Food is the most important thing to the human species; it gives you energy, nutrients, and building blocks essential for all bodily functions. Since America’s birth 250 years ago, from meat factories to false advertising to the Great Depression, food has been a constant struggle. For some reason, America has been unsuccessful in feeding its citizens healthy and nutrient-filled food. But one of the worst food problems the US has experienced is seemingly normalized and even widely accepted. The addition of unnatural and unnecessary lab-made ingredients has flooded the grocery stores of America. While other countries go out of their way to ban these ingredients, the US has appeared to accept these poisons with open arms. Why?
Titanium dioxide, brominated oil, BHA, BHT, and rBST… there’s a very large chance that you have no idea what any of these things are. I didn’t either until I did a little bit of research and discovered that these are all ingredients commonly found in gas station snacks, but that’s not the only thing they have in common. All of these ingredients have been prohibited in other countries for a variety of reasons, mostly revolving around health. Titanium dioxide, for example, is most commonly found in candies, chewing gum, and alcoholic beverages, and has been banned in Europe for possibly having cancer-causing properties. The companies that produce these foods have no shame in displaying that their products contain this mineral, either. They will put it on the front side of the bag in big bold words that read ‘artificial coloring.’ But why does America let companies use these ingredients freely?
European countries have more interest in keeping their citizens happy and healthy because they have universal healthcare, while America has a capitalist-driven society where money takes priority over people’s health. In America, the sicker people are, the more money health care generates, which in turn leads to massive profits for stockholders. While in European countries, the priority lies in keeping people healthy instead of treating them when they’re sick.
Each country has its own government agency that tests and decides the safety of all food additives. Most countries take safety precautions and test food additives before they let them hit the grocery store aisles, while the US takes a different approach. They let their citizens be guinea pigs by automatically assuming that all additives are safe until proven otherwise. If someone dies due to consuming Hot Cheetos, only then will the US decide to test out all additives in said product for potentially harmful ingredients. A perfect example of this comes from 2023, when several patients’ nervous systems were heavily affected by large amounts of BVO they consumed while eating brominated vegetable oil. Only then did the FDA propose a ban to the US government, which was finally passed a year later in 2024. However, a one-year grace period was granted, so you may still find headache-inducing vegetable oil on your store shelves.
But why does the US wait until it’s too late to take action? The answer is, they don’t. Well, not directly, however, due to the FDA’s “Generally Recognised as Safe” Act, companies have a loophole. The act lets manufacturers self-certify what they put in their products without having to deal with government testing, opening the gateway for big businesses to include whatever ingredients they want to maximize their profits, often sacrificing the health aspects in exchange for cooler, more colorful-looking food. This directly contrasts Europe’s precautionary rules; some critics argue that it outsources safety to profit-driven companies, which allows risky chemicals into the food industry.
In the end, the inclusion of potentially risky food additives doesn’t look like it will come to an end until it’s too late, with multiple big businesses profiting majorly from the loophole the FDA set up. Now I don’t have any evidence to back this up, but it could almost be assumed that some big companies are paying off the US’s food safety inspection service to keep this gateway open, as it almost definitely pays itself off, maybe even double, in the long run. The best way you can keep yourself safe from potentially harmful additives is to read the ingredient lists, make sure you’re at least generally familiar with most of the items, and keep yourself informed about the most common additives, especially while buying snacks at the gas station.
