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Loading...Flame-Retardant Chemicals Found In Common Foods
Common foods found in U.S. grocery stores are contaminated with Polybrominated dphenyl ethers, or PBDEs: a class of chemicals commonly used as a flame-retardant, according to a recent study.
The study examined ten samples of 31 distinct food types, including meat products, fish, dairy foods, vegetable-based foods, and eggs. The samples were collected from five supermarkets on two separate occasions in Dallas, Texas, in 2009.
The most heavily PBDE contaminated food was butter, followed by canned sardines and fresh salmon. Lowest detected levels were found in other dairy samples (whole milk and yogurt) and in vegetables (cereal, apples, and potatoes).
Although the purpose of the study was “to update previous U.S. market basket surveys of levels and PBDE dietary intake calculations” it’s disturbing to know that these types of chemicals are present in our food at any level.
As Rodale.com reports, “previous studies have shown butter to be contaminated with everything from PBDEs to DDT, and when those chemicals combine, their collective health effects can have an even greater impact than if they existed alone.”
The Environmental Working Group reports that dozens of independent studies have linked low levels of bromated fire retardants with a variety of adverse health effects, including effects on learning and memory, spontaneous motor behavior and habitutation capability that worsened with age; endocrine disruption; and decreased sperm count in adult offspring.
Unfortunately, the newly Senate-approved Food Safety Modernization Act that so many people hoped would eliminate these threats would do nothing to reduce this contamination as it focuses on bacteria rather than chemicals, according to Delish.com.
Read more: butter, chemicals in food, flame retardant, food safety modernization act, PBDE, real food, S510
Image Credit: Flickr - green kozi
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How in the hell does a flame retardant end up in butter or ANY dairy product?? I'd REALLY like an answer to that one! For God sake is ANYTHING safe to eat anymore?
just unbelieveable!
I always read labels and choose fresh rather than packaged if I can, but BUTTER? It is supposed to be fresh.
this doesn't sound good
What a sad world we live in, you can't trust the food that you are eating! It is the role of Government to protect people from harm, no matter if the risk comes from bugs, chemicals or anything else for that matter!
FDA should be testing food for chemicals now that it has come to their attention.
Why does butter need flame retardant in the first place? I've never heard of anyone who died because butter caught fire...
Let's see... Enough preservative to keep up from decomposing for years. Now I learn they can't build a funeral pyre or cremate me. None of this is natural, obviously. Sheesh! I fail to understand why anyone would consider this unnecessary to test. No wonder we're getting dumber (as it studies re: the brain)!
It would have been nice that this piece included the possible ways the foods were contaminated. Were they contaminated at point of origin or after wards (shipping, warehousing, etc.)? This would help us understand the risks from either the suppliers or the supermarkets that carry these products. Thnx
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