Genotoxic Food Additives

Many chemicals currently used as food additives are genotoxic. One study reports 39 different chemicals, including those that are colorants, preservatives, antioxidants, fungicides, and sweeteners, are genotoxic to stomach, colon, liver, kidney, bladder, lung, brain, and bone marrow tissues in test animals.  

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Some chemicals are believed to have no threshold above which toxic effects are observed. In other words, a single molecule has the potential to induce an adverse effect. The most common group of hazards in this respect are genotoxic carcinogens. Chemical carcinogens are not normally approved as food additives because an acceptable daily intake cannot be established. 

Absence of carcinogenity, genotoxicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity and of chronic toxicity effects at low exposure levels are indispensable prerequisites for food additive approvals. All substances approved in the European Union or the USA or deemed generally recognised as safe (GRAS) in the USA fulfil this requirement. 

Similarly, in order to avoid any quantitative estimate, an MOE approach has been recommended by, e.g., JECFA (the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives) and EFSA (the European Food Safety Authority) in the assessment of compounds that are both genotoxic and carcinogenic by using a benchmark dose (BMD) approach to estimate the BMDLio (benchmark dose lower limit) representing the lower bound of a 95% confidence interval on the BMD corresponding to a 10% tumor incidence (see Section 6.4). 

Elmore, E. Fitzgerald, M.P. (1990) Evalnation of the biolnminescence assays as screens for genotoxic chemicals. Prog. din. biol. Res., 340D, 379-387 FAOAVHO (1981) Toxicological Evaluation of Certain Food Additives (WHO Food Add. Ser. 

In 1998, Abbott (6A01) described the results of the examination of numerous food additives by the World Health Organization. The food additives in this particular study comprised a series of so-called aliphatic lactones. Among the lactones discussed were several that not only are used as foodstuff additives but also occur in tobacco and/or its smoke and several that are used as tobacco additives. The results of several toxicological studies (acute toxicity, short-and long-term toxicity, carcinogenicity) and genotoxic studies on the lactones were described in detail by Abbott. Table Vl-1 presents the results listed by Abbott on those lactones that are used in tobacco products. 

The later studies have established that black pepper could be safety used as a food additive, regarding the piperine is non-genotoxic and possess anti-mutagenic and antitumor influences. 

Chloropropanols show various toxic effects. 3-CPD causes infertility in rats and suppression of the immune function and was shown to be genotoxic in several in vitro assays, but is not genotoxic and mutagenic in vivo. It was classified by the lARC as a chemical of the 2B group, and probably carcinogenic to humans. In 2001, the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) established a tolerable daily intake (TDI) for 3-CPD at 2 p-g/kg body weight, and in 2002 the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) estabUshed a provisional maximal tolerable daily intake for 3-CPD, similarly at 2 Hg/kg body weight In the EU, maximum levels of... 

The objective of chemical safety testing is to prevent the introduction into the environment of chemicals that represent a significant health hazard to humans or to the immediate environment on which maintenance of the human species depends. For chemicals that must remain in the environment for one reason or another, safety testing can be used to establish a safe or tolerable exposure level. The potential benefit of test results from evaluations for genotoxicity applied to human health considerations can be substantiated by the early indications of genotoxic activity for vinyl chloride, tris-(2,3-dibromo-propyl) phosphate (TRIS), benzene, hycanthone, and the Japanese food additive 2-(2-furyl)-3-(5-nitrofuryl)acrylamide(AF-2). In some of these cases, mutagenic data were available before the chemicals were identified as animal carcinogens. 

Many chemicals currently used as food additives are genotoxic. One study reports 39 different chemicals, including those that are colorants, preservatives, antioxidants. 

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