Are emulsifiers bad? Not enough evidence to say we should stop eating them

Food additives do a lot of good: they prolong shelf life, improve taste and texture, and add colour to otherwise unappealing products. They are also highly controversial and garner a lot of media attention. But are additives really bad for your health, or are headlines like “E-numbers in ice cream ‘could increase YOUR risk of bowel cancer’” just fear-mongering?

Food additives go through careful testing before they are allowed in food and drink, and many countries have regulatory bodies to assess their safety. But recent work in cell cultures and animals suggests that eating a common type of food additive, called emulsifiers, can harm the gut microbiome, increasing gut permeability – commonly known as “leaky gut”.