A Surveillance study on the presence and safety of different types of food additive in children’s foods available in the markets

Abstract

Health risk of food additives is under debates throughout the world. Several studiesconfirmed harmful effects and health problems associated with their consumption, but nodata was published about this subject in Kurdistan and no awareness has been takenregarding this issue in the region. For this purpose 300 commercial food items consumedby children were collected from the markets and their labels analyzed for additivecontents. As a result, 286 items (95.3%) found to contain additives, and only 14 (4.6%)were free from additive. The 286 items contained 120 different types of food additivesand in 38 items (13.2%) the numbers and types of additives were not identified. From the120 additive, 75 (62.5%) were found harmful, but no adverse effect found for 45 foodadditives (37.5%). The adverse health effects; 28 (23.3%) recorded as carcinogenic, 17of them (14.4%) affected digestive as well as Respiratory Systems, and 15 of them(12.5%) were related to integumentary System problems. The most common additivesfound were color (27), followed by thickeners (25), and preservatives (12).The higher percentage of adverse effects for each of the color, thickener and acidityregulator were cancer-causing effects, however preservatives mostly affected therespiratory system. The more adverse health effects of additives related to coloradditives, and the higher percentage of color additive found in confectionery food items,so confectionery products were the more harmful food categories that children shouldavoid. Based on the results of this study, the quality of some food products meant forlocal markets is unsatisfactory. It needs to enforce and implement regulations on themanufacturers of products consumed by children to ensure the provision of excellentquality of products for the low-income population of the country.