OMG -- How Safe Is Your Food?

[alfreda89]

Yes -- This means stop re-using the $^$#@! butter and margarine dishes!

Fatal Disease From Flavoring Raises Flags

A potentially fatal lung disease linked to chemicals used in food flavorings poses a growing health risk, according to government scientists who are questioning the food industry's willingness to protect its workers.

Bronchiolitis obliterans first emerged as a threat within the food industry in 2000, when the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health was called to a southwest Missouri popcorn plant to investigate lung illnesses among workers.

Investigators subsequently found the disease among popcorn workers throughout the Midwest. They linked it to diacetyl, a substance that is found naturally in many foods but which also is artificially produced and widely used as a less expensive way to enhance flavor or impart the taste of butter.

http://my.ev1.net/english/news/newsarticle.asp?articleID=50253014&subject=health

Comments

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

My mom raised us to believe that margarine is Evil. I won't eat it. It's nasty stuff even without this latest.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

My mom raised us to believe that margarine is Evil. I won't eat it. It's nasty stuff even without this latest.

Yes, I came to this conclusion years ago when I first lived alone. I tried using margarine melting in a pan to saute something, and it spattered in a "wrong" fashion and took on an odor that unnerved me. I stopped eating margarine for a long time. Tried again when Promise came out, but finally said "screw it" and returned to butter and olive oil.

We know something is damaging children being born in the USA. (I make this sweeping statement because I know a LOT of parents who didn't use drugs or anything, and have had children born with slight birth defects or seriously ADD. And I know way too many people with auto immune diseases/conditions.) Wouldn't it be interesting if it were margarine?

As a friend says, "What will be our lead in the wine?" Lately she's been saying, "What is our lead in the wine?"

[incandragon.livejournal.com]

The report is talking about people who inhale diacetyl in huge amounts. Eating it isn't a problem. Even inhaling "household" amounts isn't a problem. This is a "Black Lung" type disease.

If it *were* toxic in small amounts, you'd do better to avoid butter-flavored popcorn (you can smell the butter scent all over the house) and any home that brews their own beer (diacetyl is released and then broken down during the fermentation process ... although a practiced brewer wouldn't stop the process early enough to release it into the atmosphere. If their beer has overtones of butterscotch? Well then.).

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

No, no, I'm tryin to get people off margarine! Don't tell them that! ;^)

No butter-flavored popcorn here. No stopping brewing in this house -- we go all the way.

And a while back I threw out I don't know how many of those tubs, and the ones from under frozen dinners. Yes, they can be useful, but please -- saving thirty of each just isn't practical!

[incandragon.livejournal.com]

:-P

Up until recently, (thanks to a lot of hard work by some folks) the real danger of margarine has been the trans fats. The flavor has gotten much better in the last few years. (At least Smart Balance tastes similar to regular American butter.) I've never used margarine myself ... but then I think salted butter is worth avoiding and I don't even have a sophisticated palate.

And I'm quite sure that you didn't throw the tubs away. Recycled, surely!

;-)

Yup to all that trans-fat danger...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Actually, I put some of them in recycling. Most of them are #5 or #6, and Austin doesn't take those numbers.

I was quite distressed to find out recently that something MUST have a neck to be placed in the recycling container. No exceptions. I was going to the trouble of buying lettuce, tomatoes and fruit in #1 containers -- and my recycling has probably been going to the trash instead.

I understand their problem -- how can they know if the container is a #1 or a #6/PS? they can't read everything they pick up. But I wish they'd flagged me months ago on it.

(I'm a Land O' Lakes unsalted butter girl, myself... )

How about this?

[oliana0.livejournal.com]

Stick to olive oil and butter. Considering the number of times that a solid fat form is required for cooking is negligable, you can safely use butter for most of these.

Remember, while saturated fat increase blood cholesterol levels, it increases both the good and the bad. Trans fats, on the other hand increase the bad cholesterol and lower the good. And margarine was created by altering unsaturated fats into saurated and trans fats. (Though some margarine is low-trans fat now.)

So, if you are making frosting for piping decorations, use trans-fat free shortening.

Re: How about this?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Yes, my only quibble with Alton Brown is that sometimes he uses solid shortening that is not butter (since butter can burn.) But I stick to unsalted butter and olive oil, with occasional safflower oil or sesame oil.