Kelloggs Froot Loops - now with crude oil! page

[lmyers04]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews


mmmmm grains.....now with more chemicals!



This summer, Kellogg recalled 28 million boxes of Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Corn Pops and Honey Smacks, the company blamed elevated levels of a chemical in the packaging.

Federal regulators, who are charged with ensuring the safety of food and consumer products, are in the dark about the suspected chemical, 2-methylnaphthalene. The Food and Drug Administration has no scientific data on its impact on human health. The Environmental Protection Agency also lacks basic health and safety data for 2-methylnaphthalene -- even though the EPA has been seeking that information from the chemical industry for 16 years.

The cereal recall hints at a larger issue: huge gaps in the government's knowledge about chemicals in everyday consumer products, from furniture to clothing to children's products. Under current laws, the government has little or no information about the health risks posed by most of the 80,000 chemicals on the U.S. market today.

"It is really troubling that you've got this form of naphthalene that's produced in millions of pounds a year and we don't have some of the basic information about how toxic it is," said Erik Olson, an expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts, which is advocating an overhaul of U.S. chemical laws. "In so many cases, government agencies are missing data they need on even widely used chemicals about whether they pose a health risk."

A natural component of crude oil, 2-methylnaphthalene is structurally related to naphthalene, an ingredient in mothballs and toilet-deodorant blocks that is considered a possible human carcinogen by the EPA
But others are less certain. "In this case, it had an odor and it had a taste, so it was detected," said David Andrews, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. "But there are hundreds of other potential impurities that we can't smell and taste, chemicals that we know very little about and the government knows little about."

[say_rahhh]

yummmmm..... those poor kids eating this shite.

[avocado]

Maybe they're just trying to do their part to help clean up the gulf.

[cerebelumsdayoff]

It just goes to show the maxim of the current era: if you can't pronounce it, it must be delicious!

[Bane]

I think I remember a big "Great source of FIBRE!" thing on a box of Fruit Loops the other day. Unbelievable.

Kind of like being sodomized with a crowbar is a good source of iron.

[Velocity]

I think I remember a big "Great source of FIBRE!" thing on a box of Fruit Loops the other day. Unbelievable.

I remember taking a look at a nutrition label one time on a box just to see the total carbohydrate-to-fiber ratio. It was, at the very least, 10:1 if I remember correctly. Great source of fiber my arse...

[mizski]

I hated froot loops when I was a little kid (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth). I can't believe they are still on the shelves! As an aside, I took a shortcut through the cereal aisle the other day and geezaloo, what a ton of vacuous foods they have now. Made me want to leave copies of Watson's Cereal Killer book in with the boxes! LOL

[AppalachianMatt]

They have to put the oil form the Gulf somewhere. How is this not a criminal offense?

[Mica]

I'm not sure what is worse - that we KNOW now that all this garbage is present in our "food" and yet we still keep eating it, or that years ago (like, say, when I was a child eating many helpings of fruit loops and other "breakfast cereals" and processed "foods") we ate the stuff and DIDN'T know/care about what was in it! At least now we have an awareness that hey - chemicals are/might be bad!

I shudder when I think of how much crap I shoveled down my throat when I was a kid. Yech.

[federkeil]

It's not in the food, it's holding the food.