HypertensionCohort study
Preservative food additives, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases: the NutriNet-Santé study
- Prospective cohort study
- time-dependent exposure
- multi-adjusted Cox models
Authors' conclusion
Multiple associations between exposure to preservative food additives widely used in industrial foods and higher incidence of hypertension or CVD were observed in this large prospective cohort.
Study context
- Population
- Adults in the NutriNet-Santé cohort (France, 2009–2024)78.7% women
- Participants
- 112,395 adults
- Exposure
- Higher vs lower consumers of preservative food additives
- Outcome
- Incidence of hypertension and CVD
- Follow-up
- Median 7.9 years
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Higher consumers vs Lower consumersHazard ratio (95% CI)
total non-antioxidant preservatives; hypertension (n = 5544)
1.29(1.20–1.39)
total non-antioxidant preservatives; CVD (n = 2450)
1.16(1.04–1.29)
total antioxidant preservatives; hypertension
1.22(1.13–1.31)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Individual preservative additives (17 consumed by ≥10%)
- Associated with higher incidence of hypertension, after multiple test correction
- 8
- Associated with higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), after multiple test correction
- 1
Original publication
Preservative food additives, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases: the NutriNet-Santé study. Eur Heart J. Published 20 May 2026. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehag308
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it