lives.