Food additive emulsifiers and cancer risk: Results from the French prospective NutriNet-Santé cohort

Menée à partir de données portant sur 92 000 adultes inclus dans la cohorte "French NutriNet-Santé" (durée moyenne de suivi : 6,7 ans ; environ 79 % de femmes), cette étude examine l'association entre la consommation de certains additifs alimentaires émulsifiants et le risque de cancer

Résumé en anglais

Author summary Why was this study done? Emulsifiers are widely used food additives in industrially processed foods to improve texture and enhance shelf-life. Experimental in vivo/in vitro research as well as a pilot clinical trial on healthy individuals suggests deleterious effects of food additive emulsifier intake on the intestinal microbiota, metabolome, host inflammation, and susceptibility to carcinogenesis. To our knowledge, due to challenges to accurately estimate the exposure to food additive emulsifiers through diet, so far there was no available epidemiological evidence from prospective cohorts on food additive emulsifier intakes in relation to cancer risk. What did the researchers do and find? This study assessed quantitative exposures to a wide range of food additive emulsifiers in a large prospective cohort of adults. Higher intakes of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (FAs) (E471), total carrageenans (E407, E407a), and carrageenan (E407) were associated with higher risks of overall, breast, and/or prostate cancers. What do these findings mean? These results provide important epidemiological insights into the role of emulsifiers on cancer risks, and need to be confirmed in further epidemiological and experimental research.