ArticlePublic health nutrition2023
Emulsifiers in ultra-processed foods in the UK food supply.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical Trial: The Effects of Emulsifiers in the Food Supply on Disease Activity in Crohn's Disease: An Exploratory Double-Blinded Randomised Feeding Trial.Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics · 2025Trial
- Cayman enables large-scale analysis of gut microbiome carbohydrate-active enzyme repertoires.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Separating Myths From Facts About Bread and Health.Nutrition bulletin · 2026Review
- The Future of Food Processing-A Food Science and Technology Perspective. Proceedings of a Roundtable Event.Nutrition bulletin · 2026Article
- Industrial Bread Composition: Potential Implications for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Eighty-five percent of menu items from the six highest selling fast-food restaurants in the USA are ultra-processed.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- The prevalence and co-occurrence of emulsifiers, thickeners and stabilizers in food products on the Norwegian market.Food & nutrition research · 2025Article
- Is there an "optimal" diet for prevention of inflammatory bowel disease?JGH open : an open access journal of gastroenterology and hepatology · 2024Review
- Ultra-processed foods and food additives in gut health and disease.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveUltra-processed foods (UPF), including those containing food additive emulsifiers, have received research attention due to evidence implicating them in the pathogenesis of certain diseases. The aims of this research were to develop a large-scale, brand-level database of UPF in the UK food supply and to characterise the occurrence and co-occurrence of food additive emulsifiers.
designA database was compiled sampling all products from the food categories contributing to energy intake from UPF in the UK from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2008-2014). Every food in these categories were identified from online supermarket provision from the 'big four' supermarkets that dominate the market share in the UK, comprising Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.
settingMajor supermarkets in the UK.
resultsA total of 32 719 food products in the UK supermarket food supply were returned in searches. Of these, 12 844 products were eligible and manually reviewed for the presence of emulsifiers. Emulsifiers were present in 6642 (51·7 %) food products. Emulsifiers were contained in 95·0 % of 'Pastries, buns and cakes', 81·9 % of 'Milk-based drinks', 81·0 % of 'Industrial desserts' and 77·5 % of 'Confectionary'. Fifty-one per cent of all emulsifier-containing foods contained multiple emulsifiers. Across emulsifier-containing foods, there were a median of two emulsifiers (IQR 2) per product. The five most common emulsifiers were lecithin (23·4 % of all products), mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (14·5 %), diphosphates (11·6 %), and xanthan gum and pectin (8·0 %).
conclusionsFindings from this study are the first to demonstrate the widespread occurrence and co-occurrence of emulsifiers in UPF in the UK food supply.
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