Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
1–10 of 87 posts
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#2I always look at the ingredients list of bread in the US and I am always surprised how long the list is. Why do they put so much stuff (and always sugar or syrup) into any bread?
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#3I always look at the ingredients list of bread in the US and I am always surprised how long the list is. Why do they put so much stuff (and always sugar or syrup) into any bread?
I was surprised to see how much sugar is in bread in the US compared to the bread I buy in Canada (specifically grocery store "bagged bread"). The sweetness makes it taste awful, and hides the taste of the wheat and different grains.
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#4I always look at the ingredients list of bread in the US and I am always surprised how long the list is. Why do they put so much stuff (and always sugar or syrup) into any bread?
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Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#5I always look at the ingredients list of bread in the US and I am always surprised how long the list is. Why do they put so much stuff (and always sugar or syrup) into any bread?
Sugar is a drug, so I guess that addiction can play here.
There's not a lot of regulations for health and safety around most ingredients, so I'd say that also plays:
Fewer risks of decay and such
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#6I always look at the ingredients list of bread in the US and I am always surprised how long the list is. Why do they put so much stuff (and always sugar or syrup) into any bread?
Most of the ingredients are for longer shelf life since they are shipped from large factories. You can get bread with fewer ingredients which tend to be from local smaller scale operations. As for sugar it might just be taste preferences in the US. I'm sure the manufacturers do market testing.
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#7I do not know anything about these chemicals in particular, but this framing:
> It may sound odd, but in America, your loaf of bread can contain ingredients with industrial applications – additives that also appear in things like yoga mats, pesticides, hair straighteners, explosives and petroleum products.
always bugs the hell out of me.
Water has numerous industrial applications. Linseed oil and NaCl have numerous industrial applications. Acting like any chemical which can be used in an industrial context is automatically poison is just straight-up fear-mongering.
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#8I do not know anything about these chemicals in particular, but this framing: > It may sound odd, but in America, your loaf of bread can contain ingredients with industrial applications – additives that also appear in things like yoga mats, pesticides, hair straighteners, explosives and petroleum products. always bugs the hell out of me. Water has numerous industrial applications. Linseed oil and NaCl have numerous i…
> straight-up fear-mongering
The unofficial Guardian tagline
EDIT: Downvoters, from the linked page:
> Toxic America: Is modern life poisoning us? Weedkiller in your breakfast cereal. Contaminated drinking water. Carcinogenic chemicals in your furniture. Americans are routinely exposed to dangerous chemicals that have long been banned in countries such as the UK, Germany and France. Of the 40,000 chemicals used in consumer products in the US, according to the EPA, only one percent have been tested for human safety.
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#9Doesn't it simply come down to the EU applying the precautionary principle for all safety regulation, including food additives, whilst the US does not?
Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
#10If the FDA is broken, I wonder if some private entity couldn't audit brands and/or grocery chains and publicize a consumer health rating.
"But private auditing can't work because for-profit incentives!"
Well, there are plenty of cases in which for-profit auditing works just fine and TFA is dunking on the FDA for being a broken public regulator, so...