[burnt-resistor]

There are all kinds of toxic residues and contaminants in the US food supply because there's a lack of testing, lack of regulation, lack of enforcement, and a lack of the precautionary principle. Meanwhile, farmers will continue spraying RoundUp on oats just before harvest, rice grown in the US will contain arsenic from naturally-occurring contaminated soils, and almost all bread contains toxic crap banned in the rest of the world.

[dirck-norman]

There is some weird obsession on the internet about proving the U.S. is the worst at everything.

Believe me, the majority of “The rest of the world” does not protect its citizens from harmful food contamination.

[darth_avocado]

You’re the worst at everything when you’re the only one measuring it. There are parts of the world where vegetables are grown next to where factories dump toxic waste. Pretty sure no one is measuring that.

[DocTomoe]

As a non-American, that mostly is a reaction to rabid US jingoism, as in the US claiming themselves as "Numba 1" in everything, when usually, they are in the 10s or 20s at best.

And to many Americans this is even worse: If you are not best™ or worst™ ... you are unremarkable, 'E pluribus unum'.

[llbbdd]

I attribute a lot of it to the principle of "punching up".

[rootusrootus]

Agreed. Nobody really talks about most other countries, while the US is pretty much top of the list of nearly every topic. So we're constantly a target.

[dylan604]

> while the US is pretty much top of the list of nearly every topic

s/is/was

The US is trying really hard to lower its position on these lists. The US has not been near the top of reading/writing/arithmetic in a long time. The US is undoing a lot of federal regulations by eliminating/reducing agencies meant to regulate things like EPA, FDA, Dept of Education.

[nickff]

This article is about the EU food supply, and does not appear to attribute the contaminants to US exports. Why are you bringing American cultivation practices into this?

If anything, this OP demonstrates that the EU regulations are futile (though that may be an overstatement).

[bijowo1676]

EU generally leads the developed world in regulation, that has become a meme and a joke.

but for Food related stuff, EU standards and regulation are truly superior for consumers, relative to US and other countries

[daedrdev]

The United States has far stricter labeling standards than the EU. That's why US products appear to have more ingredients, they are required to say what their ingredients are mad from, even on identical products.

Many things that are well known memes are completely false. Not everything in the EU is better regulated. Everyone always complains about chlorinated chicken, not realizing that <5% of US chicken is washed that way as chicken now uses vinegar washes, and those that did were at concentrations deemed safe by the FDA.

[Jensson]

> The United States has far stricter labeling standards than the EU

Source for that? All I can find says EU have stricter labeling standards except for forum comments such as yours here.

Edit: > Many things that are well known memes are completely false

To me it looks like "USA shows more additives due to harsher labeling standards" is just a meme, everything I've seen says Europe has stricter requirements on what you need to say about additives. So USA having much more additives listed comes from American products having more additives in them, not everything is better in USA.

[thesmtsolver2]

https://www.tilleydistribution.com/insights/food-regulations...

   The European approach to food additives is visible. The EFSA assigns a 3- or 4-digit code to every food additive, and that number must be included on food labels if it’s used in a product. The EFSA believes this system makes it easier for consumers to look up and memorize specific additives.

   In the US, those same additives are required to be printed out in full.

[NopIdoN]

That's not stricter, it's just different names.

[rsynnott]

> Everyone always complains about chlorinated chicken, not realizing that <5% of US chicken is washed that way as chicken now uses vinegar washes, and those that did were at concentrations deemed safe by the FDA.

So, the issue with chlorinated chicken washing is not that the chlorine is unsafe, as such. There are two concerns. The first is cross-contamination. The second is that there is some evidence that it is essentially a cheat; it defeats common tests for salmonella but does not actually reliably destroy the salmonella. So, if you allow chlorine washing, then you can pass the tests while not fixing supply chain problems.

Reference on most American chicken now being washed with _vinegar_? As far as I know that’s fairly uncontroversial ineffective.

[daedrdev]

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/15/nx...

