I have severe food allergies, and must take great care to avoid the foods/ingredients that can trigger a severe allergic reaction. While I find this book to be of some use, it would help me more if it gave more indication what the various additives are derived from. I found one glaring error in the book, that could have been a disaster for me, if I didn't already know about it. The entry for citric acid said it is derived from citrus, or other fruit, but in this country, it is usually derived from corn. Since I have very severe reactions from ingesting corn, this error could have been very serious for me. There are many entries that don't give a clue as to what the additive is derived from. So it is of limited value to the food allergic. However, I give this book high marks for alerting people to the toxic nature of many of the additives that are put in our foods. Most people don't have a clue to what these toxins can do to their health. And this book tells what might harm them. I highly recommend this book to everyone! Even the food allergic can benefit from the advice about hazardous additives.

I have just added the Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives to my library. I am saddened by the quick jump of some reviewers to post incorrect negative reviews on the book, such as the one commenting on the book entry of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the other on aspartame. For instance, the reviewer writes, "according to Ruth Winter in her book [Aspartame] was considered a safe additive." This is absolutely NOT correct. Ms. Ruth does not PERSONALLY endorse, recommend, or reject any food additive she lists in her book, including aspartame. Simply, she presents the facts, findings (hers, the FDA's, or a reseach group's), and any controversies surrounding each additive, and leaves it to the reader to judge for him/herself the safety of accepting the additive in their diet, avoiding it all-together, or doing further research on it. This is the approach I am taking to the book, and thus find it an eye-opener when it comes to the characteristics of food additives I never knew about. My approach is, as soon as there is a health concern listed for an additive, confirmed or not by the FDA or else, I avoid it all-together. After all, MSG and aspartame are not necessary for my survival as mother nature intended, and the author does not fail to list the controversies surrounding these two and many others when applicable! In addition, the book is not intended to be an "extensive" study on each food additive as the reviewers wish it to be (one of them writing a 50-page thesis and the other a chiropractic student); rather it is merely a handbook/dictionary/quick-reference. Thus, it is serving its purpose well as it is presentd by Ms. Winter.

I am glad that I was smart and decided to not be deterred by those negative reviews which I read before purchasing the book. Rather I decided to take a look at it myself first-hand, and hope future interested buyers do the same. I wish that reviewers will not jump to unfounded negative comments, because it is only taking an opportunity away from one consumer at a time to benefit from such an informative book if the latter weighs heavily on their reviews in his/her decision against acquiring the book.

I bought this book to use as a reference when feeding my four year old son, who has many food allergies. It has come in very handy and I've even learned that a few foods that I thought were safe actually are not. I've also used it to look up some of those ingredients that are in my food that I can't pronounce (and what I find is sometimes scary!). Aside from the definitions, it has quite a bit of information on food storage and other food-related info. This is a great book to have on hand, especially if you or someone you're feeding has food allergies.