Californicating America
Golden State ex-patriots may think they're escaping the state's high costs and nutty laws, but they're coming at you no matter where you live. Especially higher priced food.
Food fear-mongering about ingredients frustrated me throughout my 22-year food industry career.
My early years involved working with scientists and technologists at the National Food Processors Association (NFPA, which later merged with another food industry group and no longer exists). The chief scientific and technical association for the packaged food industry, I was its senior lobbyist and communicator. It was a fascinating gig until I moved on to a Fortune 250 food maker. I retired four years ago.
NFPA featured a food lab in downtown Washington, a few blocks from the White House, and I hosted many tours for members of Congress and other elected officials from across the country.
One of the favorite questions asked of our food safety experts was, “what do you NOT eat?” Raw sushi and bean sprouts were fast replies. I still follow their advice. I would add raw milk to the list, sold only within intrastate commerce in many states with large dairy industries that evade the interstate jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which doesn’t approve of raw milk. Meanwhile, many so-called “consumer advocates” who quickly criticize food makers over ingredients like sodium levels or whether products contain “genetically modified” ingredients are mostly silent on the dangers of raw milk consumption.
Why? Raw milk aficionados are among consumer advocacy groups’ biggest supporters with their almost cult-like views of food and nutrition. And you’ll rarely hear consumer advocates discourage you from avoiding raw sushi or bean sprouts, despite their food safety risks. “Big food” is their target, including chain restaurants and major brands. It’s their cash cow.
The business model for some so-called “consumer advocates” goes like this. Get an entity to concoct a cheap study involving mice with massive doses of an ingredient or additive far beyond what a typical human would ever consume.
Look for tumors and other side effects. Voila!
Run to a reporter with zero analytical skills and a Forest Gump IQ but looking to score a headline. Their spokespeople follow up with bookings on Good Morning America or the Today Show (including the Dr. Oz show when it was a thing). Food makers hide behind their generally slow-reacting trade associations. They are watched by millions of unsuspecting and undiscerning moms and homemakers. Food makers and their allies counterattack, but the damage is done, even when the FDA eventually says the ingredients are generally considered safe when correctly used.
A lie has, again, gotten around the world while the truth is still putting on its boots.
In fairness, that’s not true of a few consumer advocates. But it happens a lot.
At the same time, those same organizations send out scaremongering fundraising appeals to clueless consumers that food companies are poisoning them! Send money today to fight Big Food and force the FDA and USDA to save our food supply!
Children are used usually involved.
But for all the damage irresponsible “consumer advocates” do to confidence in our food products, nothing compares to the damage done for decades by policymakers and voters in California.
We were reminded of that again last week when Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, a Los Angeles Democrat, introduced Assembly Bill 418. His one-page bill would ban the manufacture, sale or distribution of any product containing any one of these substances:
Brominated Vegetable Oil
Potassium Bromate
Propylparaben
Red Dye No. 3
Titanium Dioxide
Assemblyman Gabriel wasted no time touting his legislation as the “first in the nation” bill to get these dangerous chemicals out of our food. This press release tells it all, including the special interest group behind the bill. I’ll highlight some keywords below.
Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D - Woodland Hills) has introduced legislation that would ban the sale of processed foods in California that contain certain dangerous and toxic chemicals. A first-of-its-kind measure, Assembly Bill (AB) 418 would prohibit the manufacture, sale, or distribution of any food product in California containing Red Dye No. 3, Titanium Dioxide, Potassium Bromate, Brominated Vegetable Oil, or Propyl Paraben. Each of these chemicals is currently banned in the European Union (EU) due to scientific studies that have demonstrated significant public health harms, including increased risk of cancer, behavioral issues in children, harm to the reproductive system, and damage to the immune system.
“Californians shouldn’t have to worry that the food they buy in their neighborhood grocery store might be full of dangerous additives or toxic chemicals,” said Assemblymember Gabriel, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection. “This bill will correct for a concerning lack of federal oversight and help protect our kids, public health, and the safety of our food supply.”
“Why are these toxic chemicals in our food?” said Susan Little, the Environmental Working Group’s Governmental Affairs Senior Advocate for California. “We know they are harmful and that children are likely eating more of these chemicals than adults. It makes no sense that the same products food manufacturers sell in California are sold in the EU but without these toxic chemicals. We thank Assemblymember Gabriel’s efforts to remove these toxic additives from California’s food supply.”
This news release has so much hysteria - not to mention scientific stupidity - that it hurts my head. And it’s always much easier to disparage and cast doubts than to protect, promote and defend the truth, just like political campaigns.
Reporters, no doubt with help from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), wasted no time finding specific products that contained one or more of these “dangerous” ingredients. It drove headlines and stories across the globe. Consumer advocates are good at this kind of PR.
You’ll note that he provided zero evidence that anyone’s cancer is attributed to these chemicals, only vaguely referencing studies involving mice with doses well beyond what is allowed or might be consumed by a human over a few hundred years.
