A diet based on packaged products involves the consumption of small and repeated doses of food additives. At the end of the year, an average French adult ingests up to 10 kg. The calculation is worked out by French researchers in a study published in Scientific Reports. (1)
Food additive consumption, the study
Researchers first estimated the exposure to food additive mixtures of about 100 thousand French citizens by analyzing their food consumption for a total of 3,500 food and beverage categories.
Participants were recruited through NutriNet-Santé, a web-based cohort study established in 2009 and coordinated by EREN(Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle) – the team also author of the NutriScore – to investigate the relationships between nutrition and health through direct web-based engagement with the population.
Hunting 50 additives
The additives examined are the 50 most widely used by the food industry. Among these, as we shall see, some are considered problematic by the scientific community.
The quantity of additives declared in the food label was determined with 2,677 of laboratory analysis, supplemented by EFSA data (European Authority Food Safety) and GSFA (General Standard for Food Additives), the online database On food additives, which collects all the relevant provisions adopted by the Commission of the Codex Alimentarius.
The daily dose
The average daily intake of food additives was calculated by cross-referencing the participants’ self-reported food consumption (with product brand detail) with the detected (or estimated) amounts of additives in each food.
The results ‘sendshivers down the spine,’ comments the French consumer magazine Que Choisir.
The average consumption of food additives results in 155.5 mg per day per kg of body weight. An adult weighing 72.4 kg (average weight in France) thus ingests 11.3 g of additives per day, or 4 kg per year.
It is worse for the 5% of the most exposed French (the largest consumers of ultra-processed foods), who ingest an average of 25 g per day, or nearly 10 kg per year.
The dangerous food additives
For several widely consumed food additives, ‘potential adverse health effects have been suggested by recent in-vivo/in-vitro and, rarely, epidemiological studies,’ the researchers highlight. Studies that with much delay are taken up by EFSA, as it turned out in the case of titanium dioxide.
In the list of hazardous molecules (summarized in the table) return substances we have already reported on: emulsifiers, sweeteners, dyes, preservatives etc. As well as nitrites and nitrates, for which the founders of the Yuka app are under attack from French charcuterie makers, as we have seen.
The cocktail effect of food additives
Consumption of food additive mixtures is assured. In addition to the summation effect from consuming different foods containing additives, the co-presence of different molecules in the same product is almost always the rule. On the French market, 50 percent of foods contain at least one additive and 11.3 percent contain more than five.
The researchers identified 5 different mixtures of additives (see table) to which you are exposed depending on your food preferences. Regular consumers of packaged cakes and cookies, for example, are particularly exposed to stabilizers and emulsifiers.
The cocktail effect on health is not evaluated in EFSA’s toxicity studies; there are no thresholds for exposure to mixtures. However, as with pesticides, several studies have begun to suggest potential interactions and synergies.
The best known case involves the Southampton study, in which mixtures of dyes with sodium benzoate were associated with increased hyperactivity in children. But there are others. For example, the French researchers recall the observation of neurotoxic effects between combinations of bright blue with L-glutamic acid and yellow quinoline with aspartame in vitro and increased oxidative stress in rats exposed to a mixture of food dyes.
How to avoid dangerous additives
Avoiding additives altogether while eating packaged foods is difficult, as in many cases these molecules have a necessary function to ensure the expected flavor and texture, as well as to ensure the safety of the food and its preservation.
Discarding problematic ones, on the other hand, is easier. Just read labels and use tools such as the Yuka app, which highlights the presence of problematic additives at a glance.
The safest way is to minimize the consumption of ultra-processed foods. A focus that also reduces excessive consumption of salt, sugar and fat.
Marta Strinati
Notes
(1) Chazelas, E., Druesne-Pecollo, N., Esseddik, Y. et al. Exposure to food additive mixtures in 106,000 French adults from the NutriNet-Santé cohort. Sci Rep 11, 19680 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98496-6
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
