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Is there intolerance to food additives?
The term ‘food intolerance’ generally refers to any abnormal reactions some people may have to certain foods. These can include migraine headaches, diarrhoea, respiratory problems and skin rashes.
Intolerance to foods such as milk, eggs, fish, shellfish and wheat is surprisingly common, and may affect as many as one-in-30 of the adult population. In contrast, one of the most extensive and reliable investigations into food additive intolerance, carried out by a regional health authority in the UK,1 found that only three out of 18,000 subjects were found to have a food additive intolerance.
This finding confirms an earlier estimate by experts at the European Commission2 on sensitivity to food components and additives. In adults, food additive intolerance appears to affect only a very small proportion of the population.
It has been suggested that any intolerance to additives that does exist could be related not only to the sensitivity of the person but also to the level of consumption. If this is the case, then it might be expected that susceptible children with a low tolerance threshold might react adversely to the foods they enjoy, such as sweets, snacks or soft drinks.
Removing or substituting additives is likely to create more problems than it solves. For example, if preservatives and antioxidants are not used, health risks are likely to arise.
There is also a common misconception that just because an ingredient is ‘natural’ it is automatically safe. However, it has been known for many years that some natural substances can cause intolerance. Indeed, in the UK study two out of the three cases of intolerance were actually caused by a natural ingredient.
While intolerance to additives certainly exists, it is part of a much wider problem of intolerance to foods in general. The greatest safeguard that people with an intolerance of any kind can have is accurate information about precisely what affects them. Accurate information on the composition of food products is essential so that the problem ingredients can be avoided. Labelling plays an important role in this.
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