Food Additives to Avoid

Food / December 16, 2022
Food Additives to Avoid

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)(1) defines food additives as “any substance the intended use of which results or may reasonably be expected to result — directly or indirectly — in its becoming a component or otherwise affecting the characteristics of any food.”  Direct food additives are used for a specific purpose – taste, preserving the food, coloring the food or to “improve freshness”. Indirect food additives are added to the packaging or to the storage of food—and can leach into food in small amounts.

The main reasons additives are in food are to provide:1

  • Safety and freshness—additives are allowed, which either maintain or improve freshness. One wonders how a food item on the shelf for months be associated with “freshness”…but I digress…
  • Nutritional value—some additives include vitamins, minerals, and fiber and these foods are often called “fortified”. Why? Often these foods have been processed in such a way that they losesome of their nutritional value—and then the vitamin (e.g., folate and vitamin B12) are added back to the food…whaaaa?? At least part of the reason seems to be that generations of people were raised on white bread—and to get the flour white, the bran has to be removed. The bran also happens to contain a significant part of the nutrients provided by grain, so now they must be added back in?! …but I digress…
  • Taste, texture, and appearance—spices and both natural and artificial sweeteners can be added as well as food colorings to improve taste and appearance. Emulsifiers (mixing agents), thickeners, and stabilizers can be added to affect the texture. Other agents are added to control how acidic or alkaline the food is or to improve the taste of for example, low-fat foods. I use lots of herbs and spices when I cook, so I can relate somewhat—but if I had to add food colorings, I need a new recipe! …but I digress…

Manufacturers must go through a premarket notification process with the FDA providing evidence that an additive is safe for human consumption. The FDA then determines, in its own words, “based on the best science available – if there is a reasonable certainty of no harm to consumers when an additive is used as proposed.”1

Two groups of substances are currently exempted from the regulatory process—those additives in common use before 1958 and those that are GRAS additives. GRAS stands for Generally Recognized As Safe.

Product Labels

food additives on label

All ingredients must be listed on a label in order of decreasing levels—the most dominant ingredient is listed first. Some ingredients can be grouped, like “spices” or “natural/artificial flavorings”. Coloring ingredients must be listed as well.

One problem with labels is that the chemical name for the additive is used—that is great for chemists, but not necessarily great for the individual who may not know a lot about chemistry and may just say, “I can’t pronounce it, so it must be bad!” Well, that’s not true—for example, the chemical name of water is dihydrogen monoxide, and it’s certainly not bad for you! The chemical name of vitamins is often difficult to pronounce. Cyanocobalamin is not the easiest to pronounce but is the chemical name for vitamin B12. The list can go on and on. The real point is that if these labels are going to be useful to non-chemists, the chemical name of the ingredient should be listed along with the common name!

Benefits of Additives

Benefits of Additives

Food additives—including preservatives—add shelf-life to food, saving money. Additives such as vitamins and minerals can add nutritional value to the food. For some, an advantage of additives is that they can prevent the food from going “bad” due to bacterial and fungal contamination. An additional advantage that is often mentioned is that additives can improve the flavor of foods. That seems a bit fuzzy—what is enhanced flavor for one person may not be enhanced for another, given the subjective nature of what tastes good.

There are some more problems with any of these “advantages”.

For example, in commercially processed foods, nutrients are removed during the process. Adding them back can make little sense, as mentioned above, and all the original nutrients are not necessarily added. Bacterial and fungal contamination can be avoided with proper storage—ie. Refrigeration, freezing, or preserving the foods—as in home canning, jam making, or pickling. Admittedly, these can take a lot of time, and not everyone is looking forward to coming home from a day’s work only to start canning fruits and vegetables. Not everyone has enough freezer space, either! But, for a growing number of families, canning, drying, and other methods of preserving foods are getting attractive. Beyond the starting costs of canning jars and equipment, home canning can be less expensive than driving to a grocery store every week or every few days.

Drawbacks of Additives

Drawbacks of Additives

It is believed (and evidence is growing) that some additives may cause either true food(2) allergies(3) or food intolerances.(4)

People with asthma, for example, can become severely allergic to sulfites—often added to wines and dried fruit. Some substances such as BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) and BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) used to preserve grains, cereals, and snack foods can also cause allergic reactions.

