[rexpop]

How long (and over what obstacles) until these chemical additives are banned, taxed, or labeled with Surgeon General's warnings?

Hopefully Medicare puts 2 and 2 together to sue the Big Junkfood monsters churning these toxins out, like they sued Big Tobacco.

[Taikonerd]

I wish America would regulate food additives the way the EU does: "you can't sell this until it's proven to be safe," rather than "feel free to sell this until we can prove it's unsafe."

Of course, the emulsifiers mentioned are approved for sale in Europe, so it's not a panacea. But still, it would cut down the number of chemicals with unknown long-term effects in our food.

[iloveitaly]

Is there any clear source of products the EU considers safe? i.e. how are these decisions made and documented.

[BobbyTables2]

Just wait until one of them are n proven beneficial! /s

On the flip side, only has to look at mustard oil to see regulatory capture in action…

It has to be labeled “for external use only” but “canola” oil is perfectly fit for consumption!

[BizarroLand]

That is from health concerns over its high erucic acid content, which is fair as there is some evidence of concern with it possibly causing hyperlipidemia of the heart.

At the same time though, there are thousands of years of history of people eating it their entire lives and not necessarily dying of fatty hearts, so take that with a grain of salt.

[faeriechangling]

I don't think any of this data justifies a ban even for the worst offenders, and the comparison to Big Tobacco is pretty comical hyperbole.

Feels a bit overkill to ban these ingredients given the culinary uses, even in home cooking for things like gluten free baking and salad dressings, simply because they're mildly unhealthful. I can think of many common things from both home cooking and commercial cooking that present a far higher risk that are normalised... and health honestly is not everything.