Carrageenan is one of the most questionable additives. The additive is still officially considered harmless. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains the "GRAS" status for the additive ("Generally Recognized as Safe"). But the European Food Safety Authority EFSA does not want to certify its safety without reservations. Especially for babies up to three months, EFSA did not want to give any safety guarantee. EFSA's experts do not consider carrageenan to be toxic in the strict sense and they do not want to classify it as carcinogenic or mutagenic. However, numerous studies have found data suggesting serious suspicions, such as inflammation, which is considered a risk factor for all major diseases of civilization, and especially chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, even colorectal cancer, immune disorders, an increased risk of diabetes. EFSA criticizes the unsatisfactory data situation on the safety of the carrageenan additives used and calls for the evidence on "inflammatory bowel diseases in humans" must be "clarified". The same applies to suspected increased risk of diabetes. In order to reach a final verdict, EFSA's experts are calling for further investigations. Due to these "uncertainties", the authority was unable to establish definitively safe consumption levels (the so-called Acceptable Daily Intake, or ADI for short) and wants to maintain the existing limit for the time being. In infants, EFSA sees the risk of greater sensitivity in the gastrointestinal tract. It cannot be ruled out that they could develop chronic intestinal inflammation such as ulcerative colitis through carrageenan. As a precaution, you should therefore not consume any carrageenan additives at all. EFSA also criticizes insufficient information on the carrageenan varieties used. After all, the safety assessment also depends on this – for example, when it comes to cancer risks. Thus, carrageenan can actually promote ulcers in the gastrointestinal tract and even breast cancer – but only certain varieties (with a smaller molecular weight). It is true that varieties with a larger molecular weight are permitted for food. However, the cancer-suspected varieties can also be contained in the commercially available food additive E407 (a proportion of up to 5 percent is allowed). In addition, the harmless variants could be converted into the more dangerous carrageenan species during digestion. These, in turn, triggered colon cancer in studies with rats and other rodents, damaged the intestinal mucosa and caused intestinal ulcers – at least when they were fed in larger quantities. Test-tube experiments also suggested that this carrageenan could also be involved in the development of breast cancer.
Carrageenan affects millions of people: According to a major French study, four out of five consumers (exactly: 77.5 percent) consume the dubious additive. First and foremost, people who often consume industrial food, including supposed health products, so-called dietary supplements, are at risk. In the case of intensive consumers, even the health-acceptable maximum amounts can be far exceeded, as the European Food Safety Authority has determined: In view of the widespread use, the acceptable dose could be exceeded "up to ten times" in some people, which for them "this could pose a safety problem". Carrageenan (E407) and processed euchema seaweed (E407a) are allowed in many foods without any quantity limit. Particularly at risk are children, even infants and toddlers, because many special children's products contain carrageenan. In addition, people who (have to) eat food for special medical purposes. And finally, vegans, because many of the meat-free industrial products contain these additives. According to a commercial database on industrial foods, carrageenan (E407) is listed on the label of 16,890 products, processed euchema seaweed (E407a) on 653 foods, beverages and dietary supplements. Carrageenan (E407) and processed euchema seaweed (E407a) are permitted in 79 food categories. As the food industry has not provided data for many areas, the European Food Safety Authority claims to be dependent on estimates, and admits that it may also underestimate the prevalence. Carrageenan and processed euchema seaweed are approved for jams, jellies and marmalades as well as sweetened chestnut puree, fruit or vegetable spreads, nut butters and nut spreads, processed potato products, cocoa and chocolate products, confectionery, breakfast cereals, pasta, gnocchi, ravioli, bread and rolls, fine bakery products, fish and meat products, egg products, soups, broths, sauces, alcoholic beverages such as cider, pear wine, mead, snacks based on potatoes, cereals, flour or starch, processed nuts, desserts. Also for dietary supplements.
