OT: High-fructose corn syrup tainted with mercury

[fiamme red]

Another reason to avoid HFCS.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/1/26/132619/467

Traces of mercury turned up in name-brand products from makers including Quaker, Hunt's, Manwich, Hershey's, Smucker's, Kraft, Nutri-Grain, and Yoplait.

That a ubiquitous industrial-food ingredient such as HFCS should be tainted by mercury is bad enough. But it gets worse. The FDA has apparently known about this since 2005 -- and done nothing to publicize it or change it.

In 2005, EH study lead author Renee Dufault was an FDA researcher. At that time, she conducted the tests now cited in the EH report. Her results found mercury in 9 of 20 HFCS samples -- 45 percent.

She doesn't comment on why, but the FDA apparently did nothing with her results in the years since they emerged. She retired from the agency in March 2008 -- and evidently decided to go public. She deserves praise for the decision to publish her work -- essentially blowing the whistle on what looks like an egregious attempt to hide key information from the public.

[avalonracing]

China recently sentenced to death or life imprisonment top employees of a company who knowingly sold tainted baby formula (that cause multiple deaths and widespread sickness). This wouldn't happen in this country... although it probably should. Knowing about the poisoning and not doing anything about it is as bad as intentionally poisoning it.

I'm glad she is blowing the whistle but isn't it a little late? It's like Colin Powell coming out and bitching about the administration's decisions instead of doing it before we went to war. Too little too late.

[deechee]

The article mentions nothing about the levels needed to be of concern as well as the concentration found. Talk about lazy journalism.

[jhcakilmer]

I'm personally not surprised, I'd be willing to bet that most products from those companies are highly processed, and lack even minute nutrient value.

Yes, toxicity is dose related, but that is extremely hard to estimate. Since the amount of ingestions is not standardized, but characterizing the average american diet the levels are probably significant!

Plus it is interesting to note that the following chemicals are used to produce HFCS......caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, alpha-amylase, gluco-amylase, isomerase, powdered carbon, calcium chloride, and magnesium sulfate
.......of which, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid contain mercury.


Here is the research article that I found...http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2

[fiamme red]

Here is the research article that I found...http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2Full version here:

http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/1476-069x-8-2.pdf

[Ozz]

The article mentions nothing about the levels needed to be of concern as well as the concentration found. Talk about lazy journalism.
have you seen this one:

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

"Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol."

;)

:beer:

[WadePatton]

The FDA has apparently known about this since 2005 -- and done nothing to publicize it or change it.

I'm personally not surprised, I'd be willing to bet that most products from those companies are highly processed, and lack even minute nutrient value.

oh, come on--don't they use "enriched" wheat paste?...

Junk food is poison even with clean ingredients. keep your "doses" low.

[Pete Serotta]

this stuff is bad no matter what we read....unfortunately it is cheaper than cane sugar and thus has a "ready market" by the "food" producers....


I was on the Ride the Rockies last year and the fellow from MAVIC that I was rooming with would not drink any COKE but the one from Mexico (and yes it was available)...THE MEXICAN distributor does not use the corn syrup.

I am truly amazed at what is in most of the process foods. Quite a few items I can not pronounce and do not know what they are,