Food additives are often considered undesirable by consumers. This is particularly the case recently, with many consumers concerned about their prevalence within ultra-processed foods.
So are additives harmful to health? Only to the extent that anything is in large enough quantities, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
What is a food additive?
A food additive is a substance added to food or drink for a certain functional purpose.
“Food additives are substances added to food and drinks for various reasons, such as to maintain or improve their safety, freshness, taste, texture or appearance,” explains a spokesperson for the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA).
Popular food additives include flavour enhancers like MSG, sweeteners like aspartame, and artificial colourants such as Allura Red AC.
Additives are often found in processed and ultra-processed foods, with the latter often associated with foods made up of ingredients the average consumer wouldn’t find in their kitchen cupboard.
Are additives harmful to health?
Food additives often have a bad reputation among consumers and some have been linked to bad health outcomes. For example, sweeteners such as aspartame have been linked to brain damage and liver and lung chancer, causing consumers to demand a ban. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) later said that there is limited evidence to support these claims, clarifying that new research was required. There is a range of other research linking aspartame both to negative health outcomes (cardiovascular disease) and positive (improving calcium handling).
Artificial colourants have also been the subject of controversy, with some linking them to hyperactivity among children. According to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), a possible link exists.
Despite their sometimes bad reputation, however, they are generally safe, in the view of the FAO, as long as they are authorised and used within the guidelines set out by the Codex Alimentarius, the FAO’s global set of guidelines that regulates levels of food additives, pesticides, and other food-related substances.
“No additive is known to be harmful to humans when used in accordance to the standards of the Codex Alimentarius Commission,” explains Markus Lipp, senior food safety officer at the FAO.
Additives can cause harm in large enough amounts, but this is true of anything. “There’s not a single substance, whether it’s drinking water nor anything else, that cannot be harmful if used to excess,” he stresses.
Furthermore, there is a huge gap between the levels of each additive recommended by the Codex Alimentarius, and the amount needed to cause harm.
The risk assessment for additives is not, explains Lipp, a risk-benefit analysis. A new additive “cannot be known to cause any negative health effects,” regardless of how useful or convenient it is in other ways.
While the standards for the Codex Alimentarius are voluntary on a global scale, many states have these standards written into their national legislation. 188 member states and one member organisation (the European Union) are part of the Codex Alimentarius council, including the UK and the EU.
Can additives be reevaluated?
After approval, some additives can be reevaluated after new evidence comes to light. For example, the EFSA is currently re-evaluating all additives approved before 20 January 2009. Some can be reevaluated if approved after that.
One additive that the EFSA reevaluated was titanium dioxide, also known as E171. The additive, primarily used as a colourant, was declared safe in 2016 but a further assessment in 2021 finding the possibility of genotoxicity (the ability of a substance to damage DNA) caused the EFSA to withdraw this approval.
While absorption particles in the body after ingestion is low, the ruling said, accumulation of these particles could take place in the body.
