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You are here: Home / Food for thought / Seeing red over food additives

Seeing red over food additives

by Jeanne Horak on March 16, 2005 4 Comments in Food for thought

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There’s a joke doing the rounds on the Web at the moment, in the wake of the UK’s massive product recall following the discovery that Sudan 1 (a banned red food colouring) had found its way into a batch of Worcestershire sauce and thence into an astonishing array of supermarket foods.  The joke involves a customer walking into a shop and having the following conversation with the shopkeeper:

Customer: Worcester sauce crisps please

Shopkeeper: Sorry can’t, it’s off the shelves, cancer scare.

Customer: Oh right, how about some Chinese chicken wings?

Shopkeeper: Ah that’s the same , Cancer scare

Customer: Hamburger relish?

Shopkeeper: Cancer scare

Customer: Sausage and mash?

Shopkeeper: Cancer scare

Customer: Cottage pie?

Shopkeeper: Yes, … erm, no wait. Cancer scare.

Customer: So they’re all off the shelves because of a cancer scare?

Shopkeeper: Yes

Customer: *sigh* Just give me a packet of cigarettes then.

Shopkeeper:  Certainly.  That’ll be £4.50 please.

You kind of find yourself laughing along slightly uneasily – at least I do.  I mean, it does seem kind of absurd that there is such a huge fuss about a product which, in massive quantities, might increase your chances of developing cancer – all products even slightly tainted are pulled from supermarket shelves, customers are given a refund and questions are asked about how this poison made it onto British shelves.  But cigarettes, proved indisputably to be associated with increased risk of developing a variety of cancers, are freely available to anyone.  Go figure.

The whole Sudan 1 debacle also got me thinking about all the stuff that ends up in our food that we are totally unaware of.  I mean, would you ever have guessed that cottage pie from leading British supermarket chains contains red food colouring, via Worcestershire sauce, via chilli powder??  I’ll bet not.   And even if you are an inveterate reader of labels, chances are all you would have seen on the ingredient list was “Worcestershire sauce”.  I have recently started reading labels more and more meticulously and it amazes me how few people seem to do this.  And if they do, chances are they are looking at the fat or sugar content.  Sure, take the diet orange squash, it’s “sugar free” – but have you noticed that it contains three times as many chemicals and E-numbers as its non-diet conterpart?  So even when people think they are making healthy choices, they may still be loading their systems with artificial chemicals that were never meant for human consumption.  Look around you at older folk in the community – chances are many of them grew up eating what today would be considered an unhealthy diet: red meat, animal fats, sugar and salt, and no government programmes reminding them to get their five portions of fruit and veg per day.  But a remarkable number of them are still around.  On the other hand, I currently have not one but two friends who are both undergoing chemotherapy for breast and cervical cancer respectively, plus in the past three years another friend has had testicular cancer and yet another, a brain tumour.  All of them were under the age of 35.  When your contemporaries start developing cancer in their 30s, this really makes you wonder what we are doing to our bodies to make them turn on us at such a young age.  I know I’m wondering.

We could debate the reasons for days.  Obviously there are environmental, lifestyle and genetic factors involved.  But one also can’t deny that we are living in a world loaded with more potential carcinogenics than ever before.  We are surrounded every day by microwaves, computer monitors, mobile telephones and the like, all of which emit electromagnetic fields.  Plus we are eating food that is further and further removed from its basic raw ingredients and loaded with artificial flavours, colours, trans-fatty acids, preservatives, you name it.  Surely we can’t expect this to have no effect on our health??  Now I don’t want to turn back the clock or join an Amish community, but I do feel I can try to steer clear of artificial gunk in my food as much as possible.  So with this in mind, I did a bit of reading on the topic of food additives – the E-numbers that you find on most prepared foods.  Although one’s natural reaction is that all additives are bad, this isn’t necessarily so – some are beneficial additives such as extra vitamins and minerals, some are natural substances that have been assigned an E-number but are not harmful. But while some additives are innocuous, others are man-made chemical-compounds and range from the potentially allergy-provoking to the potentially dangerous. 

