• Overview
• Food
• Baby Care
• Hazards & Threats
• News
• Our Purpose
• Prevention
• Products
• Sustainability & Lifestyle
• All Articles
• All Videos

Blog

Thousands of additives are put in the food that we eat. Some have been thoroughly tested, while others haven't.

"Most of the cooking I do, I do from scratch," says Melanie Cohen, a Brooklyn working mother of two. "But I don’t hesitate to open a can of Spaghettio’s, sometimes." Like Melanie, most of us understand that eating well is a compromise between time, energy, cost and what’s available. Prepared foods and mixes offer convenience. But that convenience results from the use of at least some of 3000 food additives. These preservatives, artificial or natural colors and flavors, vitamins and minerals are used to keep food fresh and extend shelf life, improve the taste and appearance of food, and aid in processing.

All too often, the foods to which kids are attracted – candy, cookies, soda, snack foods, cereals, and just about anything sweet – are filled with additives that brightly (and some say freakishly) color and flavor. Making a parent’s job of family nutritionist harder is the intense marketing of these foods, packaged in colorful wrappers and boxes and advertised where kids are likely to be.

All these additives may have a disproportionately higher impact on children. That’s because children consume relatively more food additives than adults, in part because of their particularly processed-food-heavy choices. But they also have an added disadvantage: Kids eat more, pound for pound, than adults. And, since they are still growing, what’s safe for an adult is not necessarily so for children. In children, the organs responsible for detoxifying, or removing harmful substances, are not as effective as those of adults. And children’s brains and nervous systems continue to develop until their teens, extending their vulnerability for years.

Safety Testing

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created an approval process for food additives in 1958 (and color additives in 1960) as the result of amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act. Any substance to be used in food production or processing for the first time must undergo a number of tests to determine its safety. These tests determine how much of the substance can be eaten without side effects, whether or not it causes cancer and if it causes reproductive effects (such as birth defects). The Delaney Clause prohibits approval of an additive that is found to cause cancer in humans or animals.

"Prior-sanctioned" additives, or those that had been determined to be safe prior to 1958, and substances generally recognized as safe (GRAS), such as salt, sugar, spices and vitamins, are excluded from safety assessment.

How Safe is "Safe?"

Though food additives enjoy a history of regulation, some citizen watchdog groups, like Center for Science in the Public Interest, find fault with the system. Tests are rarely done to determine the effects of these substances on behavior and learning or whether they cause allergies.

And, while FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials are supposed to monitor the "prior-sanctioned" and GRAS additives in light of new scientific information, history has shown that test results putting the safety of an approved substance in doubt do not always lead to a ban.

For example:

•  the preservative butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is listed as "reasonably anticipated" to be a human carcinogen in the National Toxicology Program (NTP)    Report on Carcinogens, listing of known and suspected carcinogens, but it remains approved for use in food by the FDA;
• saccharin, repeatedly shown to cause cancer in lab animals and formerly considered a carcinogen, was recently removed from the NTP list of cancer-causing  chemicals;
• studies now show that sodium nitrite, still used to preserve luncheon meats, form carcinogenic substances called nitrosamines in the stomach;
• and, in 1990, the FDA banned the non-water-soluble form of FD&C Red #3 due to evidence that large amounts of the color caused thyroid tumors in male rats. However, the water-soluble form of Red #3 remains listed for use in drugs and foods like maraschino cherries, bubble gum, baked goods, and many snack foods and candy.

In some cases, FDA doesn’t have the mandate or ability to test completely. The FDA runs no tests for hormonal interference or mimicry, an effect of some chemicals that was only recently discovered. Yet there is some evidence that BHA may cause such an effect. There are also information gaps about the synergistic, or combination, effects of food additives. And the effects of these additives on children, with their unique vulnerabilities, are not even considered.

Caution Advised

Keep in mind that not all additives are harmful. Many have been adequately tested for their interaction with human chemistry and are harmless, while others remain suspect. One things for sure, a healthful diet consisting of whole and natural foods is the best choice for children. Jerry Coffee, father of 3-year-old twins in Honolulu, notes that it’s all about routine. "We just never got in the habit of buying or serving fancy packaged, prepared foods or snacks. Instead we serve soda crackers, fresh cheese and fruit, cereal and raw veggies," he says.

For more tips and partial lists of safe and potentially dangerous food additives, see Limit Your Child’s Intake of Food Additives.

Image Courtesy of Jason.

Print this page | Email a friend