Title: food additive
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - food additive
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15717
Status: current

Definition
Any substance, not normally consumed as a food by itself and not normally used as a typical ingredient of a given food, whether or not it has nutritive value, that is added intentionally to food for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport, or holding of the food. Addition results, or may be reasonably expected to result (directly or indirectly), in the substance or its byproducts becoming a component of, or otherwise affecting, the characteristics of the food to which it is added.

Note
The term does not include "contaminants" or substances added to food for maintaining or improving nutritional qualities.

Source
- PAC, 2007, 79, 1153. 'Glossary of terms used in toxicology, 2nd edition (IUPAC Recommendations 2007)' on page 1225 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac200779071153)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15717/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15717/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15717/xml

Citation: Citation: 'food additive' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.15717
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Accessed: 2026-05-28T07:21:26+00:00