Featured Image Credit: Ryan Murphy/Getty Images
Topics: Health, Food and Drink, US News
Dan Seddon
The US food supply has huge question marks hanging over it in the wake of an investigation by the Environmental Working Group.
It's been revealed that a minimum of 111 chemical substances, of unknown safety, were added to foods, drinks and supplements without letting the US Food and Drug Administration know.
To be 'generally recognized as safe' (or GRAS), it is customary for companies to prove that new-on-the-scene ingredients are safe by showcasing publicly available scientific evidence, ensuring regulatory compliance.
However, the fact this a voluntary endeavour means that manufacturers are able to self-govern the safety of their own products.
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Vice president for governmental affairs for the aforementioned organization, Melanie Benesh, told CNN: "Food companies are deciding on their own to secretly add unreviewed chemical ingredients to products instead of following existing federal guidelines meant to assure food is 'generally recognized as safe'.
"Manufacturers now routinely exploit this GRAS loophole — it's fast becoming more 'generally recognized as secret' instead of 'generally recognized as safe.' Because the government has never reviewed these chemicals, consumers have no way of knowing if they are safe or carry unknown health risks".
Although this loophole is legally sound, Mathilde Touvier, director of research at France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research, says it's tricky to support from a 'scientific and ethical standpoint'.
She elaborated: "It is highly problematic that companies are allowed to self-determine that their own ingredients are 'GRAS,' given the obvious financial conflict of interest. Decisions about the safety of food chemicals should be based on independent assessment by public health authorities."
Almost half of the alien chemicals popped up in foods; 22 of which were reportedly of an extracted nature.
The likes of cinnamon, cocoa, aloe vera, grape skins, green coffee beans, hemp, mushrooms, and lemon balm all appear natural and harmless, but the investigators suggest that's perhaps not the case.
Biochemist and co-author of the investigation, Maricel Maffini, commented: "When you start taking substances from grape skin, aloe vera and mushrooms, for example, you may have a concentrated extract or cocktail of substances that come out of it. You should be able to test that extract or cocktail if it is going to be in the marketplace."
This comes after an Italian restaurant in Perth, Australia was fined $28,000 after it served two children insect repellant instead of fruit juice.