What happens when two or more additives are used together?

Synergy – where two ingredients enhance each other’s activity – is rarely observed in toxicology, and the principle plays virtually no role. However, addition – where the adverse effects of the two chemicals are simply added to each other – is far more common. This effect is only observed if the compounds are very closely related to each other chemically, or if the tissues they target and mechanisms of action are identical. In practice, this problem is solved by establishing a group ADI for closely related food additives, for example sorbitan esters. This means excessive exposure to the whole group of related chemicals is avoided.

The concept of synergy is, unfortunately, frequently misused to raise suspicions by applying the maxim that you can never be certain of anything.

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