# 80% of Pre-Packaged Foods in America Are Banned in Other Countries



## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/8...america-banned-other-countries-135100604.html

80% of Pre-Packaged Foods in America Are Banned in Other Countries

If you or your kids enjoy pre-packaged convenience foods commonly found in grocery stores across the U.S. such as Froot Loops, Swanson dinners, Mountain Dew, and frozen potato and bread products, you may think twice before purchasing them after hearing what they contain: dangerous chemicals that other countries around the globe have deemed toxic to the point that they're illegal, and companies are fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for including them in food products.

In a new book Rich Food, Poor Food, authors Mira and Jason Calton provide a list of what they term "Banned Bad Boys" - ingredients commonly used in up to 80% of all American convenience food that have been banned by other countries, with information about which countries banned each substance and why.

And though it might not surprise you to hear that Olestra - commonly used in low/no-fat snack foods and known to cause serious gastrointestinal issues for those who consume it (understatement) - is on that list, having been banned in both the United Kingdom and Canada, you may be shocked to hear that Mountain Dew, Fresca and Squirt all contain brominated vegetable oil, a substance that has been banned in more than 100 countries "because it has been linked to basically every form of thyroid disease - from cancer to autoimmune diseases - known to man."

Related: The 25 healthiest foods for under $1

Way to go, FDA! Woot!

You might also be upset to hear that the food coloring used to make your kid's delicious Mac & Cheese dinner visually appealing - yellow #5 and yellow #6, namely - is made from coal tar, which among other things is an active ingredient in lice shampoo and has been linked to allergies, ADHD, and cancer in animals. And gaaaaah.

Then there's azodicarbonamide - commonly found in frozen dinners and frozen potato and bread products - which is used make things like bleach and foamed plastics like those found in yoga mats (tasty!). Azodicarbonamide has been banned in most European countries because it's known to induce asthma, and is in fact deemed so dangerous that in Singapore its use carries a hefty $500,00 fine and up to 15 years in prison.

Yet, according to the FDA, it's SO TOTALLY FINE for us to keep shoveling it into our kid's faceholes: "[Azodicarbonamide] is approved to be a bleaching agent in cereal flour and is permitted for direct addition to food for human consumption."

Oooookay then.

Finally, there's butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) - found in Post, Kelloggs and Quaker brand cereals - which is made from petroleum and is a known cancer-causing agent. It's been banned in England and Japan, but those of us in the U.S. can keep right on serving up to our children for breakfast, because AMMURICA. And FREEDOMZ.

Anyone else find all of this, ohhhh I don't know, more than a tad bit disturbing? I'm not ashamed to say I have love for the blue box Mac & Cheese, and to think that chemicals known and recognized world-wide as completely toxic are included in that - a product openly marketed as being a meal FOR KIDS - makes me more than a little ragey. I mean, those chemicals can't be what makes it taste so good, right? So can't we, umm, just use something else instead? (PLEEEASE DON'T MAKE ME GIVE UP THE MAC & CHEESE, PLEEEASE.) Sigh.

-By Tracey Gaughran-Perez


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## GrinnanBarrett (Aug 31, 2012)

More TWINKIES for us. GB


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

My family in Spain when they come over are amaze at all the chemicals in our foods and wine, I got to the point I make my own ham, cold cuts , cheese.Biobacon,I hope this one spreads around, I have always preach about home cook meals from scratch; olive oil, sugar, honey, sea salt, corn syrup free foods and weird names added in.
Good Job posting this one.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Don't eat beef for parts of cows are used in asphalt road building. Do you want to eat "food" that is used to build roads? Cows are toxic.


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

Bobb I understand as a true neutral alignment you have to challenge everything but you missed the mark on this one. In order for your cow to be similar to the food above, the cow would have to be made of asphalt. They are not saying mac and cheese is bad, they are saying that we dumb ass americans are eating mac and cheese made from some pretty bad stuff.


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

Well said, biobacon. We really need to read the package labels beyond high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated vegetable oil. We also need to research the ingredients, as certain chemical names are actually vitamins and others like aspartame are (horror!)


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

biobacon said:


> Bobb I understand as a true neutral alignment you have to challenge everything but you missed the mark on this one. In order for your cow to be similar to the food above, the cow would have to be made of asphalt. They are not saying mac and cheese is bad, they are saying that we dumb ass americans are eating mac and cheese made from some pretty bad stuff.


I understand what they're saying and the message that they're trying to convey but where they fail is on connecting their message to the truth. Simply, is what they say true, not in terms of reporting, but in terms of effect, meaning that it's true that the ingredient is included in M&C but is it true that this is harmful.

A lot of people don't understand that a chemical compound doesn't gain safety by occurring in nature and gain danger by being synthesized by man, they believe that the chemicals in our food that are there by virtue of nature are safe and that chemicals in our food that are there by virtue of human decision are unsafe.

Secondly, the fact that other countries ban the food additives shouldn't be taken as evidence that they're doing so for reasons of safety. Europeans are notorious for taking ideological positions on food purity that have no basis in science. They also take positions based on protectionist concerns where they are trying to safeguard the economic interests of their own domestic food industry.

The fact that France bans the importation of California champagne and declares it to sparkling wine instead of champagne has nothing to do with the quality of the California product and instead is a law designed to safeguard the interests of French champagne bottlers.

