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Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

theguardian.com

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Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#71

Post by Maarten88 »

lorcan wrote: post #42

Europeans are much more susceptible to green activist pseudoscience. For example the ban on GMO's which was driven by ideology not science; or vaccination rates etc.

Businesses can add/use any chemical for food and food production until quite some time after it has been proven unsafe. It's no wonder that consumers in EU and elsewhere have grown quite suspicious of industrial 'advances', and that sometimes can lead to unscientific policies.

If businesses would have to prove safety in advance, and be liable for unforeseen damage, that would be much better.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#72

Post by maxxxxx »

pkaye wrote: post #6
maxxxxx wrote: post #2

I 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.

It seems a lot of US good is designed for easy handling and addictiveness. There is no concern for purity.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#73

Post by phonypc »

gerbilly wrote: post #26
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #12

I've always been fascinated by how disgusting the bread is in the US. Do we know what lead to this ?

The US has no food culture, come on they sell cheese in spray cans.¹ Generally food in the US is sold for size, not flavour or nutritional content. For example US roaster chickens are huge but basically live short sick lives and taste bland.² Chickens sold in France are smaller but have more flavour. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Cheese 2: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.1...

Processed cheese is a miracle. I wish there was a greater variety of it, so I didn't have to make my own when I want something other than "cheddar."

Food quality might be lower on average, but saying the US has no food culture is just snobbery.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#74

Post by nickik »

SerLava wrote: post #69
nickik wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That assumes that people in the US are greedy and not in other places. I think one can are that every other place had some sort of efficient mechanism to stop that greed. If the US is the outlier the question should be what condition that are US specific made it happen, not a general concept like greed.

Long distances and shipping times, the lack of a coherent food culture, the demand for cheap food, the destruction of culinary standards between 1930 and 1960.

Bread is bad even in many places where shipping is not a problem.

The lack of coherent food culture I have considered and it might make sense and it would explain why the US is a special case.

Demand for cheap food exists everywhere.

Not sure how culinary standards got worse, depending on what standards you are talking about. Many things got better in most food groups.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#75

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

rasz wrote: post #52
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go any evidence of that? A quick Google search doesn't show me any results indicating mouthwash containing sugar.

look at the label?

I have. It does not contain sugar or any sugar-like ingredients.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#76

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

unclenoriega wrote: post #67
ineedasername wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What terms did your google search use? A quick google for "listerine ingredients" brought up a label [0] that shows caramel (sugar) as an inactive ingredient. Only one I could find though. Most others however do seem to use artificial sweeteners [0] https://www.drugs.com/otc/113880/listerine-01.jpg

"Caramel" in this case likely refers to caramel color. While it is still made from sugar, I doubt there's a significant enough amount to consider it "added sugar". If you look at the other colors of Listerine, there is no caramel listed.

According to this page that's correct: https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/whats-in-this-mouthwash

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#77

Post by maxxxxx »

justin66 wrote: post #61
logfromblammo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of it, because they are required to, by law. Some of it, because they are allowed to, by law. Usually, whenever you see sugar added where it is not necessary, it's because fat or salt was removed from the recipe, to "improve" the numbers on the nutrition panel. And then you have to add the fat and salt back in yourself later, with butter or mayo or something. You can't reliably and conveniently get "good" bread…

> You can't reliably and conveniently get "good" bread in the US unless you own a bread machine, and even then you have to pick out your flour carefully. Or live near a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. They're not that unusual.

Their bread is crap mostly too though.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#78

Post by justin66 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #77
justin66 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't reliably and conveniently get "good" bread in the US unless you own a bread machine, and even then you have to pick out your flour carefully. Or live near a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. They're not that unusual.

Their bread is crap mostly too though.

Trader Joe's sells Ezekiel 4:9, which is one of the very few foods I buy with an easily comprehensible list of ingredients.

Homemade bread is always going to taste better, of course.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#79

Post by sureaboutthis »

kcorbitt wrote: post #64
sureaboutthis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Factory" bread can be "disgusting" because it's made to feed the masses and gain market share, not taste good. For the same reason hamburgers at McDonald's are not as good as those made at a quality restaurant or at home. Good bread, as with any good food, typically takes time and quality ingredients. You won't find that in mass produced food. That costs too much.

Good, fresh bread can be produced cheaply. When I lived in Spain I could buy a large, fresh, delicious baguette on almost any street corner for about $0.55. The problem is that after about 24 hours it gets hard and after 48 it's basically inedible. So your diet needs to include a lot of bread or else you end up wasting a fair portion of every purchase.

Yep. That's what I've heard.

I bake sourdough and other breads every other day at home but baguettes are one bread I have not been able to get right yet though I haven't spent enough time trying to figure it out. I know there must be one simple step I'm not doing or doing wrong.

Re: Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?

#80

Post by NeedMoreTea »

golover721 wrote: post #57
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #12

I've always been fascinated by how disgusting the bread is in the US. Do we know what lead to this ?

Bread in the US, and to be fair a lot of of supermarket bread in a lot of countries (UK, Australia, I'm sure tons of others) has a variety of ingredients added to help keep the bread "fresh". It used to be common to buy fresh baked bread on a daily basis and only use it during that day, or perhaps a day or two afterwards. There are still some places in the Western world where this is common, for instance in Munich, G…

The trouble with a lot of UK "bakeries", unless they are not part of a chain, is they don't actually make anything. They just oven finish part-baked factory crap, or bake factory dough. So all it gets you is different branding on the plastic bag to go with the mass-produced taste.

A proper family bakery where bread is just the 4 basic ingredients or sourdough etc, and the pastries and cakes taste home-made can be really hard to find now.

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