What’s Bleach Doing in My Fruit?

Last month, I came across a blog post at Prevention magazine titled “What’s Anti-Freeze Doing in Fast Food?”, based on a blog post titled “6 Cosmetic Chemicals in Fast Food.” The intent is to frighten people away from fast food by pointing out some scary sounding chemicals used in food production and preservation, like propylene glycol and sodium stearoyl lactylate that happen to be used in cosmetic products as well.

So, to show how irrational this is, I submit a rebuttal in similar format using “natural” chemicals in foods with no argument over their healthiness: fruits and vegetables. Interestingly, though I didn’t originally intend it, all of these are found in cosmetic products, showing just how easy it is to find overlap.

Formaldehyde

Found in beets, cauliflower, grapes, bananas, apples (likely measurable to some degree in all foods; human metabolic by-product) (1).
Used to preserve human remains and as a fungicide (2).
Classified as “known to be a human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (3).
Also used in shampoos and other cosmetics (2).

Hydrogen Peroxide

Found in apples, pears, tomatoes, coffee (and human metabolic by-product) (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).
Used as rocket fuel, in explosives, and as a bleaching agent (10).
Known mutagen (11).
Also used in teeth whiteners, mouthwash, and other cosmetics (12).

Acetaldehyde

Found in bananas, oranges, apples, carrots, cucumbers, onions (13).
Used in fuel mixtures and glues (14).
Classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the IARC, causes cancer in animals (15).
Also used as a fragrance in shampoos and other cosmetics (16).

Furfural

Found in cranberries, grapefruit, celery, onions (17).
Used to kill weeds and as an extraction solvent (18).
Causes cancer in animals (19).
Also used in cosmetics (18).

Myristicin

Found in carrots, nutmeg (16).
Hallucinogen (20).
Causes organ damage in animals (20).
Also used in cosmetics as a fragrance (20).

Estragole

Found in apples (21).
Present in tobacco smoke (22).
Causes cancer in animals (22).
Also used in perfumes, soaps, and other cosmetics as a fragrance (22).

So, no, antifreeze and cosmetic chemicals aren’t in fast food anymore than a bleach is (and cosmetic chemicals are) in an apple. Food is chemicals and chemicals have different applications at different doses. The dose makes the poison and the small amounts of chemicals added to foods are continuously scrutinized and allowable levels enforced. Whether chemicals are derived naturally or not has no bearing on individual toxicity. In fact, it is likely that there is a greater cancer risk from natural food chemicals than synthetic, as the proportion that demonstrate carcinogenic properties in animal testing is about equal, yet natural chemicals make up much more of the diet (23). Of course, the doses are in most cases not close to reachable in humans. The real nutrition-related cancer risks do not come from food additives (24).

Scaring people toward “real food” by exploiting the fear of chemicals is disingenuous and does a disservice to public understanding of risk perception and chemistry. The promotion of healthy dietary patterns should be done using science-based information.

Last week BuzzFeed published a list of eight foods that folks in the USA are eating but are banned in other parts of the world. The chemical community turned its venom on BuzzFeed. But I think BuzzFeed did a pretty good job of bringing the debate on chemicals in food to the fore. Don't believe the defence of food additives coming from the likes of Derek Lowe. After all he's part of the mainstream chemical conspiracy so he would defend chemicals wouldn't he?

Before you go breathing a sigh of relief and gloating that those of us outside the US don't get these chemicals in our foods, best think again. You may well live in enlightened areas of the world, with governments that keep you safe from such poisons, but BuzzFeed only scratched the surface. There are plenty of foodstuffs in your larder that are just as bad.

Here's my list of foods, drinks and other kitchen terrors that BuzzFeed might just as easily have mentioned.
E290

E numbers are bad, we all know that. And E290 is no exception. It sneaks its way into fizzy drinks, bread and even your homemade cakes. But this chemical is probably the worst of the lot, because if we don't stop producing it then we are heading for global disaster. The scientific literature is quite clear on the subject, there are over a million peer-reviewed papers that describe the harmful effect it is having on our environment. And they put this stuff in our kids' lemonade!
8-methyl-N-vannillyl-6-nonenamide

With a name like 8-methyl-N-vannillyl-6-nonenamide it's bound to be a baddie. If you want more evidence of its unpleasantness then you may like to know that it is used by the police to control rioters. But that doesn't stop it turning up in our nation's favourite meals. In fact you have almost certainly suffered the consequence of an overzealous chef adding a bit too much of this stuff to your Saturday night post-pub curry or kebab. Do excessive sweating, burning sensations and indigestion sound familiar? Well that's good old 8-methyl-N-vannillyl-6-nonenamide for you. Would you believe they even put it in chocolate?
Denatured protein

You might not know this but Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and CJD (the human version of mad cow disease) are all caused by proteins that have misfolded. Basically perfectly normal proteins get shape-shifted into evil versions of themselves that then cause dreadful diseases. And guess what, when you fry your egg you cause the proteins in the white to misfold. I'll leave you to draw the obvious conclusion.
DHMO

Fruit juice contains a chemical, DHMO, that is also produced by rocket engines. Think about it for a moment. The same stuff that comes shooting out the back of a rocket on its way to the International Space Station is sloshing around in your fridge and you drink it for breakfast! And nobody does a damn thing about it!

Remember the Hindenburg disaster? The chemical reaction that destroyed the airship also produced DHMO. Fancy that in your refreshing glass of orange juice? I don't care if you have squeezed the stuff straight from citrus fruit grown in your very own organic orangery, with every sip you're consuming DHMO. It can even be found in mineral water, tap water, rainwater – in fact the oceans, rivers and lakes are literally full of the stuff.
NaCl

Not one but two deadly poisons here. What do you think makes salty snacks so appealing? Nothing other than a delicious mix of a chemical warfare agent used in the trenches of the first world war and an explosive metal. They put this chemical on our crisps, nuts and chips!
Uranium

And finally one that glows in the dark. In anyone's book, that can't be good. You don't eat it, but you might be eating out of it. Got any green glassware in the house? Well then RUN FOR THE HILLS! There's a good chance it contains uranium! Unbelievably, you can just buy the stuff on the internet, without the slightest controls being in place. Forget food safety for a moment – why aren't British Nuclear Fuels rounding up every last fragment and burying it with their radioactive waste?

Point made, I hope.