What Foods Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.?

Re:What Foods Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.? by opencl on Saturday December 29, 2018 @04:19PM (#18785760)

At least some of the bans seem overly cautious. For example looking at the first item on the list, KBrO3 aka potassium bromate used as a flour additive. KBrO3 is a demonstrated carcinogen but it converts almost completely to KBr during the baking process. Straight from the paper[1] that seems to have been the basis of the ban, "adverse effects are not evident in animals fed bread-based diets made from flour treated with KBrO3".

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1567851/

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Re:What Foods Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.? by slavik81 on Saturday December 29, 2018 @04:43PM (#18785893)

Lots of people eat raw dough. Licking the beaters is a tradition. If it's carcinogenic when uncooked, that really should have a warning so that people can ensure they prepare it properly. Though, apparently I don't need to worry about that, because it's banned in Canada.

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Re:What Foods Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.? by opencl on Saturday December 29, 2018 @05:19PM (#18786054)

The lowest dose found to have any effect in rats would be equivalent to eating ~5kg of uncooked flour per day, every day. I do not think many people eat anything remotely close to that amount of raw dough.

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Re:What Foods Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.? by code_beers on Saturday December 29, 2018 @07:53PM (#18786663)

In isolation, sure. How many of these little doses of toxins from hundreds of food additives does it take before the diet as a whole is toxic enough to have an adverse effect? Is anyone even watching the combinations found in typical diets?

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