Today I posted an article my cousin sent me on my Facebook wall. She had just read my post about Cornucopia Institute’s recent investigation dubbed the “Organic Watergate” (rightly so) and the harmful ingredient carrageenan that is allowed in organic foods. The article I posted was entitled 38 Non-Organic Ingredients Found in USDA Organic Foods. Although dated 2007, I found the reasons for allowing these ingredients to be fascinating. A majority of the foods were allowed because no other substitute from an organic supplier was widely available or for economic reasons. Majority of the foods were allowed only after companies submitted specific petitions to the USDA to include them.
Because the article was outdated a bit, I thought it would be prudent to easily make available the whole list of ingredients that are currently legally allowed in organic food. While most of the agriculture and non-synthetic substances are not harmful to your body – some of them along with synthetic ingredients do alter your body’s alkalinity, making you more acidic. This matters, because an alkaline body avoids disease, repair cells, and removes free radicals/toxins more effectively.
I could spend days discussing each ingredient, but one synthetic ingredient that jumped out at me is cellulose – otherwise known as wood pulp. The amount of cellulose food companies can put in your food is not regulated by the FDA. Cellulose is used as filler to processed foods because it doesn’t contain calories or fat content and is cheap. Some common products that contain it are frozen waffles, shredded cheese, and salad dressings. Your body simply cannot use this ingredient at all nutritionally and lacks the enzymes to digest it. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to eat things that my system can’t process. I can’t believe companies are allowed to sell food we can’t even digest as humans!
This list hopefully serves as a reminder why it is so incredibly important to avoid overly processed foods even when they are certified organic and to check every single label on everything you buy. The products I share and support on my shop and the ones I use on a daily basis rarely if ever contain any of the below ingredients. And for the record I will ALWAYS choose an organic product vs. a conventional one.
I obtained this list from the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations ECFR and is current as of May 22, 2012. Please feel free to share it how ever you like.
You can view all the other ingredients that are allowed in actual production of organic products here, don’t get too crazy looking at that list either.
Full List of Non-Organic Ingredients Allowed in Organic Food
* List provided by Electronic Code of Federal Regulations – May 22, 2012
Non-Organic Agriculture Products Allowed:
- Casings, from processed intestines.
- Celery powder.
- Chia ( Salvia hispanica L. ).
- Colors derived from agricultural products.
- Annatto extract color—water and oil soluble.
- Beet juice extract color
- Beta-carotene extract color, derived from carrots
- Black currant juice color
- Black/Purple carrot juice color
- Blueberry juice color
- Carrot juice color
- Cherry juice color
- Chokeberry—Aronia juice color
- Elderberry juice color
- Grape juice color
- Grape skin extract color
- Paprika color —dried, and oil extracted.
- Pumpkin juice color
- Purple potato juice
- Red cabbage extract color
- Red radish extract color
- Saffron extract color
- Turmeric extract color
- Dillweed oil
- Fish oil —stabilized with organic ingredients or only with ingredients on the National List
- Fortified cooking wines.
- Marsala.
- Sherry.
- Fructooligosaccharides
- Galangal, frozen.
- Gelatin
- Gums—water extracted only (Arabic; Guar; Locust bean; and Carob bean).
- Hops ( Humulus luplus ).
- Inulin-oligofructose enriched
- Kelp—for use only as a thickener and dietary supplement.
- Konjac flour
- Lecithin—de-oiled.
- Lemongrass—frozen.
- Orange pulp, dried.
- Orange shellac-unbleached
- Pectin (high-methoxy).
- Peppers (Chipotle chile).
- Seaweed, Pacific kombu.
- Starches.
- Cornstarch (native).
- Rice starch, unmodified —for use in organic handling until June 21, 2009.
- Sweet potato starch—for bean thread production only.
- Tragacanth gum
- Turkish bay leaves.
- Wakame seaweed ( Undaria pinnatifida ).
- Whey protein concentrate
Non-Synthetic Allowed:
- Acids (Alginic; Citric—produced by microbial fermentation of carbohydrate substances; and Lactic).
- Agar-agar.
- Animal enzymes—(Rennet—animals derived; Catalase—bovine liver; Animal lipase; Pancreatin; Pepsin; and Trypsin).
- Bentonite.
- Calcium carbonate.
- Calcium chloride.
- Calcium sulfate—mined.
- Carrageenan.
- Dairy cultures.
- Diatomaceous earth—food filtering aid only.
- Egg white lysozyme
- Enzymes—must be derived from edible, nontoxic plants, nonpathogenic fungi, or nonpathogenic bacteria.
