Proceeding from its approach to benefit from the faculty members’ expertise and its eagerness to transfer knowledge from specialists in different fields, the College of Public Health and Health Informatics held a lecture under the title “Food Additives & Their Impact on Human Health” on Monday, Safar 21, 1438H; corresponding to November 21, 2016.

The lecture was facilitated by Dr. Al-Fadl Ebeid Muhammad Ali, Teaching Assistant in the Department of Environmental Health at the College of Public Health and Health Informatics at UQU, and was attended by the Dean of the college, Dr. Waheeb bin Dakheelullah Al-Harbi, departments’ supervisors and a number of faculty members.

In his presentation, Dr. Al-Fadl addressed the nature, usage and purpose of food additives, and explained that their purposes include: maintaining the food from spoilage, extending the life of the product on the shelves, improving the look, flavor and taste of the product, preventing the shape of the product from changing, and maintaining the liquidity or solidity  of the product.

In addition, he mentioned a number of dangerous food additives that play a serious role in causing many kinds of cancers that infect the human and some experimental animals, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, as well as some neurological symptoms such as hallucinations. Further, he explained that among these dangerous food additives are the following: sodium nitrate/nitrite, monosodium glutamate that are existed in some types of chicken broth, olestra, BHT/BHA, potassium bromate that is added to bread, aspartame/aspartate that is used as a substitute for sugar for sweetening food, food coloring such as Blue 1, Red 1 and Red 2, sucrose (table sugar), and sodium chloride (food salt).

Concluding, the attendees discussed many issues concerning this topic, such as: how could the average person distinguish between what is good and what is bad when choosing his food, and the role of the official supervisory and social authorities in raising the awareness of the people. Moreover, some of the attendees asked about the availability of information about food additives in the well-known brand names that maintain the confidentiality of their components and specifications, and the role of food and medicine authorities in each country in following up, supervising and publishing information, and taking the required measure to protect people’s health, especially with regard to the local food and beverage that are made outside authorized factories. Besides, some pointed out to the difference between adding additives to raise the value of the food, and adding favors to it.
As the lecture drew to an end, the attendees stressed on the importance of the availability of information about food additives in the Arab states, the necessity of raising the awareness of the officials and the people on the importance and danger of food additives on human health, and the role of the colleges of public health in raising the society’s awareness on this cause.