A California man, who claims Skittles candy contains a “known toxin” that makes it “unfit for human consumption,” is suing the manufacturer, Mars.
In a lawsuit filed last week, a consumer alleged that Skittles were “unfit for human consumption” because the rainbow candy contained a “known toxin” – an artificial color additive called titanium dioxide.
Until more information is made available to the public, Consumer Reports’ food safety and policy experts recommend that consumers stop eating products that contain an additive called tara flour. This advice comes after a popular plant-based meal delivery service, Daily Harvest, named tara flour as the culprit behind a recent outbreak of illness related to its French Lentil and Leek Crumbles frozen product. The recalled product is known to have sickened almost 500 people so far.
Consumer groups continue to call for faster and more efficient work from FDA on a variety of topics including heavy metals in baby food and the recent outbreak of cronobacter from infant formula.
The President’s appointment of Jose Emilio Esteban, of California, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety has gone for eight months without Senate confirmation. And a capital media investigation into the deficiencies of FDA’s major food safety unit goes largely ignored by all but a handful in Congress.
Our food should be nourishing and safe to eat. But more than 10,000 chemicals are allowed in food sold in the U.S. Some are direct additives, such as preservatives like butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, and butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, which are intentionally added to processed food. Others are so-called indirect additives, like heavy metals, which contaminate food during processing, storage and packaging.
But more than 10,000 chemicals are allowed in food sold in the U.S. Some are direct additives, such as preservatives like butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, and butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, which are intentionally added to processed food. Others are so-called indirect additives, like heavy metals, which contaminate food during processing, storage and packaging.
On May 19, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced four incongruous actions in response to petitions submitted by EDF and others asking the agency to ban the use of more than two dozen ortho-phthalates (phthalates) in food packaging and processing equipment. We filed the petitions because we were concerned that these hormone-disrupting chemicals were harming people, especially children, who consume food contaminated by this class of chemicals. Since filing the petitions six years ago, the evidence of harm – and our concern for children’s health – have only grown more compelling.
The first bite of solid food for many babies in this country comes in the form of infant rice cereal. And many parents get that cereal through the Women, Infants, and Children’s program, a federal initiative that provides nutritional support to 53 percent of all children born in the U.S.
Are you looking for the best peanut butter & other nut butter without toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”? Indications of Per & polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS, a class of man-made chemicals linked to adverse health effects, were found in peanut butter & other nut butters as part of a consumer study commissioned by Mamavation.
Originally published here. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration finally said it would heed calls from EWG and other top advocacy groups seeking to limit the use of bisphenol A, or BPA, in food packaging, an urgent need, given alarming new data about the chemical’s harm. In early April, the groups, led by the Environmental Defense […]