Give us this day unsullied Bread

The Guardian:

Banned bread: why does the US allow banned additives that Europe says are unsafe?

Give us this day our daily foam expander. It may sound odd, but in America, you may find in a loaf of bread ingredients with industrial applications – additives that also appear in things like yoga mats, pesticides, hair straighteners, explosives and petroleum products.

Some of these chemicals, used as optional whiteners, dough conditioners and rising agents, may be harmful to human health. Potassium bromate, a potent oxidizer that helps bread rise, has been linked to kidney and thyroid cancers in rodents. Azodicarbonamide (ACA), a chemical that forms bubbles in foams and plastics like vinyl, is used to bleach and leaven dough – but when baked, it, too, has been linked to cancer in lab animals.

Other countries, including China, Brazil and members of the European Union, have weighed the potential risks and decided to outlaw potassium bromate in food. India banned it in 2016, and the UK has forbidden it since 1990. Azodicarbonamide has been banned for consumption by the European Union for over a decade.

But despite petitions from several advocacy groups – some dating back decades – the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still considers these to be Gras or “generally recognized as safe” to eat, though plenty of experts disagree. [continues]

Share

Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

28 thoughts on “Give us this day unsullied Bread”

  1. the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still considers these to be gras or “generally recognized as safe”

    also known as the “coup de gras”?

  2. promises made

    sept 2016 the hill reported: 

    Donald Trump floated rolling back food safety regulations if he wins the White House in November.

    In a fact sheet posted online Thursday, the campaign highlighted a number of “specific regulations to be eliminated” under the GOP nominee’s economic plan, including what they called the “FDA Food Police.”

    “The FDA Food Police, which dictate how the federal government expects farmers to produce fruits and vegetables and even dictates the nutritional content of dog food,” it read.

    “The rules govern the soil farmers use, farm and food production hygiene, food packaging, food temperatures and even what animals may roam which fields and when,” the statement continued. “It also greatly increased inspections of food ‘facilities,’ and levies new taxes to pay for this inspection overkill.”

     

    promises kept

    reported nov 2018 in esquire:

    Popping through the McDonald’s drive-thru this morning, because I am a plainspoken good American person unlike all the rest of you elitist bums, and I notice that my local outpost will not be serving salad for a while. This is because of the romaine lettuce plague that descended on the country over the last two weeks. (Ed. Note: To me, romaine lettuce always has tasted like an algae bloom.) How, you may ask, did this horror come about?

    Is it because we are Making America Great Again?

    Why, yes. From Wired:

    For more than a decade, it’s been clear that there’s a gaping hole in American food safety: Growers aren’t required to test their irrigation water for pathogens such as E. coli. As a result, contaminated water can end up on fruits and vegetables. After several high-profile disease outbreaks linked to food, Congress in 2011 ordered a fix, and produce growers this year would have begun testing their water under rules crafted by the Obama administration’s Food and Drug Administration. But six months before people were sickened by the contaminated romaine, President Donald Trump’s FDA – responding to pressure from the farm industry and Trump’s order to eliminate regulations – shelved the water-testing rules for at least four years.

    Despite this deadly outbreak, the FDA has shown no sign of reconsidering its plan to postpone the rules. The agency also is considering major changes, such as allowing some produce growers to test less frequently or find alternatives to water testing to ensure the safety of their crops. The FDA’s lack of urgency dumbfounds food safety scientists. “Mystifying, isn’t it?” said Trevor Suslow, a food safety expert at the University of California, Davis. “If the risk factor associated with agricultural water use is that closely tied to contamination and outbreaks, there needs to be something now. … I can’t think of a reason to justify waiting four to six to eight years to get started.”

     

  4. and if that’s not enough now we have rat lungworms for cdc and fda inspectors to watch out for according to CBS news:

    Three more cases of rat lungworm disease have been confirmed by the Hawaii Department of Health, a disease that could damage a victim’s brain or spinal cord in some cases. One case occurred last year after a visitor reportedly ate a slug on a dare, bringing the 2018 total up to 10 confirmed cases.

    The other two cases occurred earlier this year, with one person getting sick in late February. Officials believe they may have been infected by consuming produce “straight from the land.” Another person fell ill in January, though it’s unclear how they contracted rat lungworm disease.

