The Consumerist Attacks GRAS (food not vaping but quite related)

[Burn_notice_fan_NY]

Just saw this article on consumerist: http://consumerist. com/2014/04/07/potentially-harmful-chemicals-find-their-way-into-our-food-thanks-to-56-year-old-fda-rule/. I was apparently under the impression that GRAS was essentially an FDA approval by their own researchers. I now understand that this is not necessarily the case. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that this will have eventually a big impact on vaping in general or possibly add more fuel to the fire when we state that PG and VG are GRAS?


I don't plan on stopping vaping, but thought this would be something interesting to discuss.

 

[Recycled Roadkill]

"A company determined the use of Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) was safe in the production of 25 products including teas, sports drinks, and juices."

"Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) is currently used in five products marketed in the U.S."

"A company determined Theobromine was safe to be used 20 products including bread"

I've read that dead bodies actually take longer to degrade since we're ingesting more preservatives.

I don't even like the thought of consuming stuff in food by names of which I can't ever hope of pronouncing properly.

At this point I don't ever want to know what's in my morning Sausage Biscuit. Sheesh!

 

[retired1]

Moved to Media and General News

 

[DrMA]

That article appears to propose that tea (EGCG), chocolate (theobromine), tomatoes (GABA), and beans (Lupin protein) should somehow be treated as dangerous chemical additives to food, rather than the more common sense GRAS category. What's next? table salt and water? I can make those sound all chemically and scary if I called them hydrochloric acid sodium salt and, respectively, dihydrogen monoxide.

This kind of pseudo-scientific paranoia does not serve the public health interest. Sure the disclosure requirements could be more transparent, and several things on the GRAS list such as partially-hydrogenated oils, are worth a more thorough reassessment, but to raise chemophobic hysteria about common foodstuffs is ridiculous.

 

[Stosh]

The concerns seem to be rather "the government needs to make me safe from everything" based, for example..

Sweet lupin protein, fiber, and flour is found 20 products in the U.S. including baked goods, dairy products, gelatin, meats and candy despite the FDA-raised questions about whether or not the chemical would cause serious allergic reactions in those with peanut allergies. The chemical is found in a plant related to the peanut family.

I try to keep up with FDA proclamations but don't remember them banning, or requiring child-proof lids on peanut butter....

 

[DrMA]

The concerns seem to be rather "the government needs to make me safe from everything" based, for example..



I try to keep up with FDA proclamations but don't remember them banning, or requiring child-proof lids on peanut butter....

The lupin bean plant is part of the legume family, one of the most diverse families of flowering plants on the planet. They are not only related to peanuts, but also to beans, peas, chickpeas, soybeans, liquorice, and over 19,000 other plant species. Singling out the peanut is a message precisely manufactured to induce panic.

For that matter, soybeans are related to kudzu, but that does not mean they're dangerous, invasive noxious weeds and should be extirpated and banned from cultivation.