- Flavors, nonsynthetic sources only and must not be produced using synthetic solvents and carrier systems or any artificial preservative.
- Gellan gum —high-acyl form only.
- Glucono delta-lactone—production by the oxidation of D-glucose with bromine water is prohibited.
- Kaolin.
- L-Malic acid
- Magnesium sulfate, nonsynthetic sources only.
- Microorganisms—any food grade bacteria, fungi, and other microorganism.
- Nitrogen—oil-free grades.
- Oxygen—oil-free grades.
- Perlite—for use only as a filter aid in food processing.
- Potassium chloride.
- Potassium iodide.
- Sodium bicarbonate.
- Sodium carbonate.
- Tartaric acid—made from grape wine.
- Waxes—nonsynthetic (Carnauba wax; and Wood resin).
- Yeast—nonsynthetic, growth on petrochemical substrate and sulfite waste liquor is prohibited (Autolysate; Bakers; Brewers; Nutritional; and Smoked—nonsynthetic smoke flavoring process must be documented)
Synthetics Allowed:
- Acidified sodium chlorite—Secondary direct antimicrobial food treatment and indirect food contact surface sanitizing. Acidified with citric acid only.
- Activated charcoal —only from vegetative sources; for use only as a filtering aid.
- Alginates.
- Ammonium bicarbonate—for use only as a leavening agent.
- Ammonium carbonate—for use only as a leavening agent.
- Ascorbic acid.
- Calcium citrate.
- Calcium hydroxide.
- Calcium phosphates (monobasic, dibasic, and tribasic).
- Carbon dioxide.
- Cellulose—for use in regenerative casings, as an anti-caking agent (non-chlorine bleached) and filtering aid.
- Chlorine materials—disinfecting and sanitizing food contact surfaces, Except, That, residual chlorine levels in the water shall not exceed the maximum residual disinfectant limit under the Safe Drinking Water Act (Calcium hypochlorite; Chlorine dioxide; and Sodium hypochlorite).
- Cyclohexylamine —for use only as a boiler water additive for packaging sterilization.
- Diethylaminoethanol —for use only as a boiler water additive for packaging sterilization.
- Ethylene—allowed for postharvest ripening of tropical fruit and degreening of citrus.
- Ferrous sulfate—for iron enrichment or fortification of foods when required by regulation or recommended (independent organization).
- Glycerides (mono and di)—for use only in drum drying of food.
- Glycerin—produced by hydrolysis of fats and oils.
- Hydrogen peroxide.
- Magnesium carbonate—for use only in agricultural products labeled “made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s)),” prohibited in agricultural products labeled “organic”.
- Magnesium chloride—derived from sea water.
- Magnesium stearate—for use only in agricultural products labeled “made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s)),” prohibited in agricultural products labeled “organic”.
- Nutrient vitamins and minerals, in accordance with 21 CFR 104.20, Nutritional Quality Guidelines For Foods.
- Octadecylamine —for use only as a boiler water additive for packaging sterilization.
- Ozone.
- Pectin (low-methoxy).
- Peracetic acid/Peroxyacetic acid —for use in wash and/or rinse water according to FDA limitations. For use as a sanitizer on food contact surfaces.
- Phosphoric acid—cleaning of food-contact surfaces and equipment only.
- Potassium acid tartrate.
- Potassium carbonate.
- Potassium citrate.
- Potassium hydroxide—prohibited for use in lye peeling of fruits and vegetables except when used for peeling peaches during the Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) production process.
- Potassium iodide—for use only in agricultural products labeled “made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s)),” prohibited in agricultural products labeled “organic”.
- Potassium phosphate—for use only in agricultural products labeled “made with organic (specific ingredients or food group(s)),” prohibited in agricultural products labeled “organic”.
- Silicon dioxide.
- Sodium acid pyrophosphate —for use only as a leavening agent.
- Sodium citrate.
- Sodium hydroxide—prohibited for use in lye peeling of fruits and vegetables.
- Sodium phosphates—for use only in dairy foods.
- Sulfur dioxide—for use only in wine labeled “made with organic grapes,” Provided, That, total sulfite concentration does not exceed 100 ppm.
- Tartaric acid—made from malic acid.
- Tetrasodium pyrophosphate (CAS # 7722–88–5)—for use only in meat analog products.
- Tocopherols—derived from vegetable oil when rosemary extracts are not a suitable alternative.
- Xanthan gum
Oh and btw – Pacific Natural Foods (the company who makes the Almond milk I used to buy) responded to me in regards to carrageenan in their products. They are reviewing the recent studies on the possible side effects and will make an informed decision once they do. If you are interested in their letter, I’ve pasted it below…hooray for companies paying attention!
