Author summary Why was this study done? Emulsifiers are widely used food additives in industrially processed foods to improve texture and enhance shelf-life. Experimental in vivo/in vitro research as well as a pilot clinical trial on healthy individuals suggests deleterious effects of food additive emulsifier intake on the intestinal microbiota, metabolome, host inflammation, and susceptibility to carcinogenesis. To our knowledge, due to challenges to accurately estimate the exposure to food additive emulsifiers through diet, so far there was no available epidemiological evidence from prospective cohorts on food additive emulsifier intakes in relation to cancer risk. What did the researchers do and find? This study assessed quantitative exposures to a wide range of food additive emulsifiers in a large prospective cohort of adults. Higher intakes of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (FAs) (E471), total carrageenans (E407, E407a), and carrageenan (E407) were associated with hig
Objective To assess the associations between exposure to food additive emulsifiers and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Design Prospective cohort study.
Setting French NutriNet-Santé study, 2009-21.
Participants 95 442 adults (>18 years) without prevalent CVD who completed at least three 24 hour dietary records during the first two years of follow-up.
Main outcome measures Associations between intake of food additive emulsifiers (continuous (mg/day)) and risk of CVD, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease characterised using multivariable proportional hazard Cox models to compute hazard ratios for each additional standard deviation (SD) of emulsifier intake, along with 95% confidence intervals.
Results Mean age was 43.1 (SD 14.5) years, and 79.0% (n=75 390) of participants were women. During follow-up (median 7.4 years), 1995 incident CVD, 1044 coronary heart disease, and 974 cerebrovascular disease events were diagnosed. Higher intake of celluloses (E460