additive Any compound not commonly regarded or used as a food which is added to foods as an aid in manufacturing or processing, or to improve the keeping properties, flavour, colour, texture, appearance, or stability of the food, or as a convenience to the consumer. The term excludes vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients added to enrich or restore nutritional value. Herbs, spices, hops, salt, yeast, or protein hydrolysates, air, and water are usually excluded from this definition. Additives may be extracted from natural sources, synthesized in the laboratory to be chemically the same as the natural materials (and hence known as nature‐identical), or may be synthetic compounds that do not occur in nature.

In most countries only additives from a permitted list of compounds which have been extensively tested for safety may legally be added to foods. The additives used must be declared on food labels, using either their chemical names or their numbers in the EU list of permitted additives (E‐numbers).

See also Acceptable Daily Intake.

additive. A method of agglutinative or serial design involving asymmetrical plans and elevations, where the interior spaces and volumes are suggested by, and even dictate, the exterior treatment of projections, roofs, and other features. Derived from the theories of A. W. N. Pugin, additive design can also include accumulation (suggesting a sequence of building additions of different styles and periods). See articulation; concatenation.

ad·di·tive / ˈaditiv/ • n. a substance added to something in small quantities, typically to improve or preserve it: chemical additives.• adj. characterized by, relating to, or produced by addition: the combination of these factors has an additive effect.