Nobody Is Poisoning Your Groceries
Nobody Is Poisoning Your Groceries
By David Norcross and Patricia Patnode
TikTok and Instagram are rife with travel vloggers complaining about U.S. food while sampling dishes from other countries. To be fair, our shelf-stable food producers are less restricted in their production process than their European counterparts, but that doesn't mean that all of our food is "making us sick" like some claim.
Food labeling requirements are quite strict, there is no mystery when you buy a bag of licorice. The ingredient list is right there, available to Google in the grocery aisle.
The perceived difference in food quality, for certain foods, is likely a result of differences in consumer preference. Americans’ don’t mind buying packaged bread, because most of us don’t bake bread every week or seek out a local bakery for fresh bread. The same is not necessarily true in Germany, for example, a country where bread is consumed with most meals, and bakeries are a popular business venture. Italy is similar with pasta and olive oil.
Every person is able to curate their kitchen cabinet according to their preferences. It is not the government's responsibility to intervene if a person chooses to consume excessive amounts of sugar, as long as the products are fairly labeled and do not deceive customers.
That doesn't mean that just because something is generally safe to eat, it is advisable to consume it in large quantities. One researcher who conducted a study on the frequency of Americans consuming processed food pointed out that,
“The overall composition of the average U.S. diet has shifted towards a more processed diet. This is concerning, as eating more ultra-processed foods is associated with poor diet quality and higher risk of several chronic diseases..”
Although there are certain market manipulations that may make processed and packaged food cheaper (such as corn and soy subsidies), the larger issue lies in the fact that Americans have a high demand for such food and often consume unhealthy quantities of it.
It's not feasible to regulate Americans into smaller jeans, but we can certainly help people understand what truly constitutes a healthy diet.
Highlights:
“Making more food additives illegal, or fully adopting the European Union food rules will not change American nutritional health overall, because the option to eat a non-GMO, Mediterranean style diet with homemade bread is already accessible at the average American grocery store.”
“what we need is a fundamental shift in nutritional responsibility for the American diet.”
“No one is forcing you to buy bread with Potassium Bromate in it, if you don’t want to. However, food producers are incentivized to add corn syrup, corn meal, and soy to products because they are cheaper than other grains because of crop subsidies.”
Key Recommendations:
The average American's caloric intake cannot be changed through regulation, but it can certainly be influenced through thoughtful nutrition education.
The federal government allocates millions of dollars annually to nutritional health programs, guidelines, research studies, and grants to non-profits with the aim of improving national health. However, despite these efforts, the situation has not shown significant improvement. Auditing existing nutritional programs for their effectiveness and health outcomes could be a crucial step towards enhancing national health and monitoring wasteful spending.
Whole fruits and vegetables are (obviously!) good to eat, and many of them are grown in America. It is important to prioritize the purchase of whole fruits and vegetables, along with whole grains, meats, and high-calcium dairy products through federal nutrition programs such as the National School Lunch Program and SNAP. By emphasizing these nutritious options, we can promote healthier eating habits and improve the overall nutritional quality of these programs.
Nobody Is Poisoning Your Groceries
By David Norcross and Patricia Patnode
Be honest. Where do you really get your nutritional information? Do you get it from scientific studies, and academic books, or tabloid articles, and sensationalist viral social media videos? While we know that these aren't the most credible sources, most can’t help but to let their ideas infect our psyche.
Recent trends such as the carnivore diet and concerns about food additives have gained significant traction across various social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and especially TikTok. These trends often manifest in the form of videos and graphics, drawing comparisons between additives banned in European foods and those allowed in American foods, as well as making general dietary comparisons.
They often draw comparisons between the health of Americans and Europeans, specifically referencing obesity, and attribute it to the overconsumption of processed foods that contain these additives. The fear mongering surrounding these issues is hard to ignore, particularly given recent efforts to regulate these additives by New York and California.
What is an additive, anyways?
There is indeed a lengthy list of controversial additives, and the specific chemicals that online influencers and consumers are most concerned about can change with the trend cycle. The focus and attention given to certain additives may vary over time as new information and perspectives emerge, shaping the concerns and discussions surrounding these substances.
The main offenders are generally considered to be: Titanium Dioxide, Brominated Vegetable oils, Potassium Bromate, Red 40, Azodicarbonamide, and Propylabaren. All of these additives serve one or more of three purposes: enhancement of taste, enhancement of appearance, or an increase in shelf life.
Titanium dioxide, mostly found in candy, gives opacity, and whiteness. Red 40 is used for enhancing a product's appearance by giving it a red color. Brominated Vegetable oils are used in citrus flavored drinks to ensure the citrus flavoring stays emulsified. Potassium Bromate is used in bread products, aiding in elasticity, it also gives a whiter appearance. Azodicarbonamide is another whitening agent in bread. Propylabaren is a preservative used in water based products that prevents bacteria and mold from growing.