Let’s start with the European Union.
Europe’s food safety system is based on the “precautionary principle,” a very unscientific approach suggesting that you must prove your product is safe.
Of course, no product is entirely safe. Drink too much water, and it can kill you. As you were (hopefully) taught in high school chemistry or biology, “the dose makes the poison.”
Our FDA operates under a different principle - a reasonable certainty of no harm. It is much more rooted in science than the EU’s standard, which suggests that any potential for harm - even at doses far beyond what anyone, or any mouse, might consume - makes the product unsafe.
That is why FDA allows all these substances within prescribed limits. Here are a few facts that EWG and their sycophants don’t want you to know about these ingredients.
Bromated Vegetable Oil
According to the FDA, Brominated Vegetable Oil is allowed for use in a small amount, not to exceed 15 parts per million, in the U.S. as a stabilizer for fruit flavoring used in beverages. It keeps particles or ingredients from separating.
Potassium Bromate
According to King Arthur Banking Company, which provides flour and related products to bakers, “Bromate, when applied within the prescribed limits (15-30ppm), is completely used up during the bake leaving no trace in the finished product (emphasis added). However, if too much is used, or the bread is not baked long enough or at a high enough temperature, then a residual amount will remain. Since using Potassium Bromate requires a ‘Proposition 65’ warning in California, most bakers have found alternatives, including longer baking times. It’s not an issue.
Polyparaben
According to Dr. Carl Winter, Extention Food Toxicologist at the University of California at Davis,
“…exposure to parabens is at levels far lower than those considered to be of any health consequence. Parabens have extremely low levels of toxicity, and exposure to parabens, either naturally occurring or synthetic, is not a health concern based upon current levels of exposure. The first principle of toxicology applies here: ‘The dose makes the poison.’ It is the amount of the chemical, not its presence or absence, that determines the potential for harm.
Red Dye No. 3
According to the FDA, “Color additives are very safe when used properly," says Linda Katz, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Office of Cosmetics and Colors in FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). "There is no such thing as absolute safety of any substance. In the case of a new color additive, FDA determines if there is 'a reasonable certainty of no harm' under the color additive's proposed conditions of use."
The fact is that food companies, working with their suppliers, have found and are using natural alternatives to red coloring. You will have difficulty finding products with “Red No. 3” on the ingredient panel.
If synthetic coloring bothers you, read the label and avoid those foods. The same is true of the other substances. Unfortunately, too many consumer advocates and politicians think you’re stupid and cannot read and make decisions for yourself and your family.
Titanium Dioxide
Unless you eat a few dozen white powdered donuts every day, you probably don’t have a problem here. Titanium Dioxide is a mineral. It’s also a food safety tool.
According to the FDA and other regulatory agencies globally, “titanium dioxide may be safely used for coloring foods”. Titanium dioxide is safe to use, and the FDA provides strict guidance on how much can be used in food. The amount of food-grade titanium dioxide that is used is extremely small; the FDA has set a limit of 1 percent titanium dioxide for food. There is currently no indication of a health risk at this level of exposure through the diet.
In food, titanium dioxide has a few different uses. Most notably, its food-grade form is used as a colorant to enhance and brighten the color of white foods such as dairy products, candy, frosting, and the powder on donuts. For foods that are sensitive to UV light, titanium dioxide is used for food safety purposes to prevent spoilage and increase the shelf life of food.
You see the problem, don’t you? It’s much easier to disparage things vaguely and scaremonger than provide facts and evidence. Classic “hit and run,” where you’re stuck dealing with the accident’s consequences while perpetrators escape accountability in pursuit of their next victim.
California’s next attack on foods is coming via Proposition 12, a referendum adopted by the state’s loony voters that mandates the size of gestation crates for pigs and chickens. If you want to sell your pork or egg products in California, even if you’re in Iowa or Pennsylvania, you have to play by California’s rules.
The National Pork Producers Association is suing California, claiming the law violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments last October. They’ll rule before July. The outcome is uncertain. If California wins, your egg, pork, and bacon prices will greatly increase. Some food makers who use pork products are already mandating their suppliers transition to larger crates in compliance with California's new law. They’ll pass the increased cost onto you.
And to make matters worse, some states, including Virginia, have adopted laws that apply any California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations to its laws over federal standards. CARB is now banning the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. Virginia’s Democratic legislature and the governor signed on, and now its Democratic State Senate, with its one-vote majority, prevents the now-GOP Assembly and Governor from repealing it, bending the knee to the climate cult.
Virginia is not alone. Is your state one of California’s acolytes? Sadly, my Commonwealth is. The GOP needs to gain two Senate seats this fall to correct that. The odds are not great.
California is ruining America in more ways than one, and you don’t even have to live there to experience it. California is coming after you.
Agree!
I was at NFPA 74 to 90, last 13 years as Director Environmental Affairs
Jack Cooper