Food Additives in Ultra-Processed Packaged Foods: An Examination of US Household Grocery Store Purchases

Abstract

Background: Food additives have been used mainly in the past century to perform specific functions in foods. Some types of food additives have been linked to adverse health outcomes, yet there is little research examining food additives in the US food supply.

Objective: To examine the proportion of products purchased by US households containing four common technical food additives using time-specific food composition data and examine whether purchases have changed over time.

Participants/setting: Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panels, 2001 and 2019.

Main outcome measures: The proportion of packaged food products containing common types of food additives purchased by US households was determined overall and by food category.

Statistical analysis performed: Differences were examined using Student t test; P value < 0.001 was considered significant.

Results: Between 2001 and 2019, the proportion of food products purchased by US households that contained additives increased from 49.6% to 59.5% (P < 0.001). The proportion of carbonated soft drinks purchased containing flavors decreased, with a subsequent increase in purchases containing nonnutritive sweeteners. Baby foods showed a 20% increase in the proportion of purchases containing additives and >15% increase in the proportion of purchases containing three or more additives.

Conclusions: There is convincing evidence that US household purchases of common types of technical food additives are increasing. Despite some positive changes such as a decrease in the use of added flavors in carbonated soft drinks, across most food categories an increase in purchases of all types of products containing additives was observed. In particular the finding that purchases of baby food products containing additives have increased substantially is crucial in informing future research in this area and warrants further investigation.

Keywords: Additives; Baby food; Colors; Packaged foods; Sugar-sweetened beverages; Sweeteners.