Life Style & Wellness

Why some banned food additions in Europe are not in the United States?


WAlk below your grocery path, you will discover many foods that contain the ingredients that you will not find in Europe. The extraordinary method in which the United States organizes components in news and hot seat now, thanks to the last ban on food additive –Red dye 3A synthetic dye associated with animal cancer – and the rise of Robert F. Kennedy Junior, President Trump chose to lead the US Department of Health and B human (HHS). During his confirmation session on January 30, Kennedy said it was compared to Europe, “The United States looks at any innocent new chemical to prove its condemnation.”

“It must end,” he said.

Here is what to know about some of the most controversial food added materials under a microscope and why the additions are organized differently in the United States

The main components banned in Europe but are allowed in the United States

Titanium dioxide is used to make foods and drinks more brighter. It is considered by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Human consumptionBut it was not found in foods in Europe. In 2022, European Food Safety Authority Titanium dioxide banSaying that after reviewing thousands of studies, he can no longer consider the addition of the addition because it has the ability to damage the DNA or cause damage to chromosomes.

“chemical It accumulates in the body Melanie Bench, Vice President of Government Affairs of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), who damages immune and nervous systems. petition To the Food and Drug Administration in 2023, it is required to ban Titanium dioxide.

In the United States, it is still present in many sweets, including sour children Watermelon candyThe hostess Chocolate cakes And the host of the powder DonettesIndividual friendly cake Ice cream birthday cakeZweet Sour beltsAnd Scrub.

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Potassium is another prohibited component in the UK and many other countries around the world – including Canada, Brazil and Argentina – but allowed in the United States in certain quantities. It has been linked to cancer In humans as well as bowel problems, they were listed.It is likely to have cancer for humansIn 1999 by the International Research Agency on Cancer. It is used to improve dough and bread tissue, and in the United States, it is still present in some bread (such as the soft heroes of A&M BORONX) and frozen pizza (such as Imo’s pepperoniAnd baked goods.

Added to the products to extend the lifetime of the validity, and propyl paraben is associated with animals to disable hormones. Since 2006, it was illegal to use it as a food additive in Europe. But in the United States, it is an element included in baking and bakery products, including Tortilla Tortilla White Corn Chi- and Decorating red ice Of great value, the general brand of Walmart.

How to organize the United States uniquely additions

Thomas Galligan, the main world of food additives in the public interest center, is a consumer advocacy group, the United States has a completely different approach to regulating additives from many other countries.

“The European Union says that if they cannot refuse to harm, they will not be able to find an added safe.” In the United States, the tape is much lower. Companies can add new ingredients to their foods without informing the Food and Drug Administration. “In the United States, it seems that the FDA is awaiting behavior until the harm is definitely proven,” says Galligan.

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Companies that include these additions in their products defend their safety. “All of its components are safe and manufactured in strict compliance with the safety requirements put in place by the organizers, including the Food and Drug Administration.” JM SMUCKer, who owns Hostess, said that titanium dioxide is a common element approved by the FDA and that its products follow the FDA regulations where the amount of titanium does not exceed 1 % of the weight of the food. Food and safety are always its maximum priority, “said Wall Mart, who results from great value products such as the red ice that contains propill Paraben. Many companies have not received suspension requests, including Mondelez, which owns the company that manufactures Sour Patch Kids; Brix Holdings, which owns Friendly’s; Zweet Store, which makes Zweet’s; And Hormel, who owns Chi-Ci’s. A & M BRONX BAKING and IMO did not return to comment.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it cannot provide the comment because the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services has issued “stopping collective communications and public manifestations that are not directly related to emergency or critical cases to maintain health.”

How to infiltrate the food supply

The presence of many added materials illuminates what many experts see as a lack of supervision of chemicals in food. When the FDA (FDA) is thinking about adding food, you will invite public suspension, and search for inputs of scientists, academics and companies. But for many food additions, companies do not have to request a general suspension or even specific approval from the FDA to add new chemicals to their foods.

Instead, it can hold its own painting to announce the additive as “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS. The company can either notify the FDA as adding the chemical, or Put this process And just start adding it because the painting you rented consider it safe. Government Accountability Office I criticized this process In 2010, the FDA “does not help ensure the safety of all new GRAS decisions.” And one Ticket A review of 403 GRS notifications found that companies often use the same small group of people to make these decisions.

Gurn has arisen from the Congress Bill since 1958, but the term has been dedicated to daily materials such as flour or vegetable oil that was used repeatedly as additives. Galligan worries about the presence of GRAS materials that are currently used and that can contribute to diseases in a way that scientists have not yet known. “There are chemicals that enter food supplies without the supervision of the FDA,” he says. (This is unlike Europe, as a government agency belonging to the external entity of the food ingredients that are safe.)

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Nearly 99 % of the new chemicals that were presented in American food supply between 2000 and 2021 came through GRAS, instead of reviewing FDA, according to EWG. “This is a huge number,” says Pench from EWG.

GRAS has gone before. In 2022, a company called Daily Harvest began adding a material called Tara Flour to its Lentil and Leek Clumbles product, and described GRAS add -on. That year, Nearly 400 people became sick From the product. Some people fell ill that their liver was disrupted and they were forced to remove the gallbladder. The perpetrator is likely to be Tara – i.e. FDA It was not prohibited until 2024. (The daily harvest did not provide a comment for this story.)

Why did not most of the added materials not approved

One of the reasons why companies choose GRAS is that the food and drug management process to agree to relatively slow add -ons. As well as the process to ban them. The 3rd dye has been banned from use in topical medications and cosmetics since 1990, when the FDA (FDA) found that the addition caused cancer in animals.

Bench says the charitable interpretation of the speed of the slow food and drug management is that it lacks resources. But there are other problems about the way the Food and Drug Administration reviews foods that are not only associated with the lack of resources, she says.

“The European Union has made concerted efforts starting in 2010 or so to return systematically, consider the permissible food chemicals in Europe at that time and determine whether it is still safe,” she says. “We did not do anything like that.”

Signs of possible change

If Kennedy is confirmed by HHS minister – who is supervising the Food and Drug Administration – plans to change this system. He publicly criticized GRA during his confirmation session, and said he would significantly change the food and drug administration.

And he said to me video It was published in October by promoting a healthy Make America agenda again.

California is another change agent. It forced its ban on potassium, propylbapin, red -3 dye, and destroyed vegetable oils on many companies to start reformulate their foods because it is difficult to manufacture different foods for California from the rest of the country. Congress members began attention. In September 2024, Representative Rose Deloro of Connecticut submitted a draft law, Poisonous free food lawThis would change the GRAS and require companies to provide more evidence that food is safe before using it in products.

“There is increasing awareness that the system is broken and that food companies should not be the one that determines whether their products are safe or not,” Pench says.

When this awareness reaches groceries is an open question.

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