Given recent coverage regarding the safety of Carrageenan in food, we understand your concerns over what this may mean for the health of your family.
There is much confusion surrounding food-grade Carrageenan and degraded Carrageenan, also known as Poligeenan, which is a chemically derived extract of Carrageenan. Poligeenan is created through a process called acid hydrolysis and because of this chemical process Poligeenan is considered toxic to the human body. Pacific Natural foods uses only food-grade Carrageenan.
Carrageenan is a natural stabilizer derived from red seaweed. The seaweed is gathered, quickly dried and baled to maintain quality. At the manufacturing site, the dried seaweed is ground and sieved to eliminate impurities, such as salt and sand. Following extensive washing, the seaweed undergoes a hot extraction process to separate the Carrageenan from the extraneous plant fiber.
When we develop products, our goal is to capture all of the health and nutrition nature has to offer. We use no unnecessary ingredients – each is selected to serve a purpose. We use Carrageenan as it’s an effective way to naturally “stabilize” our non-dairy beverages – it is fundamental in preventing natural separation, clumping and the settling of ingredients.
As a leader in natural and organic food for 25 years, we’re constantly searching for the safest, highest quality ingredients. Through our Certified to the Source program, we work with our suppliers to rigorously track all of our ingredients to ensure their integrity. We have been assured by our suppliers that the Carrageenan we source has not been contaminated with degraded Carrageenan (Poligeenan) and is safe for consumption.
We take seriously the additional claims made around what happens to the Carrageenan once digested. In light of this new focus on possible side effects, we are in the process of reviewing the publicly available studies and consulting with other industry experts. We will make an informed decision as we review all of the data.
We are eager to learn more about this issue and are appreciative that you have reached out to us with your concerns. It is important to us that your food not only tastes great, but is good for you. We want you to be as confident as we are in what you are consuming.
We hope this is helpful for you. Should you have additional questions please message me directly.
Be part of the change, if you know someone who could use this information- please share it with them!
Thanks for all your support,
Food Babe
Hi, Vani. (This is Alissa’s hubby….left out my last name.) This is an interesting, and quite extensive, list. While I’m not hard-core about food choices, I do like to make smart, obvious choices for better products here and there. Organic meats and dairy are top of my list. Anyway, what drew me in to comment, was your opinion about cellulose. While I don’t know much about it, I was curious if you knew whether products which the body cannot identify and digest are actually harmful or not? My expectation is that they would simply pass through. I use sucralose quite a bit, which is an example of another product which the body can’t digest. I assumed that since it would pass right through, that it was not harmful. Do you have any thoughts about that? (Here’s a Discover Magazine article which talks about the chemistry of sweeteners: http://discovermagazine.com/2005/aug/chemistry-of-artificial-sweeteners).
Hi Dave! Great to hear from you, what a great question! Passing through is one way to say it… Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Cellulose specifically has a lot of fiber in it, so it technically can count for some of the fiber grams you see on food labels. This is obviously misleading considering that you want to get fiber that you can actually absorb and benefit from, from the food you eat. The FDA mentions on their site that consuming cellulose can have a laxative effect…Not to state the obvious, but you don’t want to be going to the bathroom, before your body has absorbed the nutrients from your food (this is one of the things that causes your body to be acidic vs. alkaline when consuming additives like these). This laxative effect along with other gastrointestinal problems have also been noted in consuming some types of artificial sugars – like mannitol, inulin, sorbitol, etc. I personally never consume sucralose because it is highly chemically processed with chlorine. My low calorie sweetener of choice is organic stevia leaf and it tastes great. Here’s some info on sucralose if you are interested. http://www.downtoearth.org/health/vitamins-supplements/sucralose-dangerous-sugar-substitute Good Luck! Hope to see you guys soon. Please give Alissa and kids my best.
Sugar alcohols such as mannitol and sorbitol only contribute to gastrointestinal issues when consumed in high quantities. How much gum are you eating? I am a health nut, but you should really be more specific with your information. Such as how sucralose is made. I agree that it’s bad stuff, but really replacing 3 OH groups with Cl groups is hardly heavily chemically processed compared to other things going on with out food.
I just found your site and am both fascinated and disgusted that we can’t trust our food sourfces – even organic!
I did not buy any almond milk this week since all the brands available at my local market had Carrageenan listed as an ingredient.
Thank you for reminding me why I spend the extra money to buy organic.
Will you go back to Pacific Naturals?
Thanks again.
