Food additive trehalose linked to bacterial epidemics

Houston, TX – The widely used food additive and sugar substitute trehalose has been linked to the increasing frequency and severity of health-care-associated outbreaks caused by bacterium Clostridium difficile.

In a study that appears in the journal Nature, researchers at Baylor University in Texas discovered that in laboratory tests and animal models, trehalose enhances the virulence of epidemic C. difficile lineages that predominate in patient infections, the university said in a news release. | READ MORE