Consumer Reports has been watching out for us on a vast range of issues for more than 80 years. One of its latest efforts was an investigation into contaminants and additives in 40 common processed foods…
Consumer Reports (CR) recently partnered with Yuka to perform a massive investigation into current levels of contaminants and additives in 40 popular snack foods.
Deep, dark omens
And CR prefaced its report with a deep, dark statement that will make anyone concerned with what’s in their food sit up and go bug-eyes:
“Nobody, not even the Food and Drug Administration, knows exactly how many additives are in the U.S. food supply. One of the most commonly cited figures—roughly 10,000—comes from an estimate published 15 years ago. Many of these are effectively unknown to federal regulators, thanks to a decades-old legal loophole that allows companies to introduce new substances into food without notifying the FDA or undergoing federal safety review.”
So.. CR tested 40 popular products for eight additives and two contaminants where US standards diverge from European authorities, or where research suggests current limits may not be protective enough.
Overall…
One-quarter of the products tested contained concerning levels of additives. CR defined ‘concerning’ as, “enough that a single serving had more than the amount some public health agencies have ident-ified as safe for adults or children to consume daily.” The tally grew to over a third after factoring-in contaminants, that can end up in food unintentionally as a result of manufacturing processes.
Notably, nearly two-thirds of the 40 products tested contained enough of at least one additive to exceed a broader group of reference levels associated with an increased risk of developing cancer, heart disease, or diabetes.
Naming names…
CR has never been afraid of naming names of brands it’s pegged as offenders. And it spotlights a broad range of offenders in its report.
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- A single serving of Hostess Donettes Powdered Mini Donuts contained nearly 19 times the amount of a carcinogenic contaminant that public health officials have said is safe to consume daily.
- The amount in a serving of Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies was over nine times that same threshold, which is designed to reduce lifetime cancer risk.
- The Hostess Donettes contained 261 mg of titanium dioxide per serving—over 760 times the amount detected in the other three products combined.
- Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Takis Fuego, and grape-flavored liquid Kool-Aid all contained elevated amounts of substances associated with either neurobehavioral issues or DNA damage at certain levels of exposure.
At the root of the problem…
… Is an aging, rigid regulatory system that’s overdue for an overhaul, CR charges.
“We’re living in a world where the food industry completely self-regulates, and they are not doing a good job of it when it comes to our safety, and people finally know that,” says Jennifer Pomeranz, a lawyer and Associate Professor who oversees New York University’s public health policy research lab. “It would be a real political loss for action not to take place.”
But action appears to be in the offing…
The FDA has just announced a new framework for reevaluating the safety of chemicals in the US food supply. It has also launched reassessments of two additives: azodicarbonamide (ADA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), the latter of which was among the substances CR tested for.
My take
Time will tell how thoroughly and deeply the FDA will go in reevaluating contaminants and additives present in the preponderance of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) currently ‘out there’. But I’m betting the deep, dark preface to the CR report with which we opened this post will look like a nursery rhyme…
~ Maggie J.