We live in a time in which food is not only inexpensive to purchase but also readily available, which in consideration that each of our bodies needs food and water to sustain itself as well as to maintain good health, having the ready availability of food at our beck and call is incredibly important and of immense value. Further to the point, there use to be a time in which the majority of a given community's exertions was spent in either the harvesting of or of the hunting of food; whereas nowadays, the vast majority of Americans, simply go to their local grocery store to get whatever food that they have need of, or to any of the vast variety of restaurants thereby serving food. Of course, different families have different budgets for food which is often dependent upon their income and wealth, of which, those that are on reduced budgets are subject to reduced choices; in which, they are far more frequently, going to have to avail themselves in the selection of some percentage of processed foods to eat, which typically means foods that have been changed, combined, or "enhanced" via chemical processes that thereby transforms that food into something different or new.
While there are all sorts of combinations of substances that can thereby add to the shelf life of food, without substantially changing the foundation of that food, such as in salt or brine; in modern times, the food industry has recognized the value brought to them via chemical engineering and thereby have deliberately made chemical add-ons to foods in order to better control the process of the creation of that food item, such as in common food items as in cereals, chips, and cookies. Not too surprisingly, since packaging makes up a significant expense of processed products so being sold, those selling such products, are always going to be interested in those chemical compositions that will allow their products to have a greater shelf life of which ii is mainly through those chemicals that thereby keeps processed foods, stable for longer periods of time, while still maintaining their look and taste. Additionally, the food business, is most definitely a competitive business, so that those that are the manufacturers and developers of processed food are always looking at ways to save money, via such things as a longer shelf life, or via cheaper product constitutions in which products thereby have both chemicals and minerals added or subtracted, depending upon numerous factors, or the substitution of one food item with another food item or a chemical composition that serves the same sort of purpose, as well as through the adulteration, deliberate or not, or through the dilution of a food in order to lower the unit cost of such, and so on and so forth.
So then, the upshot of the substitution of food items, or chemical additions made to processed foods, is that typically a lot of this is done for the salient reason of reducing the costs of providing that product to the consumer, so as to remain competitive, or simply to make more profit, typically at some expense to the safety, quality, and healthiness of the product. That is to say, the processed food business is often really about trying to maximize profit, in a way in which such is done so that product through its chemical processing will still look good, and will still taste good, but because of those added chemicals and often the lesser food items added to that processed food, is probably not good for the overall health of the consumer.