    Five people have been diagnosed with rat lungworm disease in Hawaii in 2019, which is why state health officials are warning residents and visitors to wash all fruits and vegetables, paying close attention to leafy greens and to store produce in sealed containers. Officials want consumers to especially look out for slugs or snails, which may be carrying the parasitic roundworm that causes rat lungworm disease.

    Once infected, a person cannot infect another human with the disease. Symptoms are typically mild to nonexistent. In a majority of cases, anti-parasitic medications are not needed and the parasite dies over time. In some cases, however, rat lungworm disease can cause eosinophilic meningitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

     

    cdc 12/19/17: This video provides information about what Rat Lungworm (Angiostrongylus) Disease is, where it is found, how its transmitted, and how to prevent its spread.

  5. I haven’t baked bread in a number of years, not since Kumcho departed–Saturday was another anniversary of her change in status. She really liked my extremely rich, no holds barred, raisin bread. I always used ‘genuine’ organic and minimally processed ingredients in my baking. Perhaps that’s why I weigh 85-lbs less than I did at her demise.
     
    My Booze of choice is brandy sipped very, very slowly. Just noticed I capitalized Booze; probably because of its namesake, J.C. Booze.

  6. flatus, do you put cinnamon in your raisin bread and is it glazed/iced? 

    an old childhood favorite that brings back memories. toasted date nut or banana breads do too.

  7. and that is why I don’t buy supermarket commercially made bread.  I buy stuff from local bakeries that’s made with whole (and mostly organic) ingredients.

    Jack…  of course Sherry was there with you…

    BTW… I have a banana bread baking in the oven as I type this.  Of course I added lots of chopped walnuts and dates…   anyone want a slice when it comes out and cools down a bit…

  8. wapo:  The Daily 202: Veterans running for the Democratic nomination call Trump a draft dodger as he travels overseas

    […]

    — Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) repeatedly and explicitly questioned Trump’s patriotism over Memorial Day weekend. “We’ve had presidents who were immoral, backwards and had terrible policies. We’ve had presidents who were criminals. I don’t think we’ve ever had a president who is so fundamentally unpatriotic,” Moulton told Anderson Cooper last night on CNN. “Even Richard Nixon served his country and was proud to do so. This president is much more interested in siding with dictators, if it’s good for his ratings. And that’s pretty pathetic for the commander in chief.”

     

    On Sunday night, Moulton contrasted Trump with John F. Kennedy — the last man from Massachusetts to win the presidency. “He used his father’s connections to get medically cleared when he probably shouldn’t have been cleared,” Moulton told MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt. “I don’t think that lying to get out of serving your country is patriotic. It’s not like there was just some empty seat in Vietnam. Someone had to go in his place. I’d like to meet the American hero who went in Donald Trump’s place to Vietnam. I hope he’s still alive.”

    — Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., accused Trump of faking a disability to avoid military service. “If he were a conscientious objector, I’d admire that,” he told Bob Costa during a Washington Post Live event on Thursday. “But this is somebody who, I think it’s fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was a child of a multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place. I know that that drudges up old wounds from a complicated time during a complicated war, but I’m also old enough to remember when conservatives talked about character as something that mattered in the presidency. And, so, I think it deserves to be talked about.”

    ABC’s Martha Raddatz pointed out on “This Week,” the Sunday show, that the mayor made this comment at about the same time the president was visiting Arlington National Cemetery to honor the fallen. Buttigieg was unapologetic. “You have somebody who thinks it’s all right to let somebody go in his place into a deadly war and is willing to pretend to be disabled in order to do it,” he said. “That is an assault on the honor of this country.”

     

    — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has made antiwar messaging the centerpiece of her campaign, which has failed to get traction. “Memorial Day is a time to remember that war should only be waged as a very last resort to keep the American people safe,” she said on Monday, per ABC. “So nothing angers me more than the hypocrisy exhibited every Memorial Day by warmongering politicians and media pundits feigning sympathy for those who paid the ultimate price in service to our country, while simultaneously advocating for more counterproductive regime change wars and the new Cold War and arms race.”

