Food additives and microbiota: a major breakthrough

Widely used by the agri-food industry, emulsifying agents, a type of food additive, are found in many of our everyday foods (sandwich bread, ice cream, vegetable milks, etc.). The effects of their consumption on health have become a real public health issue, given their widespread presence in today's food supply. Benoit Chassaing, Inserm research director and head of the Microbiota-Host Interactions team at the Institut Pasteur (Inserm/Université Paris Cité/CNRS), has previously shown that these additives could promote the development of chronic inflammatory diseases and metabolic deregulations by acting directly on our intestinal microbiota. This discovery paves the way for a personalized nutrition approach based on the intestinal microbiota to maintain good intestinal and metabolic health.

(video in french, English subtitles available)