Let’s break this down a little. The food itself is 100% chemical. Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals - all chemicals.

If you see allyl isothiocyanate in the ingredient list would you be concerned? That’s the “hot” flavour in horseradish, mustard and wasabi. Remove that and you have no taste at all. Alpha-tocopherol? That’s the strongest of several forms of tocopherol that you may know as "vitamin E" and found naturally in a variety of whole grains. Folic acid, niacin, nicotinamide, ascorbic acid, beta-carotine, - these are all essential vitamins. So far, these materials already exist in the food. Salt is frequently added (sometimes a bit too much), and sucrose, maltose, glucose, fructose are all sugars (we are worried about too much sugar).

We add colors of course because nobody would buy grey smarties or M&Ms, and we sometimes add preservatives such as potassium sorbate, citric acid, and vinegar. Sodium benzoate is a generally-recognized-as-safe preservative that prevents bacterial growth and also seems to be therapeutic for several conditions.

Nitrites (and nitrates which become reduced to nitrites) have been added for hundreds of years to meats to discourage bacterial growth and extend storage life in hams, bacon, salami, corned beef, etc. They can combine with amino acids from the protein to form nitrosamines which can increase the risk of cancer. But it is important to know that our daily intake of nitrites from green vegetables far outweighs the intake from preserved meats. And here’s the interesting finding: we do not see formation of nitrosamines from all this kale, celery, spinach, etc., because of the reducing effect of the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) that’s also present. So best advice it to take juices or fruits (vitamin C) when you eat ham, bacon, etc.

We can go through the ingredient list for hours: texturizing agents for salad dressing, anti-mold agents in bread, thickeners, gums, emulsifiers.

The permitted additives do change - and this is an indication that regulators do respond to research findings and adjust the permitted materials list accordingly. For instance, the bright colors that were due to the “coal tar dyes” up to the 1970s have all been removed and replaced with safe colors.