Children appear to be more sensitive to food additives—they often develop headaches or migraines along with food intolerances. They may also develop behavioral(5) problems linked to the ingestion of certain additives and nutrients. In one study(6), researchers showed that some children with ADHD can benefit from a gluten-free diet. Phthalates(7), leaking from packaging, can affect male genital development. Most parents have been alerted to the dangers of BPA, a component of some plastics. BPA can act as an estrogen, potentially affecting puberty, fertility, and the nervous and immune systems.7

Since most of us don’t grow all our own food, another disadvantage may be that you may be paying full price for food of lower quality…and freshness! The additives can improve the appearance of lower-quality foods and falsely give us the impression of quality.

Some additives available in foods on grocery shelves have been linked to cancer. Nitrates and nitrites(8), for example, are associated with an increased risk of breast and prostate cancer. Aspartame is one of the most widely used artificial sweeteners. Animal studies have definitively found that aspartame can cause cancer(9), at least in animals. Now, you can reasonably argue that a mouse or a rat is not the same as a human—but would we really want to wait for results from human children? No—and that is why animal testing is the best way we have of knowing if there is a risk.

Benzoates(10) act as food preservatives. It can interact with some acidic foods to produce benzene and other known carcinogens.

What Can YOU Do to Minimize Any Risk Associated with Food Additives

local food

Well—the simplest-not-simplest approach is to grow your own food, shop and buy locally produced foods that are not packaged or processed, preserve your own foods, raise your own cows, pigs, chickens, and other meats, and fish for yourself. Not so simple, right?

Alternatively, you can avoid processed foods, buy what locally grown foods you can, preserve what you can, and read all the labels of the food you DO buy.

The FDA has a list of names that may be found on labels.1 Read your labels and check against this list to find out what is in your food—and then check the ingredient to see if it has any adverse effects associated with it. It will take time, energy, and dedication—but for the health of you and your family, it is likely you will think it is worth the effort!

Resources:

  1. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/overview-food-ingredients-additives-colors 
  2. Alexiou A, Höfer V, Dölle‐Bierke S, Grünhagen J, Zuberbier T, Worm M. Elicitors and phenotypes of adult patients with proven IgE‐mediated food allergy and non‐immune mediated food hypersensitivity to food additives. Clinical & Experimental Allergy. 2022 Jul 19. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cea.14203 
  3. Ukwo SP, Udo II, Ndaeyo N. Food Additives: Overview of Related Safety Concerns. Food Sci Nutr Res. 2022;5(1):1-0. https://www.scivisionpub.com/pdfs/food-additives-overview-of-related-safety-concerns-2273.pdf 
  4. Gargano D, Appanna R, Santonicola A, De Bartolomeis F, Stellato C, Cianferoni A, Casolaro V, Iovino P. Food allergy and intolerance: A narrative review on nutritional concerns. Nutrients. 2021 May;13(5):1638.
  5.  Yorgidis E, Beiner L, Blazynski N, Schneider-Momm K, Clement HW, Rauh R, Schulz E, Clement C, Fleischhaker C. Individual behavioral reactions in the context of food sensitivities in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder before and after an oligoantigenic diet. Nutrients. 2021 Jul 28;13(8):2598. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2598/pdf 
  6. Kırsaçlıoğlu CT, Hizal G, Dinç G, Güner ST, Sanda S, Üneri Ö. Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Gluten Sensitivity in Children. J. PediaRestr.. 2021;8:326-9. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/16b9/6484dcfc69d407ff6574dc4c3bbf97300488.pdf 
  7.  https://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/Pages/Food-Additives.aspx 
  8. Eloi Chazelas, Fabrice Pierre, Nathalie Druesne-Pecollo, Younes Esseddik, Fabien Szabo de Edelenyi, Cédric Agaesse, Alexandre De Sa, Rebecca Lutchia, Stéphane Gigandet, Bernard Srour, Charlotte Debras, Inge Huybrechts, Chantal Julia, Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot, Benjamin Allès, Pilar Galan, Serge Hercberg, Mélanie Deschasaux-Tanguy, Mathilde Touvier, Nitrites and nitrates from food additives and natural sources and cancer risk: results from the NutriNet-Santé cohort, International Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 51, Issue 4, August 2022, Pages 1106–1119, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac046 
  9. Landrigan, P.J., Straif, K. Aspartame and cancer – new evidence for causation. Environ Health 20, 42 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-021-00725-y https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-021-00725-y#citeas 
  10. Sambu S, Hemaram U, Murugan R, Alsofi AA. Toxicological and Teratogenic Effect of Various Food Additives: An Updated Review. BioMed Research International. 2022 Jun 24;2022.     https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2022/6829409/