Recent findings imply that great consideration should be given to the potential health risks of food additives on gut microbiota. Glycerol monocaprylate (GMC) is a widely consumed food preservative and emulsifier. Our results indicated that GMC significantly ameliorated visceral fat accumulation and systemic inflammation in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. Furthermore, GMC induced improvements on the composition and function of gut microbiota, resulting in increased beneficial gut bacteria (Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus) and promoted production of short chain fatty acids. Notably, GMC-induced metabolic amelioration is closely related to the regulation in gut microbiota. Overall, our findings supported that unlike the emulsifiers previously reported to damage intestinal health, GMC performed the potential on attenuating HFD-induced metabolic disorders and gut microbiota dysbiosis, which also refined on the safety evaluation of GMC on gut microbiota. Our findings suggest that when evaluating the safety of food additives with regards to gut microbiota, it is important to take into account the specific characteristics of the additive in question, rather than simply relying on its classification.

最近的研究结果表明，应充分考虑食品添加剂对肠道微生物群的潜在健康风险。甘油单辛酸酯 (GMC) 是一种广泛使用的食品防腐剂和乳化剂。我们的结果表明，GMC 显着改善了高脂肪饮食 (HFD) 喂养小鼠的内脏脂肪堆积和全身炎症。此外，GMC 改善了肠道微生物群的组成和功能，导致有益肠道细菌（双歧杆菌和乳酸杆菌）增加) 并促进短链脂肪酸的产生。值得注意的是，GMC 诱导的代谢改善与肠道微生物群的调节密切相关。总的来说，我们的研究结果支持，与之前报道的损害肠道健康的乳化剂不同，GMC 具有减轻 HFD 引起的代谢紊乱和肠道微生物群失调的潜力，这也完善了 GMC 对肠道微生物群的安全性评估。我们的研究结果表明，在评估食品添加剂对肠道微生物群的安全性时，重要的是要考虑相关添加剂的具体特征，而不是简单地依赖其分类。