Stefan Gates on E Numbers

by Stefan Gates

E621, E160a carotene, E160d lycopene, E101 riboflavin, E300 ascorbic acid, E330 citric acid, and E296 malic acid are all the ingredients of an everyday, ordinary tomato. E249 is used to preserve bacon, another option is crystallized human urine - which would you rather have? "Stefan Gates on E" is a mischievous and myth-busting celebration of 'E's', the additives and preservatives that make up Britain's most feared ingredients. Most of the food we eat has them yet we are hugely suspicious of them and believe that they cause everything from twitchy eyelids to colon cancer. In this book, Stefan discusses just how bad our food would taste, how wrong it would look and how potentially lethal it would be if we didn't have E numbers. He lists and analyses all 318 E's approved for use in food and also talks about naturally occurring E's, how E's can save your life, labelling issues (how to understand them), how much you can safely eat and what, if anything, is wrong with cheap food. He also investigates the scare stories, allergies and potential downsides of the multi-billion pound food industry. If you don't like E's you don't have to eat them but you can make that choice based on facts not fear. It is true to say that without E-numbers we would not have supermarkets. Without this book, you cannot make an informed decision about what you are buying and eating.

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Ian Bebbington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very similar to the TV program with the balance of the book providing the same info as wiki.

[Jody Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Written in a pleasant, chatty style. Majority of the book is just enumber references.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Lots of misconceptions are corrected in this book. The BBC TV series that went with it was great too.