Carrageenan is a highly water-soluble source substance that is very popular in the food industry. Diet and light products give carrageenan as a filler more volume without additional nutritional value. As a stabilizer, it is used for spray cream, beer foam and ice cream, but can also be used for thickening for sauces and soups, for gelling in pudding and jelly and as an emulsifier for cocoa and other milk drinks. The substance is also found in supermarket cream (except organic): it ensures that the fat is evenly distributed, prevents the so-called framing on the surface. Carrageenan (E407) is produced from different types of red algae (Rhodophyceae). It is extracted from the algae with water or dilute aqueous alkali solution and produced in a multi-stage process, whereby different variants of the food additive can arise: κ-(kappa-)carrageenan, ι-(iota-)carrageenan and λ-(lambda-)carrageenan, each with different properties. However, they are not distinguished on the label. Red algae from the families Gigartinaceae, Solieriaceae, Hypneaceae and Furcellariaceae are used as raw materials. Today, Eucheuma cottonii (synonym: Kappaphycus alvarezii) and Eucheuma spinosum (synonym: Eucheuma denticulatum) are also frequently used. From this, in a slightly modified manufacturing process, the related additive processed euchema seaweed (E407a) is obtained. Carrageenan is often used in conjunction with locust bean gum (E410).
About the DR. WATSON Database of Additives
Carefully researched, factual, understandable: The DR. WATSON database provides reliable information on industrial additives in food. The data in the DR. WATSON database are based on the official accounts of the responsible authorities, but show a comprehensive picture and also report on research results of independent and recognized institutions around the world.
DR. WATSON was the first information service to evaluate additives, conduct its own research, consult thousands of studies and analyze them uniformly according to the criteria of evidence-based medicine. Our approach is clearly defined and transparent.
In this process, the DR. WATSON team was supported by recognized scientists and also sought legal advice. The DR. WATSON database is regularly updated and expanded. DR. WATSON is independent of outside interests and institutions.
Dr. WATSON consistently looks at novel ingredients of food from the perspective of consumers. The DR. WATSON database of additives provides information not only on additives and their health implications but also on their distribution: after all, it comes down to individual decisions of consumers on the basis of personal preferences and inclinations.
Important information on risks of additives in industrial food
DR. WATSON’s database of food additives does not give medical advice or recommendations. The DR. WATSON database provides information about additives – independent, scientifically sound, comprehensible.
Officially, additives in industrial food are considered harmless. So if you eat little of it and are of a robust constitution, you have nothing to worry about. (For allergies, however, a milligram of the wrong thing can be fatal.)
With the limits being raised for what are considered safe consumption amounts, the chemical additives in food are becoming a health risk for more and more people. For many additives, side effects are proven beginning at a certain amount – and those side effects can be more severe than previously suspected. Especially children consume more of such additives than is good for them (ADI).
These are risks that humans have created for themselves. They are not impurities stemming from contamination or spoilage, but intentionally added additives.
The additives in such foods do not serve the consumers but the manufacturers of industrial food.
Their primary purpose is to extend shelf life and reduce costs. The human organism does not need such chemicals. They also have no health benefits for consumers. Many of the additives can pose health risks.
Chemically produced additives, unlike normal ingredients such as cauliflower, cream, or chicken, are not traditional components of a dish or a food. The body therefore has no adequate, evolutionarily practiced mechanisms for processing them.
Humans do not need additives. Only the food industry needs them.
They serve to enhance the taste or color of industrial food – externally. More colorful effervescence, browner sauces, noodle soups with longer shelf life, airier cakes, rolls with enhanced bun scent, creamier cream cheese with less fat, yogurts with stabilized fruit pieces that don’t move around.
Industrial food is designed to appear more attractive — and for as long as possible (shelf life). Because in the world of factories and supermarkets, food has to be cheap and last an unnaturally long time which is only possible by means of chemical engineering.
Many industrial foods cannot do without additives. Bag soups would quickly mold, margarine would become rancid, fruit yogurts would separate into fruit preparation and yogurt. Ready-made salad dressings would disintegrate into its components of herbs, vinegar, and oil.
The chemical substances indicated with E numbers are essential for industrial food production.