For those of you who are interested, here is a list of good links explaining which E-numbers correspond to which substances, which E-numbers are banned, which are considered dangerous, and which are in fact natural substances. 

 

  • Michael at Cooking for Engineers recently posted an article on food additives, including a list of additives – listed by name, not E-number – and explaining what each is meant to do.
  • The Feingold program (a program designed to test whether certain foods or food additives are triggering particular symptoms such as hyperactivity) has compiled an interesting list of E-numbers (specifically food colorants), and distinguishes between additives to avoid and harmless additives.
  • The UK Food Guide has posted a very comprehensive list of E-numbers (divided into colours, preservatives, anti-oxidants, sweeteners, emulsifiers/stabilisers/thickeners/gelling agents) with a detailed write-up on each additive.
  • And finally, an Australian site has a list of what each type of food additive does and which are deemed to be harmful.

Armed with one or more of these lists, you should be in a much better position to interpret the gobbledygook on some food labels, and spot the chemicals hidden under innocuous-sounding E-numbers.

And if any of you should feel so inclined, please do visit the Cancer Research site – there are a number of ways to donate time or money.  It’s a tremendously worthy cause which is often forgotten these days or overshadowed by the disasters which dominate the news on a daily basis.

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  1. anthony says

    March 18, 2005 at 6:01 am

    Excellent. My rough guide at the moment is that if it’s not something I’d cook with then I’m not going to buy it.
    I was going to say that well at least we know that cigarettes are cancer causing but for a long time they fought that truth (some still do), but even after that they weasled around it with sports/ nature related advertising and even more recently the use of “—— Lights”. In Japan they market a cigarette called “Virginia Slims”. How do these people live with themselves?
    Food manufacturers will try similar things, particularly the use of “low fat” when this usually means increased sugar to compensate. I saw a “special” in a magazine trying to push sports drinks on kids – completely unecessary. Don’t get me started on Happy Meals. Actually no I will. The reason is Australia that Mc Donalds has had to put nutritional information and alter their menu is that consumers and health groups have been unwilling to put up with their bullshit like – it contains protein and carbohydrates => good!
    A good consumer is informed and assertive. Rarrrrgh!

    Reply
  2. redsaid says

    March 18, 2005 at 12:56 pm

    Congratulations to YOU, daahling! Hey, Cooksister readers! She’s too modest to say, but in the South African Blog Awards announced last night, our beloved Cooksister won Best overseas blog by a South African and ta-daaaaaa! Best South African food blog!
    Re: your sweet comment to me: no sweetie, in my case it’s certainly not a matter of the best woman winning. I think they made a mistake. That was yours too. Or someone somewhere decided that you couldn’t sweep and in an effort to evenly distribute the joy, they gave it to the next one they saw, and it just so happened to be me. 😉 (By George, but I AM verbose, aren’t I?)
    I’m TRHILLED for you!

    Reply
  3. Moira says

    March 18, 2005 at 6:58 pm

    What an outstanding post, Jeanne. You’ve made all of your points so well, and agree with every one of them. You’re a great writer, whatever you choose as your topic, and always a joy to read.
    Congrats on your wins…I’m so happy for you!

    Reply
  4. Stephanie says

    March 18, 2005 at 7:09 pm

    Oh, food labels! Companies are so devious…I’ve been a vegetarian a bit over nine years now, and labels are my friends. I’m always surprised at what gets snuck into a food. No, I suppose I’m not really that surprised any more!
    And through my constant label-reading, I’ve discovered that if I don’t make it myself…there’s no telling what’s to be ingested. Kind of like the Bryer’s ice cream commercials here in the States; milk, vanilla, sugar. That’s what’s in *their* ice cream…and then some kids read off the ingredient list of another brand. Poor things; they get stumped at ‘monotriglyceride’ and ‘polyunsaturated’…

    Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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