Paramasivam Anand, Murugan Rajadurai, Jeraud Mathew, Dakkumadugula Angel, Periyasamy Ravisankar, Arjunan Selvam
Department of Physiology, RVS Dental College and Hospital (Affiliated to The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, Chennai 600032, Tamil Nadu, India), Kumaran Kottam Campus, Kannampalayan, Coimbatore 641402, Tamil Nadu, India.
Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Life and Allied Health Sciences, M S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore 560054, Karnataka, India.
J Xenobiot. 2024 Nov 4;14(4):1697-1710. doi: 10.3390/jox14040090.
Processed foods, accounting for most consumable food categories today, contain considerable amounts of food additives. Food additives are substances added to food products to improve taste, consistency, appearance, or shelf life. Various food additives, such as phthalates, bisphenol A, tartrazine, erythrosine, artificial sweeteners, and parabens, have been identified as potential sources of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in processed foods. EDCs are substances that frequently interfere with the regular functioning of the endocrine system, creating an unusual environment in the biological system, which leads to adverse health effects such as the disruption of hormone synthesis, receptor binding, and signal transduction pathways, as well as energy metabolic homeostatic disorders which potentially increasing the risk of obesity, type-2 diabetes, cardiometabolic diseases and may also trigger allergic reactions. Consequently, they can also impact mammary gland development, and reproductive function, further leading to developmental abnormalities. This review aims to insights into the various food additives that act as potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and to describe their applications in the food industry, as well as the failure of hormonal homeostatic mechanisms, which eventually result in hazardous health effects. It also outlines strategies to reduce the use of food additives and suggests alternative additives with minimal or no endocrine-disrupting properties, highlighting their importance for maintaining human health.
加工食品如今占据了大多数可消费食品类别，含有大量食品添加剂。食品添加剂是添加到食品中以改善口感、质地、外观或保质期的物质。各种食品添加剂，如邻苯二甲酸盐、双酚A、酒石黄、赤藓红、人工甜味剂和对羟基苯甲酸酯，已被确定为加工食品中内分泌干扰化学物质（EDC）的潜在来源。EDC是经常干扰内分泌系统正常功能的物质，在生物系统中营造出异常环境，导致诸如激素合成、受体结合和信号转导途径紊乱等不良健康影响，以及能量代谢稳态失调，这可能增加肥胖、2型糖尿病、心脏代谢疾病的风险，还可能引发过敏反应。因此，它们还会影响乳腺发育和生殖功能，进而导致发育异常。本综述旨在深入了解充当潜在内分泌干扰化学物质（EDC）的各种食品添加剂，描述它们在食品工业中的应用，以及激素稳态机制的失效，最终导致有害的健康影响。它还概述了减少食品添加剂使用的策略，并建议使用具有最小或无内分泌干扰特性的替代添加剂，强调它们对维护人类健康的重要性。
