Food Additives in Products for Children Marketed in Brazil

Abstract

Studies show children suffer fro m adverse effects to food additives, in both acute and chronic forms. Children are among the biggest consumers of processed products and have more susceptibility to these adverse effects. In Brazil, there are few data about the exposure to food additives. Therefore, the objective of this article is to elaborate a database of food additives present in products for children. Th is database was built fro m August 2010 to October 2010 fro m the nutritional information on products for children, which could be found on the web site of a Brazilian supermarket. The informat ion contained on product labels of all foods commercialized on the site were analysed, and those with some description or image d irected to child ren, as well as products generally consumed by children, were organized in four categories (cereals and cereal products, dairy and meat products, candy and chocolate, beverages). The number of additives present in each product, the percentages of each class of additive present in the different food categories and the presence of artificial dyes in each category were presented in tables. Among the 5882 products commercialized on the web site, excluding alcoholic beverages, 506 (8.60%) p roducts were classified as children p roducts, fro m which 468 products contained information on their ingredients (and additives) and 438 products contained at least one additive in their formulat ion. The most used additives were lecithin (45.30%) and citric acid (22.86%) and artificial dyes allura red (9.83%), tartrazine (6.84%), sunset yellow (5.77%), brilliant blue (5.77%). Future studies could be carried out to evaluate the amount used and the intake of these additives by Brazilian children.

The pattern of Food Additives Consumption among Preschool Children and Knowledge and Attitude of their mothers in Al Sharkia Governorate, Egypt

“…Similarly, the same additives were reported within the cereal children products in Brazil. 4 Analysis of our results showed that certain categories of food items contain more food additives than the others, table 4. A large number of food additives are present in biscuits and cakes (n=25), crisps (n=23), and dairy and meat products (n=18) compared with other food categories.…”

“…2 The acceptable daily intake of food additives (ADI) is the amount of a food additive (expressed on a bodyweight basis), which can be ingested daily during an entire lifetime without appreciable health risk. 3 The study conducted in Brazil by Lorenzoni et al 4 showed that 506 products were classified as children products, from which 92% of these products contained information on their ingredients (and additives) and 86.5% of these studied products contained at least one additive in their formulation. The most used additives were lecithin (45.30%) and citric acid (22.86%) and artificial dyes Allura red (9.83%), tartrazine (6.84%), and 5.77% for both sunset yellow or brilliant blue.…”

Sodium content and food additives in major brands of Brazilian children’s foods

“…Antioxidant ascorbic acid and citric acid were prevalent in pureed baby foods and most commonly added in nutritive foods were flavors, emulsifiers (lecithin) and thickener (carrageenan and guar gum). The similar study revealed that the most additives used in processed foods were lecithin, citric acid and artificial dyes 32 .…”

Aditivos alimentares na infância: uma revisão sobre consumo e consequências à saúde

“…No Brasil, refrigerantes, bebidas industrializadas à base de frutas (em embalagem longa vida ou em pó), salgadinhos, doces, chocolates, embutidos, pães e biscoitos estão entre os alimentos mais consumidos por crianças [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . Esses alimentos usualmente contêm quantidades expressivas de açúcar, gordura e sódio [17][18][19][20][21] , e muitos deles apresentam aditivos alimentares [22][23][24] , além de, com frequência, suas embalagens apresentarem estratégias de marketing direcionadas ao público infantil 25 .…”