Description du projet
Évaluer les risques des additifs alimentaires
Les colorants et les édulcorants sont deux des additifs les plus couramment utilisés pour attribuer une qualité commercialisable aux aliments. Il existe plusieurs centaines d’additifs alimentaires autorisés sur le marché de l’UE. Étant donné que les évaluations de sécurité sont basées sur les preuves actuellement disponibles, l’impact à long terme sur la santé de la consommation d’additifs est de plus en plus préoccupant. Les conclusions de récents tests sur des modèles animaux et cellulaires laissent penser que plusieurs additifs ont des effets nocifs sur la santé humaine. Le projet ADDITIVES, financé par l’UE, propose des outils innovants mis au point pour recueillir des données précises et répétées, dont des noms et des marques, sur des aliments et des boissons énormément consommés. En se basant sur une combinaison d’études épidémiologiques et de tests in vitro/in vivo, il élucidera l’exposition individuelle aux additifs alimentaires par rapport à l’obésité, au cancer, aux maladies cardiovasculaires et à la mortalité.
Objectif
Today, our daily diet typically contains dozens of food additives (e.g. colours, emulsifiers, sweeteners: ~350 substances allowed on the EU market). Safety assessment is performed by health agencies to protect consumers against potential adverse effects of each additive, yet such an assessment is only based on current available evidence, i.e. for most additives, only in-vitro/in-vivo toxicological studies and exposure simulations. Meanwhile, the long-term health impact of additives intake and any potential ‘cocktail’ effects remain largely unknown and have become a source of serious concern. Growing evidence link the consumption of ultra-processed foods, containing numerous additives, to adverse health outcomes, in particular our recent results on cancer (Fiolet BMJ 2018). While most additives allowed in the EU are likely to be neutral for health and some may even be beneficial, recent animal and cell-based studies have suggested detrimental effects of several such compounds. In humans, data is lacking. No epidemiological study has ever assessed individual-level exposure to a wide range of food additives and its association with health, hampered by unsuited traditional dietary assessment tools facing the high additive content variability across commercial brands. Hence, a major breakthrough will come from the novel and unique tools I developed with my team, notably within the NutriNet-Santé cohort (n=164,000), collecting precise and repeated data on foods and beverages usually consumed, including names and brands of industrial products. With this unique resource, I propose a project at the forefront of international research to provide answers to a question of major importance for public health. Built as a combination of epidemiological studies and in-vitro/in-vivo experiments, this project will shed light on individual exposure to food additive 'cocktails' in relation to obesity, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and mortality, while depicting underlying mechanisms.
Champ scientifique
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinecardiologycardiovascular diseases
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionobesity
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
75654 Paris
France