Using labelling information to evaluate the distribution of food additives in products marketed in Brazil

Abstract

Food additives are ingredients added to food and beverages in order to modify physical, chemical, biological or sensory characteristics, contributing to the development of products that are safer and more convenient and attractive. Although they are widely used by food industries, little is known about the distribution of the food additives currently employed in products marketed in Brazil. Therefore, this study aimed to use labelling information of commercial food and beverages in order to identify the substances currently used by the Brazilian industry. For this, 3300 labels of 426 food items described in the Personal Food Consumption module of the Household Budget Survey (POF 2017/2018) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) were searched on websites of supermarket chains and food companies as well as by visits to commercial establishments. According to the ingredient lists of the evaluated samples, 186 distinct food additives were identified. The average number of declared substances per product was between 4 and 5, with most of the labels indicating the presence of 2 or 3 additives. Considering the identified substances, 93 had an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) not specified or not limited and 89 were additives with a numerical ADI. Citric acid and lecithin were the most frequent substances with ADI not specified or not limited while potassium sorbate and pentasodium triphosphate were the most frequent food additives with numerical ADI. The most frequent combinations found in the evaluated samples were of potassium sorbate and citric acid, and also sodium nitrite, sodium erythorbate, and sodium diphosphate. This study demonstrates the distribution of food additives in products marketed in Brazil, allowing the creation of a comprehensive and unprecedented database, which will contribute to the evaluation of usage trends and future exposure studies for health risk assessment.

Keywords:

• Label
• ingredients
• processed food
• industrialized food
• packed food
• food processing

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Maria Cecília de F. Toledo for the review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo [Grants 2021/05903-5 and 2021/05821-9] and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq [Grant 304176/2022-2].