E407 --tiesitkö tätä?

Rottakokeita ym tuloksia vuodelta 2001. Koko tutkimus kannattaa tulostaa tuolta:

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2001/109p983-994tobacman/tobacman-full.html

"...Because it can induce acute inflammation, carrageenan has been widely used in experimental models of inflammation to assess activity of anti-inflammatory drugs and to study mediators of inflammation...





The major pieces of evidence that support an argument to reconsider the advisability of use of carrageenan as a GRAS food additive are:


Degraded carrageenan is a known carcinogen in animal models

Undegraded carrageenan is a known co-carcinogen in animal models of carcinogenesis

In animal models, both degraded and undegraded carrageenan have been associated with development of intestinal ulcerations that resemble ulcerative colitis

Hydrolysis such as may occur by exposure to gastric acid in the human stomach can lead to the depolymerization of undegraded carrageenan and the availability of degraded carrageenan

Food-grade carrageenan may be contaminated with low molecular weight, degraded carrageenan that may arise during food processing

The use of a viscosity measurement to characterize a carrageenan sample is insufficient because the presence of a small number of large molecules (and undegraded carrageenan may have molecular weight in the millions) may obscure a significant low molecular weight fraction.
The potential role of carrageenan in the development of gastrointestinal malignancy and inflammatory bowel disease requires careful reconsideration of the advisability of its continued use as a food additive."