    [continues]

  9. We live in kakistocracy   now this is the word of the SFB years

  10. ps  I bake almost all of our bread and bread products because Mr C is on a very low sodium diet

  12. Pat, I use both cinnamon and nutmeg. The former is bottled and the latter I grind. I don’t ice or glaze raisin bread as that would make it pretty messy when/should we would toast it. Now, with my muffins, I add walnuts and a confectioners sugar glaze along with all the other stuff. They are reserved for the most festive occasions.
     
    As I’ve said in the past, my great-Aunt Carrie taught me how to bake when I was a little kid. Her lessons have stuck with me. Were she still alive, she’d be about 142-y.o.

  13. I was accused of ruining a party merely by expressing admiration for Pelosi, this past weekend.  That’s ok, i’ll continue to do so, regardless.
    i’m more fun than a Republican, anyway.

  14. There are over 1000 chemicals banned for industrial use that are permitted in the U.S., because corporate America really doesn’t care if you get cancer, in fact, some industries prefer it, because your cancer makes them rich.

    Now that corporate America controls our government at all levels, don’t look for that to change.  Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!

  15. SFB was courteous enough to wish the Japanese “Happy Memorial Day” when it was already Tuesday in Japan.

    The brain power in this one is very weak.

     

  16. …perfect representative of the average American, Jamie: gleefully and willfully ignorant.

  17. trump’s Memorial Day was spent with “those wonderful folks who brought you Pearl Harbor.”
    Can anyone spot irony in that ? 
     

  19. Pondering my coattails question, I came up with the answer that Sen Warren will have longish coattails simply from being a woman who will win the presidential race. If ‘Pocahontas’ is the worst that pussypincher can throw at her, then she’s a big winner. Unfortunately, she sometimes seems to scold, and that hurts her. She teaches, and the campaign is not the time for teaching.
    Klobuchar and Harris will also have coattails. Harris is prolly more of a ‘showman’ than Klobuchar. 
    Gabbard and Gillibrand, probably not so much. 

  20. “Those wonderful folks who gave you Pearl Harbor” – was that snide comment from Mort Sahl or Lenny Bruce ?

    No, Jerry Della Femina.

  21. Warren’s too shrill.  I don’t mind, but Joe and Jane Pickup-Truck won’t vote for her.

  22. Mr Bink, 
    I think you’re right. A mellow voice and calm, sunny manner are important. Except in 2016, when the mellow voice & broody, crazed manner won the crooked electoral college. 

    But, would Harris or Klobuchar have longer or shorter coattails than Warren ?

  23. I genuinely like Klobuchar.  Female, midwest, good moderate to progressive voting record, married, no scandals (is eating with a comb a scandal?).  Match her with Booker or Castro and you have all the ethnic bases covered.  

    I like Harris as well, but not sure if she can take the middle of the country unless paired with a softer, less pushy, male of the middle.  Who?

     

  24. Does the VP nominee ever really effect the results beyond maybe helping get the state in which that person represents or resides?  i doubt it.

    Take Kaine, for example. His white-ness didn’t win over any racists, his male-ness didn’t win over any misogynists, his Spanish-proficiency didn’t win over any Latino/as, his Catholicism didn’t win over any anti-abortionists… might have helped get Virginia, though, and Virginia helps, but obviously not enough, eh?

    i’ve said too much!

  25. Mr Bink, but if Kaine had been a hoss-ridin’, gun-toting, Red Man chewin’,  W M Texan, with genuine Texas steer shit on his boots, and extinct Prairie Chicken feathers on his 10 gallon feed cap !

    He mighta been the LBJ of 2016.

  27. Bread machine to make a loaf of rye bread each week.  Hands and wrists no longer able to knead dough, so a more than two hundred dollar bread machine does its wonders every Thursday evening so I have a fresh loaf to go into the weekend.  Bread flour, rye flour, powdered milk, salt, sugar, butter, water, and bread yeast are mixed and raised and baked into a loaf of yummy bread. 

    By itself the bread is good, add a little butter and a meal is complete.

    Just as the small intelligence boy pulls the legs of mice to make girls scream on the playground, SFB does his dirty work in front of a panting media.  At some point I would expect him to borrow/steal a gun and kill someone just to prove he is above the law as a dictator. He has already laid the ground work for that by stating he could kill a man on Fifth Ave and get away with it. As with many other acts he follows through with his stated acts.

Comments are closed.