Food Preservatives May Harm The Immune System

Study finds that food preservative used in over hundreds of foods may harm the immune system.

Research suggests that a food preservative used to increase the shelf life of foods including Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, Cheez-Its and nearly 1,250 more popular processed foods may be harmful for the immune system.

Researchers used //data from ToxCast (Environmental Protection Agency's Toxicity Forecaster) to examine the health hazards of the most common chemicals added to food (PFAS or ‘forvever chemicals’) which can migrate from packaging material or processing equipment to food.

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Analysis revealed that the preservative tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) harms the immune system. Both animal tests and non-animal tests (high-throughput in vitro toxicology testing) gave the same results. The results are particularly concerning during the coronavirus pandemic.

Olga Naidenko, lead author, said, "The pandemic has focused public and scientific attention on environmental factors that can impact the immune system. Before the pandemic, chemicals that may harm the immune system's defense against infection or cancer did not receive sufficient attention from public health agencies. To protect public health, this must change."

TBHQ is a preservative that has been used in foods for many decades with the only function of increasing a product's shelf life. The study revealed that TBHQ affected immune cell proteins at doses similar to those that cause harm in traditional studies.

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Prior research has shown that TBHQ might affect how well flu vaccines work and may also be associated with a rise in food allergies. Similarly, studies have also shown that PFAS suppresses immune function and decreases vaccine efficacy. A recent study has also found a link between high PFAS levels in the blood and COVID-19 severity.

Surprisingly, the study’s results did not match previous study results for most PFAS, which could due to the new chemical testing method. Hence, further research is required to understand the impact of PFAS on the immune system.

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The FDA allows food manufacturers to determine which chemicals are safe, so many chemicals linked to health harms can be added to packaged foods legally. Various additives, like TBHQ, were approved by the FDA decades ago, and the agency doesn’t consider new scientific evidence to reassess the safety of food chemicals.

"Food manufacturers have no incentive to change their formulas," said Scott Faber. "Too often, the FDA allows the food and chemical industry to determine which ingredients are safe for consumption. Our research shows how important it is that the FDA take a second look at these ingredients and test all food chemicals for safety."

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Shoppers need to be cautious as TBHQ is not always listed on the ingredient label but is used in food packaging in which case it may migrate to food.

Source-Medindia