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Why Are Foods Banned in Other Places Still on US Grocery Shelves?
From the financial squeeze of inflation, to recall after recall, and actually getting out the door, going to the grocery store can sometimes feel like an insurmountable task. Adding to the stress is something else on the mind of Vox reader Sommer. When she’s shopping for food, she finds herself wondering: Why are there different ingredients, additives, and dyes in products like candy corn and ranch dressing?
“How is America allowed to feed us certain products that are harmful and banned in other countries?” she asked us. “Don’t you all care about us?” That’s the subject of this week’s episode of Explain It to Me, Vox’s go-to hotline for all your questions.
What some people may dismiss as a fixation of “granola moms” is actually a legitimate concern, says Melanie Benesh, the vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, an organization that scrutinizes agricultural practices. The impact many of these chemicals have is chronic: They accumulate over time, after a lot of tiny exposures. For example, the whitening agent titanium dioxide in soups and dairy products can build up in the body and even damage DNA.
European countries take a much more precautionary approach to additives in their food, Benesh says. “If there are doubts about whether a chemical is safe or if there’s no data to back up safety, the EU is much more likely to put a restriction on that chemical or just not allow it into the food supply at all.”
In the U.S., we’re more likely to see action at the state level. California banned four chemicals in 2023: brominated vegetable oil, Red Dye No. 3, propylparaben, and potassium bromate. This year, lawmakers in about a dozen states have introduced legislation banning those same chemicals and, in some states, additional chemicals as well. But federal oversight has been limited, constrained by priorities, authority, and by a lack of resources.
Children as Young as Two Treated for Obesity-Related Illness in England
Thousands of children as young as two in England are being treated for health complications linked to severe obesity as leading experts warned of an “escalating public health crisis”.
NHS data shows that one in 10 children joining primary school have obesity: 9.6% of reception-age children in 2023-24, up from 9.2% in 2022-23. Among year 6 children, those aged 10-11, the proportion who have obesity fell slightly from 22.7% to 22.1% but remained higher than the 2019-20 level of 21%.
NHS England said it was spending £6.5bn a year on treating obesity-related ill health across all age groups in England and had introduced a range of services to support children and families to improve their health. This included 30 specialist clinics that are seeing thousands of children aged between two and 18 with health complications related to severe obesity.
Soda Is Making a Comeback
Consumers are turning away from pricier Starbucks coffee, McDonald’s Big Mac meals, Doritos chips, Monster energy drinks and Heineken beer. But they can’t stop guzzling Coke and Dr Pepper.
Both Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper said last week on quarterly earnings calls that they sold more soda cases last quarter. During the third quarter of this year, total soft drink volumes grew 1.3% from a year ago, according to data from Evercore ISI.
It’s a comeback for soda, which was in decline for two decades over the health effects of sugary drinks. Frequently drinking sugar-sweetened beverages like soda is associated with a range of chronic health problems, including weight gain, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is so different than five, ten years ago,” said Robert Ottenstein, an analyst at Evercore ISI. “There’s been a huge change in attitude. These products were declining 4% a year for a long time.”
The World Health Organization also said last year for the first time that aspartame, a popular artificial sweetener found in diet sodas, should be categorized as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” But consumers right now seem willing to brush off health concerns. They view sugary Coke and Dr Pepper, or newer sugar-free sodas like Coke Zero, as a more affordable treat than other choices like an energy drink, flavored tea, a bag of chips or a candy bar.
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Scientists Dismayed as UK Ministers Clear Way for Gene Editing of Crops — but Not Animals
Ministers are preparing to introduce legislation that will permit the growing of gene-edited crops in England and Wales. But the new legislation will not cover the use of this technology to create farm animals that have increased resistance to disease or lower carbon footprints.
The decision has dismayed some senior scientists, who had expected both uses of gene editing would be given the go-ahead. They fear the decision could hold back the creation of hardier, healthier herds and flocks. Animal welfare groups have welcomed the move, however.
Gene editing involves making slight changes to plant or animal DNA to create new strains or breeds. The technology has been replacing the techniques of genetic modification, which involve the transfer of entire genes from one species to another and has been strictly regulated by the EU.
Utah Reports Avian Flu in Dairy Cows as USDA Announces Plan for Bulk Milk Sampling
The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) yesterday announced that highly pathogenic avian flu has been confirmed at eight of the state’s commercial dairy farms, a development veterinary officials had been bracing for following a recent poultry outbreak that involved the cattle H5N1 genotype.
The eight facilities are located in Cache County, where bulk milk tank sampling had recently been ordered. The UDAF said the samples were initially tested at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Logan, and tests at the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratory have confirmed the findings.
State veterinarian Daniel Christensen, DVM, said mandatory surveillance and animal movement restrictions are key steps to prevent further spread of the virus. “At this time we don’t anticipate any major impacts on the food supply and the overall impacts to individual dairies are relatively minimal. This disease is not as harmful to dairy cattle as it is to poultry,” he said.
PFAS Linked to Gut Health Issues in Young Adults, New Study Finds
A new study links toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS “forever chemical” exposure in young adults to reduced gut health, which researchers suspect is a driver of kidney disease later in life.
Kidney disease is one of the well-established health problems linked to PFAS exposure, and the new research suggests changes in gut bacteria and associated metabolites caused by the chemicals seems to be responsible for up to 50% of a decrease in kidney function seen over a four-year period.
“Along with these metabolic diseases comes a higher risk of diabetic or chronic kidney diseases, and this is one of the fastest-growing causes of mortality in the U.S., so it’s a really important question,” said Jesse Goodrich, one of the University of Southern California study’s co-authors.
PFAS are a class of about 15,000 compounds that are used to make products water, stain and grease resistant. They are also linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, immune dysfunction, birth defects, endocrine disruption and liver disease. They are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not fully break down once in the environment.
The only US epidemiological study to check health impacts of PFAS found some of the chemicals probably cause chronic kidney disease. The researchers built on recent findings linking PFAS to gut health effects, and an increased understanding of how gut health is tied to kidney function.
A 14-Year-Old’s Award-Winning Invention Uses AI to Detect Pesticides on Fruit and Vegetables
When 14-year-old Sirish Subash was told to wash his produce before eating it, he did what any inquiring young mind might do: he asked himself “Why?” Then, he got to work.
Subash wasn’t satisfied with the explanation that washing removes potentially harmful pesticides from produce. He wanted to know how effective washing actually was, so for this year’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge, he set out to invent a device to answer that question.
He spent about 11 months researching and developing what ultimately became a handheld device, called Pestiscand. It attaches to a smartphone and uses AI to detect the presence of certain pesticides on common produce.
“Diet is really one of the main roots of exposures to pesticides,” Alexis Temkin, a senior toxicologist with the Environmental Working Group who wasn’t involved with the competition, told BI. “And there’s some evidence that shows dietary exposure can be linked with really serious health effects.” Certain pesticides have been linked to a greater risk of type II diabetes, postmenopausal breast cancer, birth defects and some cancers.