Let's look at this one substance that your report quotes:
. . brominated vegetable oil, a substance that has been banned in more than 100 countries "because it has been linked to basically every form of thyroid disease - from cancer to autoimmune diseases - known to man."​
Here's wikipedia:

One case reported that a man who consumed *two to four liters of a soda containing BVO on a daily basis* experienced memory loss, tremors, fatigue, loss of muscle coordination, headache, and ptosis of the right eyelid, as well as elevated serum chloride.​
There are a sizable number of people who consume such large quantities of soda on a daily basis and yet we're dealing with one reported case of a side effect.

So, why is butter legal? If I consumed* 4 liters of butter per day* for a decade or more I'm pretty sure I'd be dead of a heart attack at some point in that experiment.


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

Well I don't know what an elevated serum chloride is but yeah I agree with your main point, you take that much of something your going to have some issues. I still argue that the point of the argument is correct however. But then again as of late Im pretty much only interested in watching SpongeBob because there is far too much to worry about and its giving me a headache to think about it. Time to drink some diet mountain dew and eat some Doritoes. Or in my case its water and a peanut butter sandwhich. O crap floride and bugs in the PB. Damn.


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## DKRinAK (Nov 21, 2011)

Reminds me of the Alar buzz a while bqck.

While Alar has been verified as a human carcinogen, the amount necessary for it to be dangerous may well be extremely high. The lab tests that prompted the scare required an amount of Alar equal to over *5,000 gallons *(20,000 L) of a*pple juice per day.*

Or sweeteners
Controversy developed when, in 1966, a study reported that some intestinal bacteria could desulfonate cyclamate to produce cyclohexylamine, a compound suspected to have some chronic toxicity in animals. Further research resulted in a 1969 study that found the common 10:1 cyclamate:saccharin mixture to increase the incidence of bladder cancer in rats. The released study was showing that eight out of 240 rats fed a mixture of saccharin and cyclamates, at levels of humans ingesting *350 cans of diet soda per day*, developed bladder tumors.

A litany of these 'scares' can be found here
http://thecabin.net/stories/082001/wor_0820010065.shtml

The first question you should ask on any report of 'food additives' is "WHO WILL PROFIT FROM THIS?" Then ask why.

The latest on - BPA, has been almost funny.

Like airline travel, BPA is everywhere in our lives. It's found primarily in such hard plastics as baby bottles and the interior lining of canned goods, but it is also sometimes present in CDs, dental fillings, store receipts, kitchen appliances, newspaper ink and Blackberries. It's there to help maintain the structure of objects and provides a protective coating for wires and cans. Without BPA, people would be exposed to more harmful metals and substances.

Nonetheless, BPA has suddenly become ground zero in the endless enviro war against chemicals.

A preview of the BPA battle is available for viewing in Canada. In their book "Slow Death by Rubber Duck," Canadian activists Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie chronicle how they used the media to *terrify *soccer moms who then petitioned the government to ban BPA.

In 2007, the *environmental activists *organized a "baby rally" where they equipped mothers and toddlers with signs reading "Don't Pollute Me." In response to the public outcry, confused and panicked retailers tossed plastic baby bottles and other BPA-containing products from their shelves. When the head of Health Canada's investigation of BPA Mark Richardson let slip in a speech to a medical group in Arizona that "exposures [to BPA] are so low as to be totally inconsequential, in my view," antichemical crusaders pressed the government to investigate Mr. Richardson's bias. He was abruptly reassigned.

In its January update the FDA notes that BPA does not pose a risk at low levels of human exposure. Yet it goes on to recommend ways to limit exposure. *Antichemical crusaders* are likely to drive years of opposition through that crack of suspicion.

Most of those calling for stricter regulation of BPA cite a 2008 report by the National Toxicology Program, which said the agency "has some concern for effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate glands in fetuses, infants, and children" based on low-dose, laboratory animal studies.

Yes, but keep reading. *Ignored by the critics are the report's other 320 pages, which mostly exonerate BPA,* including the caveat that "'low' dose findings in laboratory animals have proven to be controversial for a variety of reasons, including concern for insufficient replication by independent investigators, questions on the suitability of various experimental approaches, relevance of the specific animal model used for evaluating potential human risks and incomplete understanding or agreement on the potential adverse nature of reported effects." That's all.

A good sized grain of salt should be applied to anything put out by "*activists' *or the like.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Bobbb said:


> Don't eat beef for parts of cows are used in asphalt road building. Do you want to eat "food" that is used to build roads? Cows are toxic.


In todays world each and every part of a "cow" (or any other slaughter animal) will be used to make something else ... Parts also show up in soap, rubber, plastics, lubricants, crayons, waxes, cleaners, personal care products, buffing compounds, mining chemicals, and greases... And the list goes on and on.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

*Andi said:


> In todays world each and every part of a "cow" (or any other slaughter animal) will be used to make something else ... Parts also show up in soap, rubber, plastics, lubricants, crayons, waxes, cleaners, personal care products, buffing compounds, mining chemicals, and greases... And the list goes on and on.


I thought that people would find it interesting the cows are used in their road pavement.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

biobacon said:


> http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/8...america-banned-other-countries-135100604.html
> 
> 80% of Pre-Packaged Foods in America Are Banned in Other Countries
> 
> ...


It's all hysteria on the part of countries that are even more liberal than America.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

BillS said:


> It's all hysteria on the part of countries that are even more liberal than America.


Is it ???

In my world cows eat grass not other animals.


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