Food Additives and Micronutrient Homeostasis: Bioaccumulation, Molecular Mechanisms, and Health Implications

Food additives and food-associated chemicals are integral to modern food production, processing, preservation, packaging, and formulation. Although many have long histories of use, advances in analytical chemistry, molecular toxicology, nutritional sciences, and multi-omics technologies are providing new opportunities to examine their biological fate and effects at exposure levels relevant to human and animal health. Recent regulatory actions and renewed evaluations of compounds such as brominated vegetable oil (BVO), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), potassium bromate, titanium dioxide, and other food-associated chemicals further highlight the need for mechanistic research connecting exposure with molecular and physiological outcomes.An important but comparatively understudied dimension of food additive safety is the intersection between chemical exposure and micronutrient biology. Food-associated compounds or their metabolites may accumulate in tissues, interact with essential elements, alter micronutrient absorption, distribution, metabolism, or excretion, and influence micronutrient-dependent enzymes and signaling pathways. Conversely, micronutrient status may modify susceptibility to chemical exposure and cellular responses to oxidative, metabolic, endocrine, or inflammatory stress.BVO provides a timely example, with experimental evidence of tissue accumulation and alterations in thyroid hormone homeostasis contributing to its renewed evaluation and eventual withdrawal from authorized use in foods in the United States. However, questions remain regarding brominated metabolites, tissue persistence and clearance, interactions between bromine and iodine biology, and translation from animal models to humans.This Research Topic aims to advance a broader molecular understanding of food additive safety by examining how food-associated chemicals are absorbed, metabolized, distributed, accumulated, and eliminated, and how these processes interact with micronutrient homeostasis and pathways relevant to health and disease. A key focus of this collection is understanding internal biological dose and tissue burden rather than relying solely on external dietary exposure.By integrating nutritional biochemistry, molecular toxicology, and contemporary analytical approaches, the collection will explore persistent molecular forms, interactions with essential nutrients, susceptibility to exposure, and the consequences of exposure cessation. Studies investigating post-exposure kinetics, tissue clearance, recovery of micronutrient homeostasis, and the reversibility or persistence of molecular and physiological effects are particularly encouraged.We welcome contributions that provide mechanistic or translational insights into the biological fate of food-associated chemicals, their interactions with micronutrient homeostasis, and their consequences for human and animal health. The scope includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:• Bioaccumulation, tissue distribution, metabolism, persistence, and clearance of food additives and their metabolites• Interactions with iodine, selenium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and other essential micronutrients• Effects on micronutrient transport, storage, utilization, excretion, enzymes and signaling pathways• Brominated compounds, BVO, bromide-iodine interactions and thyroid hormone homeostasis • Endocrine signaling, oxidative stress, redox biology, mitochondrial and lipid metabolism• Developmental, reproductive, neurological, immunological, and metabolic consequences • Effects of nutritional status, age, sex, genetics, life stage, and dietary patterns on susceptibility• Dose-response relationships and biomarkers of exposure, internal dose, tissue burden, biological effects and recovery• Metabolomic, lipidomic, proteomic, metallomic, transcriptomic, and integrated multi-omics approaches• Human biomonitoring and comparative studies connecting animal models with human health • Reversibility and persistence of molecular and physiological effects following cessation of exposure Topic editors: Cecilia Giulivi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85303/food-additives-and-micronutrient-homeostasis-bioaccumulation-molecular-mechanisms-and-health-implications