Ella Scott
Be honest, have you ever perused the back of a packet of biscuits or a ready meal and wondered one: why there are so many ingredients, and two: what even are they all?
It may not surprise you to hear, but there often a ton of preservatives, such as potassium sorbate, sodium nitrate, and calcium propionate are packed into our foods to make it taste better and last longer, according to European Food and Information Council.
Preservatives are specifically engineered to prevent food spoilage from micro-organisms, such as bacteria, yeast, and mould, as well as ensuring food safety.
But researchers in France now suggest that particular food preservatives may increase the likelihood of developing cancer and type 2 diabetes.
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“These are very important findings for preservatives that are not only widely used in the French and European markets, but also in the United States,” said the study’s senior author Mathilde Touvier, principal investigator of NutriNet-Santé and director of research at France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research.
Probing began almost two decades ago, with experts at NutriNet-Santé comparing over 170,000 participants’ digital reports on diet and lifestyle with medical data stored in the French national health care system.
“These are the two first studies in the world investigating the associations between exposure to these food additives and cancer and type 2 diabetes,” said Touvier, “and so we must be very cautious about the message. Obviously, the results need to be confirmed.”
The new cancer study, published in the popular BMJ journal, closely examined the impact of 58 preservatives on roughly 105,000 people who were free of cancer when the study began in 2009.
17 of the 58 preservatives were studied further, with the experts discovering that those widely used in processed foods and beverages were associated with a modestly increased risk of cancer.
These included: potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulfite, sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate, acetic acid, and sodium erythorbate.
The former increased overall cancer risk by 14 percent and breast cancer by 26 percent. It can usually be found in wine, baked goods, cheeses and sauces.
Potassium metabisulfite, predominantly used in the alcohol making process, was associated with a 20 percent increase in breast cancer and 11 percent higher risk of cancer in general, as per the study.
Acetates, which come from natural fermentation, and Acetic acid, the main ingredient in vinegar, were associated with a 15 percent and 12 percent increase in all cancers, respectively.
More ‘natural’ preservatives, such as vitamin C and vitamin E, were linked to lower cancer risk when eaten as whole foods, but may become harmful when used as an additive, Touvier warned.
The French researchers also discovered that antioxidant preservatives, such as sodium erythorbate, are also associated with increased cancer risks.
“The hypothesis here is when you isolate one substance from its original matrix of a whole fruit or vegetable, the action on our health can be different depending on the way our gut microbiota will digest it,” Touvier said.
Xinyu Wang, and Edward Giovannucci, both of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston, wrote that the NutriNet-Santé’s findings ‘may prompt regulatory agencies to revisit existing policies, such as setting stricter limits on use, requiring clearer labelling, and mandating disclosure of additive contents’
However, Touvier and colleagues acknowledged that the study had several limitations, including its observational design, meaning that residual confounding could not be fully ruled out, as per MedPageToday.
To confirm and expand findings, more research will be required, Anaïs Hasenböhler, the first author of the study added, according to CNN.