“The vast majority of chicken processed in the United States is not chilled in chlorine and hasn't been for quite a few years.

…

Less than 5% of poultry processing facilities still use chlorine in rinses and sprays, according to the National Chicken Council, an industry group that surveyed its members. (Those that still do use a highly diluted solution at concentrations deemed safe.)

Nowadays, the industry mostly uses organic acids to reduce cross contamination, primarily peracetic, or peroxyacetic acid, which is essentially a mixture of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.“

[rsynnott]

Ah, I see.

> primarily peracetic, or peroxyacetic acid, which is essentially a mixture of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide

The NPR should possibly hire a science editor. Peracetic acid is not a _mixture_ of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, any more than water is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. It can be, though in practice is not, made by _combining_ them.

Anyway, same concern as chlorine from the EC’s point of view; it’s an attempt to clean up the problem after it is created, of dubious efficacy, whereas EC policy is to attempt to avoid creating it in the first place.

[account42]

On the other hand, US tap water is absolutely drenched in chlorine. Awful stuff.

[daedrdev]

This is exactly what I’m talking about. The US and the European Union both allow chlorine in drinking water as in both areas it’s used kill bacteria. The US allows slightly more but both of them set it to safe levels and the chlorine and chloramane used do not make people sick

[account42]

I'm talking mainly about taste not making people sick. No idea about the rest of the EU but in Germany tap water never tastes like chlorine while in the US it does everywhere I have been.

[NopIdoN]

I fear you have been vinegar brain washed. Like this talking point was dilled into you

[flexagoon]

> but for Food related stuff, EU standards and regulation are truly superior for consumers, relative to US and other countries

That is mostly a myth. EU and US take different approaches to setting food safety regulations, which means they have different lists of banned substances. The EU bans a lot of substances that have no evidence of actual adverse effects just out of an abundance of caution or sometimes even because of uninformed public perception, which is why their regulations seem more comprehensive, but the vast majority of that has no real positive effect on consumers.

https://blog.ansi.org/ansi/differences-between-eu-and-us-foo...

In terms of actual food safety, the US is basically the same as the EU (it technically ranks even higher than most EU countries on the "Quality and Safety" criterion of the Global Food Security Index, but the top countries are all very close)

https://insights.economistenterprise.com/sustainability/proj...

(Before anyone accuses me of something, I live in the EU and generally prefer EU in terms of lawmaking and regulations. It's just that food safety specifically is a point of comparison which is much less true than people usually think)

[otherme123]

The message you respond to talks about "food stuff", which is admitedly blurry. You focus on food safety, which is very good in the US. But the EU also regulates heavily food quality and sustainability, and it usually shows IMO.

[OkayPhysicist]

An odd exception to that trend is dairy products (thanks to the hard work of various US Dairy Councils). Ice Cream, sold as "Ice Cream" in the United States, is vastly superior to most anything you'll find in the rest of the world.

10% milk fat (more exactly 1.6 lb per pre-mixed gallon, but that's simply a bizarre way of phrasing it), no more than half air by volume. 6-10% other dairy solids (lactose, whey).

Compare with the UK: at least 5% fat (no cows need be involved)

France requires 5% milkfat, Germany at least requires the 10% milk fat, but no further requirements.

Canada pretends to be at 10%, but if you add any flavoring at all that can go down to 8%.

[stackghost]

Yeah, the US FDA allows artificial growth hormones in dairy so let's drop this comical charade that US dairy is good.

[NopIdoN]

I'd love to see a policy difference where I prefer the attitude of the US

[Jensson]

> If anything, this OP demonstrates that the EU regulations are futile (though that may be an overstatement).

Nothing said that EU farmers used these pesticides, its related to imports. And even most imports they tested were in the legal limit even though they are from areas where these things are legal.

[nozzlegear]

I agree the situation is shitty in the US, but what does that have to do with pesticides banned in the EU? It seems entirely superfluous to this to this story.