Popular
soda ingredient, caramel color, poses cancer risk to consumers
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Science Daily
 |
| Bill Cosby thinks Coke is fine |
Public health researchers have analyzed soda consumption data in
order to characterize people's exposure to a potentially carcinogenic byproduct
of some types of caramel color. Caramel color is a common ingredient in colas
and other dark soft drinks.
The results show that between 44 and 58 percent of
people over the age of six typically have at least one can of soda per day,
possibly more, potentially exposing them to 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI), a
possible human carcinogen formed during the manufacture of some kinds of
caramel color.
Building on an analysis of 4-MEI concentrations in 11 different
soft drinks first published by Consumer Reports in 2014, researchers led by a
team at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) estimated exposure
to 4-MEI from caramel-colored soft drinks and modeled the potential cancer
burden related to routine soft drink consumption levels in the United States.
"Soft drink consumers are being exposed to an avoidable and
unnecessary cancer risk from an ingredient that is being added to these
beverages simply for aesthetic purposes," says Keeve Nachman, PhD, senior
author of the study and director of the Food Production and Public Health
Program at the CLF and an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health. "This unnecessary exposure poses a threat to
public health and raises questions about the continued use of caramel coloring
in soda."
In 2013 and early 2014, Consumer Reports partnered with the CLF
to analyze 4-MEI concentrations of 110 soft drink samples purchased from retail
stores in California and the New York metropolitan area. This study pairs those
results with population beverage consumption data from the National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in order to estimate the population risks
and cancer burden associated with 4-MEI exposures through soda.
While the 2014 study of the 110 samples of soda brands was not
large enough to recommend one brand over another or draw conclusions about
specific brands, results indicated that levels of 4-MEI could vary
substantially across samples, even for the same type of beverage.
"For
example, for diet colas, certain samples had higher or more variable levels of
the compound, while other samples had very low concentrations," says Tyler
Smith, lead author of the study and a program officer with the CLF.
While there's currently no federal limit for 4-MEI in food or
beverages, Consumer Reports petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to set limits
for the potential carcinogen last year. It also shared the findings with the
California Attorney General's office, which enforces the state's Proposition 65
law aimed at reducing consumers' exposure to toxic chemicals.
Under this state
law, any food or beverage sold in the state that exposes consumers to more than
a specific amount of 4-MEI per day requires a health-warning label.
"This new analysis underscores our belief that people
consume significant amounts of soda that unnecessarily elevate their risk of
cancer over the course of a lifetime," says Urvashi Rangan, PhD, executive
director for Consumer Reports' Food Safety and Sustainability Center.
"We
believe beverage makers and the government should take the steps needed to
protect public health. California has already taken an important step by
setting a threshold for prompting Prop 65 labeling based on daily 4-MEI
exposure from a food or beverage, such as a soda. This study sought to answer a
critical question: How much soda do American consumers drink on average?"
Researchers also found sharply contrasting levels of 4-MEI in
some soft drinks purchased in the New York metropolitan area, versus
California.
"Our study also found that some of the soft drink products
sold in California that we sampled had lower levels of 4-MEI than the samples
we looked at of the same beverages sold outside the state, particularly in our
earlier rounds of testing.
It appears that regulations such as California's
Proposition 65 may be effective at reducing exposure to 4-MEI from soft drinks,
and that beverages can be manufactured in ways that produce less 4-MEI,"
suggests Nachman. "An FDA intervention, such as determining maximum levels
for 4-MEI in beverages, could be a valuable approach to reducing excess cancer
risk attributable to 4-MEI exposure in the U.S. population."
The research was supported by Consumers Union, Grace
Communications Foundation, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
(1K01HL096409).
Story
Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health. Note: Materials may be edited for
content and length.
Journal
Reference:
Tyler J. S. Smith, Julia A. Wolfson, Ding Jiao, Michael J.
Crupain, Urvashi Rangan, Amir Sapkota, Sara N. Bleich, Keeve E. Nachman. Caramel Color in Soft Drinks
and Exposure to 4-Methylimidazole: A Quantitative Risk Assessment. PLOS ONE, 2015; 10 (2):
e0118138 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118138
Cite
This Page:
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Popular
soda ingredient, caramel color, poses cancer risk to consumers." Science Daily,
18 February 2015.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150218191653.htm>.
