ADDITIVE


Meaning of ADDITIVE in English

transcription, транскрипция: [ ˈædɪtɪv ]

noun (Environment) (Lifestyle and Leisure) A substance which is added to something during manufacture, especially a chemical added to food or drink to improve its colour, flavour, preservability, etc. (known more fully as a food additive). Etymology: Additive has meant 'something that is added' since the middle of this century; recently it has acquired this more specialized use, which partly arose from the desire to abbreviate food additive once the term was being used frequently. History and Usage: Public interest in what was being put into foods by manufacturers grew rapidly during the eighties because of the green movement, with its associated diet-consciousness and demand for 'natural' products, and also because of growing evidence of the harmful effects of certain additives (including their implication in hyperactivity and other behavioural problems in children). This interest was crystallized in the mid eighties by new EC regulations on naming and listing additives and the publication of a number of reference books giving details of all the permitted food additives as well as some of the possible effects on health of ingesting them. Possibly the most famous of these was Maurice Hanssen's E for Additives (1984); certainly after the publication of this book, additive could be used on its own (not preceded by food) without fear of misunderstanding. In response to the public backlash against the use of chemical additives, manufacturers began to make a publicity point out of foods which contained none; the phrase free from artificial additives (bearing witness to the fact that food additives from natural sources continued to be used) and the adjective additive-free began to appear frequently on food labels from the second half of the eighties. Last week Peter turned up at Broadcasting House with the first ever commercially produced non-sweetened, additive-free yoghurt. Listener 10 May 1984, p. 15 Every human and inhuman emotion magnified itself in New York; thoughts...more quickly became action within and beyond the law; some said the cause lay in the food, the additives, some said in the polluted air. Janet Frame Carpathians (1988), p. 103 See also Alar, E number, -free

English colloquial dictionary, new words.      Английский разговорный словарь - новые слова.