Hungry? Have Some Plastic 

Last  week, after public pressure, Subway agreed to remove “azodicarbonamide”, a toxic plastic-like substance from their bread. Unfortunately, many other manufacturers are not.

Food Babe” blogger, Vani Hari, gathered 50,000 signatures for her online petition to Subway asking for removal of azodicarbonamide.  The company released a statement that they were already in the process of taking out the ingredient

What Is Azodicarbonamide?

 Azodicarbonamide is a plastic-like substance that adds elasticity to products.  It can be found in items such as yoga mats and shoe soles and…well, bread (at least in North America).

In the UK and Europe azodicarbonamide isn’t even allowed to come into contact with food.  In the UK the Health and Safety Executive has identified azodicarbonamide as a respiratory sensitizer – a possible cause of asthma.  The World Health Organization has linked azodicarbonamide to “respiratory issues, allergies and asthma” for individuals at workplaces where azodicarbonamide is manufactured.

In both Canada and the USA, the FDA has approved azodicarbonamide as a food additive. So, sadly it is found in many commercial breads in grocery stores and restaurants.  McDonald’s uses it in their sandwich buns.

When will this insanity stop?  The answer to that is when public pressure starts to affect the profits of the big corporations poisoning us.  Europe and many parts of the world have proven that just a small percentage of the population refusing to purchase food with toxic ingredients will result in that ingredient being removed.  Many of the large American-based food manufacturers such as Kraft have completely removed food additives  from their products for their European customers.  You won’t find GMO food in Europe or even meat where the animals have been fed genetically altered food.  In fact,  European countries will not import meat from North America.

 Let’s take a lesson from the Europeans.  We can make a difference.  Just don’t eat food items that you know have ingredients in them that may cause adverse health conditions.  And one day, those ingredients will be removed.

To your Health!

Peter Gillham