Infant and children's exposure to food additives: An assessment of a comprehensive packaged food database

This study aimed to analyze the exposure of Brazilian infants and children to food additives through a comprehensive packaged food labelling database. Data collection was conducted at a large retail chain supermarket store in 2020 collecting the food labelling information from 7828 packaged foods. In total, 1118 packaged foods targeted at infants and children divided in 39 food groups were analyzed to investigate the presence, number, type and functional class of food additives declared in the ingredient list. Of these, 86 % declared at least one type of food additive. The average number of food additives in a single food was 4, with a maximum of 20 additives. In 17 food groups, there were no additive-free options. The most common additive functional classes were flavorings (70.7 %), emulsifiers (43.6 %), and color agents (33.8 %). These same functional classes most frequently co-occurred with other classes. These results suggest an important exposure of Brazilian children to food additives, and the situation is little analyzed in other countries. Therefore, it is urgent to identify this issue around the world, as well that food regulatory agencies should consider more restrictive regulations on the use of additives in packaged foods targeted at infants and children. •Of the 1118 food items, 86 % declared at least one additive in the ingredient list.•Flavorings, emulsifiers, and color agents were the most frequent additive classes.•Most food items (80 %) contained more than one additive.•Cluster and network analyses identified co-occurrence patterns of additive classes.•Classes with evidence of health impacts, i.e., color, preservatives, sweeteners and emulsifiers, co-occurred with others.