Division of Applied Food System, Major of Food Science & Technology, Seoul Women's University, Seoul 01797, Republic of Korea.
Department of Chemistry and Medical Chemistry, College of Science and Technology, Yonsei University, Wonju, Gangwondo 26493, Republic of Korea.
Food Chem. 2020 Nov 30;331:127304. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127304. Epub 2020 Jun 10.
Synthetic amorphous silica (SAS) is widely added to commercial foods as an anticaking agent. Concern about the potential application of nanosized silica in foods has increased as nanomaterials are not intended for use as food additives. This study evaluated the particle size distributions and biological responses of food additive SAS. An accurate, sensitive, and cost-effective analytical method for probing SAS was established, and quantitative analysis of its presence in commercial foods was performed. The results demonstrate that food additive SAS is an aggregated material composed of nanosized particles with nanosized aggregates of silica particles identified in commercial foods. Food additive SAS did not exhibit acute cytotoxicity compared to both general-grade nano (G-nano) and bulk (G-bulk) silica. Moreover, intestinal transport amounts of food additive SAS were significantly lower than for G-nano. Taken together, we find that food additive SAS does not exhibit acute toxicity resulting from nanosized materials.
合成无定形二氧化硅（SAS）作为抗结块剂广泛添加到商业食品中。随着纳米材料不打算用作食品添加剂，人们越来越关注将纳米尺寸的二氧化硅应用于食品的潜在风险。本研究评估了食品添加剂 SAS 的粒度分布和生物反应。建立了一种准确、灵敏且具有成本效益的分析方法来探测 SAS，并对商业食品中 SAS 的存在进行了定量分析。结果表明，食品添加剂 SAS 是一种由纳米颗粒组成的聚集材料，在商业食品中发现了纳米尺寸的二氧化硅颗粒的纳米级聚集体。与普通级纳米（G-nano）和块状（G-bulk）二氧化硅相比，食品添加剂 SAS 并未表现出急性细胞毒性。此外，食品添加剂 SAS 的肠道转运量明显低于 G-nano。综上所述，我们发现食品添加剂 SAS 没有表现出纳米材料引起的急性毒性。
