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Is Fake Meat Better for You Than Real Meat?
You’ve probably heard these two bits of nutrition advice: Eat more plants, and cut back on ultraprocessed foods. So where does that leave fake-meat burgers, sausages, nuggets and other products sold by companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods?
They are made from plants like soybeans and peas, but they are also highly processed.
If you ask the companies, they will tell you that their products are good for you.
Nutrition experts say that there may be benefits, too. But while it’s clear that eating red meat and processed meat is associated with health risks like heart disease, some types of cancer and earlier death, we really don’t yet know how fake-meat alternatives might affect our health in the long term.
The One That Got Away: This Small Town Is Left in Limbo After Betting Big on GMO Salmon
It wasn’t about playing God. Rather, it was a better way to feed the world.
That’s how a biotech company called AquaBounty described its AquAdvantage salmon, the first genetically modified animal approved by the federal government for human consumption. By adding a gene from Chinook salmon to Atlantic salmon and using DNA sequences from eel-like ocean pout as a “growth promoter,” the company said its salmon could grow twice as fast.
The silvery superfish is indistinguishable from other Atlantic salmon, the company said, but, with freshwater tanks and less feed, it can reach market size sooner than its conventional cousins. No ocean required.
But it was all easier said than done. After decades of backlash, boycotts and persistent financial losses, on top of the regulatory slog, AquaBounty hooked its hopes for the future on a village in Ohio with an enterprising name — Pioneer — and an accommodating mayor, Ed Kidston.
Food Head at FDA Resigns, Citing Numerous Job Cuts
Jim Jones, the head of the food division at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who oversaw the agency’s banning of the food dye Red No. 3 earlier this year, stepped down on Monday, citing widespread cuts across the agency that he said will make it hard to implement the types of changes the Trump administration is seeking, according to a document viewed by Bloomberg News.
“I was looking forward to working to pursue the department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” he said in a resignation letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner. Jones said that given the new administration’s “disdain for the very people” needed to make these changes, it would be “fruitless for me to continue in this role.”
Jones pointed to the layoffs of 89 staffers in the food division, cuts he called “indiscriminate.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said some “bureaucrats” are resistant to the “mandate delivered by the American people.”
Red Dye No. 3 Has Been Banned, but What About Other Artificial Food Dyes?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the dye known as Red 3 from the nation’s food supply in January, setting deadlines for stripping the brightly hued additive from candies and cough syrup, baked goods and frozen treats. The agency said it was taking the action because studies found that the dye, also known as erythrosine, caused cancer in lab rats.
A federal statute requires FDA to ban any additive found to cause cancer in animals, though officials stressed that the way Red 3 leads to cancer in rats doesn’t happen in people.
But the dye is only one of several synthetic colors widely found in common foods and other products. As their use is questioned by experts and consumers, here’s what you need to know: What are artificial colors?
Synthetic dyes are petroleum-based chemicals that don’t occur in nature. They’re widely used in foods to “enhance the visual appeal” of products, according to Sensient Food Colors, a St. Louis-based supplier of food colors and flavorings.
Parents Can Soon Use QR Codes to Reveal Heavy Metal Content in Baby Food
Parents across the U.S. should soon be able to determine how much lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury are in the food they feed their babies, thanks to a California law, the first of its kind, that took effect this year.
As of Jan. 1, every company that sells baby food products in California is required to test for these four heavy metals every month. That comes five years after a congressional report warned about the presence of dangerously high levels of lead and other heavy metals in baby food.
Every baby food product packaged in jars, pouches, tubs and boxes sold in California must carry a QR code on its label that consumers can scan to check the most recent heavy metal readings, although many are not yet complying. Because companies seldom package products for a single state, parents and caregivers across the country will be able to scan these QR codes or go online to the companies’ websites and see the results.
