Food additives are widely used in food to improve its quality, appearance, and flavor, or to provide functions such as preservation and freshness. They are regarded as the soul of the modern food processing industry. Food additives can be classified into natural food additives and artificially synthesized food additives based on their sources. According to China's National Standard for Food Additive Usage (GB 2760-2014), food additives can be divided into 22 categories, including emulsifiers, sweeteners, colorants, anticaking agents, etc. With the increasing demand for nutritional and high-quality food products from consumers, the importance of processed foods has been rising, resulting in a continuous increase in the demand for food additives. The global market value of food additives has increased from $15 billion in 1988 to $16 billion in 2000. In China, the production of food additives has also grown rapidly, with a production volume of 6.326 million tons from January to July 2021, representing a year-on-year growth of 10.44%.
Food additives can affect the structure and function of the intestinal microbiota
The human gut is home to approximately 100 trillion microorganisms, mostly bacteria, but also viruses, fungi, and protozoa. They encode over 3 million genes, which is about 100 times the number of genes in the human genome, and produce thousands of metabolites involved in various biological processes such as metabolism and immunity. Normally, different types of gut microbiota and their interactions with the host are in a dynamic equilibrium. However, factors such as radiation, diet, medications, stress, environmental chemicals, etc., can disrupt the structure and function of the gut microbiota, thereby posing a risk to human health.
1. Emulsifiers are a type of surfactant and are one of the most widely used food additives in the food industry. They can significantly reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water phases, allowing immiscible oils (hydrophobic substances) and water (hydrophilic substances) to form stable emulsions. In addition, emulsifiers have functions such as defoaming, thickening, and lubrication. Common dietary emulsifiers can be divided into two categories based on their sources: natural products, such as lecithin, and synthetic products, such as carboxymethyl cellulose, sorbitan monostearate, glycerol monostearate, and Polysorbate 80.
However, long-term intake of emulsifiers such as carboxymethyl cellulose and carrageenan not only significantly reduces the diversity of gut microbiota and the abundance of beneficial bacteria (such as Akkermansia muciniphila), but also significantly decreases the concentration of metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids and free amino acids. This can lead to metabolic syndrome, intestinal inflammation, and even the development of intestinal tumors.
2. Sweeteners, as the name suggests, are substances used to add sweetness to food. High-intensity sweeteners, as a type of functional sweeteners, are known for their high safety, low usage amount, and high sweetness, with generally lower cost compared to sucrose. In China, approved sweeteners are classified into two categories: chemical synthetic sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium; and natural sweeteners such as stevioside, licorice, and maltitol.
Sucralose, commonly known as Splenda, is a high-intensity sweetener. Long-term consumption of sucralose can alter the composition of the human gut microbiota by increasing the abundance of clostridium species while significantly inhibiting the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as bifidobacteria, lactobacilli, and Bacteroides. Researchers transplanted fecal cultures treated with sucralose into germ-free mice and found that the experimental animals exhibited impaired glucose tolerance, indicating that sucralose can impact the structure and function of the gut microbiota, leading to metabolic syndrome.
3. Anticaking agents are used to prevent the aggregation or clumping of granular or powdered food products, maintaining their loose or free-flowing nature. Common anticaking agents include potassium ferrocyanide, calcium silicate, sodium aluminosilicate, tricalcium phosphate, silicon dioxide, and magnesium stearate. Studies have found that the intake of anticaking agents such as titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide can also affect the stability of the gut microbiota, altering the ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes bacteria, reducing the abundance of lactobacilli, and increasing the abundance of Proteobacteria, thereby disrupting gut barrier function and mucosal immune response.
4. Natural, gentle, and visually appealing colors can stimulate people's appetite and increase consumer desire to purchase, which is why food products often contain coloring agents. Coloring agents can be classified into artificial synthetic coloring agents and natural coloring agents based on their source, and into azo dyes, anthraquinone dyes, and triphenylmethane dyes based on their structure. Lemon yellow is an azo dye with relatively high safety. However, studies have found that lemon yellow can significantly reduce the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Roseburia and Clostridium in the gut, decrease the content of short-chain fatty acids, induce oxidative stress, increase the expression of pro-inflammatory factors, and subsequently trigger intestinal inflammation.
The gut microbiota mediates the metabolism of food additives
The gut microbiota, as a complex microbial ecosystem, constantly influences the host's health status. Increasing evidence shows that the gut microbiota also participates in the metabolism of food additives, thereby affecting the effects of food additives on the body. Among them, the gut microbiota-trimethylamine-oxidized trimethylamine pathway is the most typical example of its relevance to cardiovascular disease.
Phosphatidylcholine is a natural emulsifier that can form various metabolites under the action of lipases. When such food additives are ingested and reach the cecum and colon, choline trimethylamine lyase produced by certain bacterial populations in the intestines can metabolize choline into trimethylamine. Subsequently, trimethylamine passes through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream and reaches the liver, where it is rapidly oxidized to trimethylamine N-oxide by hepatic flavin monooxygenases. This process can increase the accumulation of cholesterol in macrophages, foam cell formation in the arterial wall (phagocytic cells or tissue cells that have engulfed lipids), and atherogenesis, thereby increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and death.
The reasonable development and use of food additives to ensure food safety has become a hot topic of concern for the public. Many food additives can disrupt the structure and function of the gut microbiota, thereby affecting the health of the body. Conversely, the gut microbiota can also mediate the metabolism of food additives and affect their health effects. Therefore, in the process of identifying the hazards and risk assessment of food additives, it is necessary to focus on gut health and explore the critical role of the gut microbiota, whose involvement in physiological and pathological processes will gradually become an important area for the development and safety research of new food additives.
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