These products are frequently accused of causing various consumer harms, ranging from infertility to being carcinogens, which means they are believed to have the potential to cause cancer. While it is important to consider new studies that highlight potential connections between certain chemicals and cancer, establishing a definitive causal link has proven to be challenging.
Additives in general, although sometimes people mean sugar and other natural grains when referring to ‘additives,’ are often blamed for the difference in obesity rates and nutritional health between America and other countries. Perhaps, there is some truth in the criticism of the average American diet, but it’s unreasonable to say that the only problem is chemical regulation— there are still plenty of additives in non-American foods, and plenty of junk food available across the ocean.
Should we restrict food additives?
Some people point out that certain chemicals are banned in other Western countries, insinuating that our regulators and food producers are careless in comparison. But in reality, the FDA is not careless, it would be equally fair to say that the EU is heavy handed in their regulation and unfairly bans some food production processes that are perfectly safe, which is a major criticism of the hormone treated meat dispute between the EU and U.S.
In America, any additive used in a product must be reviewed by the FDA before it hits shelves. This process is lengthy, and can take a lot of time, so instead of reviewing the same additives for every product, the FDA has a list of additives that are Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). Additives on the list can then be used in products without having to go through a premarket review.
While this system was designed for ingredients like vinegar and salt, since many food additives were not routinely used or even discovered when it was initially made, the list has grown to around 1,000, according to some estimates.
These substances are not added haphazardly. “the agency's procedures for premarket evaluation of food additive safety have evolved into a scientifically rigorous, sound and dependable system” (Rulis and Levit 2009). These additives are heavily researched, and as the name suggests, generally recognized as safe. There is also an appeal process to remove an ingredient from the list. The FDA doesn't ignore suggestions that additives on the list are harmful for example, after some studies demonstrated the dangers of Brominated Vegetable oil, the FDA added regulations on how much could be used.
Making more food additives illegal, or fully adopting the European Union food rules will not change American nutritional health overall, because the option to eat a non-GMO, Mediterranean style diet with homemade bread is already accessible at the average American grocery store.
Instead, what we need is a fundamental shift in nutritional responsibility for the American diet.
American processed food is produced differently than comparable food products in other countries, because every country has a slightly different regulatory system. Also, our global understanding of nutrition and food science has dramatically changed in the past 60 years. The Federally produced U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which once warned Americans against eating eggs, now recommends Americans eat them regularly. Trans Fats, which were once common to shelf-stable products, have since been mostly regulated out of the market, mothers are not longer told they can drink martinis while pregnant, the examples are numerous.
Nutrition is indeed highly dependent on the health needs of each individual person. Factors such as personal taste, cultural and religious background, as well as ethical preferences regarding food production, all play a significant role in determining what would constitute an ideal, healthy diet.
The solution to our health problem cannot be found by writing more regulations because personal responsibility is the central determinant of good nutrition.
“Healthy” can be profitable
In the early 1900s, New York’s Jewish population was severely struggling with certifying what foods were Kosher, and trusting the manufacturing processes of new foods. The state government tried maintaining a kosher inspection office, but it consistantly fell short. To solve that problem, a private company, now named The Orthodox Union, started inspecting factories and labeling products as certified kosher.
Many similar, private, certifying bodies exist today to label products as GMO-free, organic, Parve, Keto, Gluten Free, Heart-Healthy, etc.. These private organizations are better able to give consumers confidence over the production process while avoiding government intervention and regulation.
Some chemicals are generally safe to eat in small quantities, even if their scientific names sound spooky. Consumers have more power than they think, as evident by the robust organic market that sustains entire organic and “natural” national store chains.
No one is forcing you to buy bread with Potassium Bromate in it, if you don’t want to. However, food producers are incentivized to add corn syrup, corn meal, and soy to products because they are cheaper than other grains because of crop subsidies. The government doesn’t need to make tried and tested food additives illegal to fix public health, they simply need to stop picking winners in the food market, and focus on education as a tool for nutritional improvement.
David Norcross is a Catholic University student (class of 2027).
Patricia Patnode is a Program Manager at the Mercatus Center.
Further Reading:
Part 2: Solutions For The Failing School Lunch System By Juliana Sweeny for Farming Abundance
Part 1: The Problem - School Lunches Are Failing Our Children By Juliana Sweeny for Farming Abundance
SNAP can improve nutrition, help farmers, and support the environment By Angela Rachidi for Farming Abundance
Phony Demand and Underpopulation: Problems Plaguing American Farmers By Matthew Yglesias for Farming Abundance
Call Out Crony Crops by Patricia Patnode for Farming Abundance