Many of them were tailored to the needs of food factories, lab-made substances without a model in nature. Other substances used do occur in nature but by using them as additives, the quantities that are being consumed have grown disproportionately.
In the past, doctors and authorities have therefore expressed concerned about these chemical substances in food, especially in the case of sustained and long-term intake.
Since then the official stance has changed.
Substances that were once considered "xenobiotics" and were even reviled by experts as "poisons" have now not only been rehabilitated, but even ennobled. Although consumer deception is still officially banned, they are now considered "food improvement agents" (EU jargon). To regulate the handling of these noble ingredients, the European Union has adopted a whole quartet of regulations, the "Food Improvement Agents Package" (FIAP), consisting of four individual regulations on the different types of additives.
However, findings on the harmful effects of these "substances for the improvement of food" are increasing.
Flavour enhancers such as glutamate are suspected of contributing to diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Dyes can lead to hyperactivity and learning disorders (ADHD). Migraines can also be triggered by food additives. Sweeteners such as aspartame are even suspected of causing cancer. Preservatives can damage the intestines and disrupt the immune system. Citric acid can attack the teeth and also transport harmful metals such as aluminum into the brain. Industrial flavors can cause obesity. Phosphates can accelerate the aging process and cause diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, bone weakness, and osteoporosis to occur earlier in life.
Additives are only used in tiny doses. However, more and more substances are being authorized and the individual additives are being produced in ever larger quantities. Phosphates, for example, are used worldwide as food additives at a rate of over 300,000 tonnes per year. In the case of sweeteners, the annual figure is 750,000 tonnes. Citric acid is one of the record holders: About 3 million tons are produced worldwide every year, most of it for food. In the case of glutamate, it is even 3.3 million tons per year.
Surprisingly, the effects of the individual chemicals multiply when consumed jointly. This was shown, among other things, by a study conducted by the University of Liverpool with the two dyes E104 (quinoline yellow) and E133 (brilliant blue), the flavor enhancer glutamate (E621), and the sweetener aspartame (E951).
The result: The harmful effects of the additives on the brain (neurotoxicity) did not add up, as would be expected, but multiplied. A mixture of the blue dye E133 and glutamate (E621), for example, did not slow down cell growth by 15.8 percent, as would have been expected, but by 46.1 percent. One plus one therefore does not equal to two, but up to six.
When approving additives, it is always taken into account what quantities of which foods people consume. In animal experiments a dose is then determined which is released as a daily tolerable amount. A safety margin is then applied, and the so-called "ADI value" is calculated ("Acceptable Daily Intake"). From this, a maximum quantity is fixed for each food. This should be calculated in such a way that the ADI value is not exceeded even with frequent consumption.
But with many additives, especially children but also adults apparently consume far more than is good for them. This was the result of studies conducted by the EU Commission and the member states and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA).
The recording of consumption volumes in the European Union seems to have been systematically delayed, as has been criticized even by the European Court of Auditors. In a special report, it strongly criticized the lax surveillance practice.
Authorities can therefore not give an absolute guarantee of safety, since they know neither about the exact quantities used in individual foods nor about the total quantities actually consumed.
As a result, since the supervisory authorities refuse to guarantee protection against the risks posed by additives, consumers must protect themselves.
So everyone has to know for themselves what they want to expose themselves to.
DR. WATSON helps – with solid information about food additives and their alternatives.
Because it is quite simple, life without E-numbers. There is a safe way to get by without additives: Real food. Cooking for yourself using fresh ingredients.
There are no additives in real food.
Make the dressing for the salad yourself, cook the soup fresh or for a few days in advance, stir fruit or jam into the natural yoghurt.
It is: the traditional way of eating. In medicine, for example, the Mediterranean diet is now considered the gold standard for the prevention of diseases.
And: it is also the most enjoyable way of eating. Some even speak of a "gourmet diet", which is primarily oriented towards taste - and thus towards the neurological laws for the optimal supply of the individually necessary nutrients.
And: It is not only best for humans, but also for animals and the environment. And, of course, the children, and thus the following generations, the future of the planet.