Over the past few weeks I have been paying more attention to the ingredients lists on the food items that make up my weekly shop. We are all aware of the E number additives used to enhance the colour, flavour or to preserve food but I have been amazed by just how prevalent these additives are.

Last week I bought a bottle of lemonade which was made from eight separate ingredients however three of them were the dreaded E numbers. The thing that concerns me most about the use of E numbers is that the manufacturers can simply list E331, E211 and E202 as ingredients and that’s it. They don’t have to tell us what these E numbers actually are, what they do, what they are made of or what else they are used for. If the consumer wants to know they have to find out for themselves.

After a little research using a trusty and ultra reliable internet encyclopaedia I have discovered the E numbers in the lemonade I bought were in fact sodium citrate (E331) which acts as an antioxidant and acidity regulator, sodium benzoate (E211) which acts as a preservative and potassium sorbate (E202) which is used to inhibit molds.

Of course it is possible to make lemonade without using any of these chemicals but without the preservatives the shops would not be able to keep it on the shelf for so long. Indeed the lemonade I bought had a best before date seven months from now. With so much emphasis on going green and green lifestyles surely the food producers should be looking at producing green food too?

It turns out that E211 is also used in fireworks as a fuel in whistle mix which is a powder which imparts a whistling noise when compressed into a tube and ignited. With this knowledge I am now treating the bottle of lemonade with respect. I shall be opening the bottle later today so if you hear a loud bang followed by fire engine sirens you will know it was the E211 in my lemonade....