Caution, Unlisted Ingredients in Food
Self regulated food industry is allowed to acknowledge food ingredients as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) up to 2.5% of the ingredients. These ingredients are not required to be listed on the label of ingredients.
This includes toxic exposure to plastics in food, chemical preservatives as well as insect parts.
“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is doing little to ensure that all the safe and efficacious products that could come to the market are allowed to do so,” says Toxicology. “The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was the product of a compromise with a lower threshold for demonstration of safety (reasonable expectation of no harm) that would be met by consumer self-policing and assumption of some risk. FDA has thwarted this effort by raising the bar for New Dietary Ingredient Notifications (NDIN) to what appears to be the higher threshold for the safety of food ingredients (reasonable certainty of no harm)—FDA apparently sees these two safety thresholds as a distinction without a difference.”
They go on to say, “As a result, increasing numbers of dietary supplement manufacturers, unwilling to gamble the future of their products to a system that provides little hope for the FDA’s response of ‘no objection’, have committed the additional resources necessary to obtain Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status for their supplements.”
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JAMA Internal Medicine says this is a conflict of interest, “The lack of independent review in GRAS determinations raises concerns
about the integrity of the process and whether it ensures the safety of the food supply, particularly in instances where the manufacturer does not notify the FDA of the determination.”
Environmental Health Perspectives says, “Castoreum, a substance used to augment some strawberry and vanilla flavorings, comes from ‘rendered beaver anal gland.’ (source). The next year, vegans were outraged to learn that Starbucks used cochineal extract, a color additive derived from insect shells, to dye their strawberry Frappuccino® drinks (source).”
The US Government Accountability Office says, “There are substances in the food supply that are unknown to the FDA. In 2010 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that a “growing number of substances … may effectively be excluded from federal oversight.”
This becomes a problem when food intolerances are present. When the microbiome is imbalanced, damaged and prolifically occupied by pathogens, this problem is exponentially exasperated. Those with Intestinal Permeability, Leaky Gut, suffer from these ingredients to a heavier degree because the ingredients enter the bloodstream and potentially cause worse damage.
Chicago Healthline says, “An FDA examination of 85 companies ‘of all sizes’ found that 25% did not list all of the raw ingredients, such as nuts or eggs, that were contained in their products on the product labels. In addition, only ‘slightly more than half’ of the companies checked their products to ensure that all of the ingredients were accurately reflected on the labels.”
Specifically they go on to say, “The FDA currently requires companies to list all of a product’s ingredients, but allow ‘trace amounts’ of ‘
natural’ ingredients to be omitted.” This creates a problem because, “Each year, 30,000 people must go to the hospital for allergic reactions to food, and as many as 200 die.”
The food industry says many of these ingredients come from cross contamination meaning, utensils and machines that are used on multiple food products.
Changing government regulations on these restrictions are expected to take years.
*Nourishing Plot is written by Becky Plotner, ND, traditional naturopath, CGP, D.PSc. who sees clients in Rossville, Georgia. She works as a Certified GAPS Practitioner who sees clients in her office, Skype and phone. She has been published in Wise Traditions, spoken at two Weston A. Price Conferences, Certified GAPS Practitioner Trainings, has been on many radio shows, television shows and writes for Nourishing Plot. Since her son was delivered from the effects of autism (Asperger’s syndrome), ADHD, bipolar disorder/manic depression, hypoglycemia and dyslexia, through food, she continued her education specializing in Leaky Gut and parasitology through Duke University, finishing with distinction. She is a Chapter Leader for The Weston A. Price Foundation. becky.nourishingplot@hotmail.com
“GAPS™ and Gut and Psychology Syndrome™ are the trademark and copyright of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. The right of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Patent and Designs Act 1988.
