For example, in cooking, a recipe will specify which ingredients are used to prepare a specific dish.
Certain familiar ingredients used as additives such as vinegar and lemon juice are willingly accepted by the consumer, while others with chemical names such as magnesium carbonate are less so.
A conversion of food ingredients into consumer food product is called food processing. While the manipulation of food ingredients in new ways by the use of technology is known as molecular gastronomy.
Many commercial products contain a secret ingredient that is purported to make them better than competing products. In the food industry, an active ingredient is that part of a formulation that yields the effect required by the customer.
For example emulsifiers. Emulsifiers have traditionally been described as ingredients that assist in formation and stabilization of emulsions. Foams and dispersion may be stabilized by emulsifiers.
Today’s consumers require much more information about their health and what they eat since they want to select their food in accordance with a wide number of criteria and to understand the reason which such and such an ingredient has been added or a particular process used.
Definitions of food ingredients