Kim
Mmmm… probably not, it’s just too easy to make almond milk. I’ll be making coconut milk soon too and posting a recipe – stay tuned! And thanks for finding me
Almond milk is fairly easy to make, but it does take me upwards of half an hour and I only get enough for 3 days MAX. It’s not nearly as cost efficient and since I make a smoothie every day I usually only get enough almond milk for 2 days. Any other suggestions on where I can get almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, etc without carrageenan?
thanks for posting this list. Its surprising how many ingredients could easily be organic, particularly all the colors, and if they are allowed to be non-organic, there’s no incentive for organic producers to use organic versions and therefore no market for farmers to produce organic versions. I think each of those ingredients should have a timeframe to transition to organic only. Anyway, I agree with your advice to avoid processed foods in general, because even organic processed food may not be very good for our bodies.
I know you posted this awhile ago, which I read back in May, but the NY Times recently published a related article that I thought you might be interested in:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/business/organic-food-purists-worry-about-big-companies-influence.html
As always, thanks so much for your trusted knowledge and guidance!
Thanks for posting Kate…scary times, eh?
I am wondering if anyone knows, I have vitamins that contain vegetable flour cellulose. Is this the same thing as regular cellulose – or wood pulp? I am trying to find some vitamins that don’t contain this, but so far, no luck.
I am allergic to carragean and am very happyto see you reporting on it. I get ocular migranes, the next day and must then drink a lot of water to flush the stuff out
Seriously?? How is this allowed. Is there no food safe anymore?? Thank you for sharing this info! We desperately need a food revolution.
I was hoping you could help me contact the manufacturers of my family’s favorite milk substitute – Flax Milk by Good Karma, which lists carrageenan as one of the ingredients. We used it in many of our recipes until I have noticed your post on this particular stabilizer. Any help will be appreciated, but I figured you have much more experience with this kind of social action.
Cheers,
Olya~
I questioned the makers of my favorite creamer, So Delicious Coconut Milk Hazelnut creamer about their use of carrageenan and received to no response. It’s nice to see some companies value their customer base enough to respond.
Under the “Non-Organic Agriculture Products Allowed:” column things are listed like celery powder and carrot juice color. Is there anything wrong with those ingredients. A lot of ingredients on that list look like they would be fine. How do I find out which ones are bad and why?
I understood that list to be stuff that isn’t organic, but might still show up in food that is organic. In other words, it may not be the item itself, but that it would contain pesticide residue, etc.
Pacific makes the only chicken broth I can find that is MSG free…or the likes of MSG and man oh man is it hard to find in Ontario, not living in a large centre
Hi Vani!
So I actually have a question concerning Stash teas. Some of them have citric acid listed in the ingredient list? Do you have any idea if it’s GMO? I should probably contact the company and ask. Even if it’s not GMO, is necessarily bad?
oops, forgot the *it
Why is sodium citrate bad?
I have a question on food addaitives. I know you’ve mentioned some of these, but the “good” are they good? or less harmful? Or beneficial?
http://www.schwartzlabs.com/food-additives.html
You’re information is phenomenal so thank you! I am studying to be a holistic health coach and cannot get enough of this information. I made almond milk last week since I couldn’t find a brand w.o careenagan. Any brands out there?! Thank you!
Almond milk is so easy to make from scratch, all you need is 24hrs – 3 dates (to sweeten) cinnamon stick (flavor and optional) and 1 cup almonds to soak overnight- get cinnamon stick out of the soak, then blend in a blender, then strain and you will have full control of what your almond milk contains!
SO MUCH FOR THE MYTHS
CONSIDER THE FACTS ON CARRAGEENAN FOR A CHANGE
Q. What is Carrageenan??
A. Carrageenan is a naturally-occurring seaweed extract. It is widely used in foods and non-foods to improve texture and stability. Common uses include meat and poultry, dairy products, canned pet food, cosmetics and toothpaste.
Q. Why the controversy?
A. Self-appointed consumer watchdogs have produced numerous web pages filled with words condemning carrageenan as an unsafe food additive for human consumption. However, in 70+ years of carrageenan being used in processed foods, not a single substantiated claim of an acute or chronic disease has been reported as arising from carrageenan consumption. On a more science-based footing, food regulatory agencies in the US, the EU, and in the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) repeatedly review and continue to approve carrageenan as a safe food additive.
Q. What has led up to this misrepresentation of the safety of an important food stabilizer, gelling agent and thickener?
A. It clearly has to be attributed to the research of Dr. Joanne Tobacman, an Associate Prof at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She and a group of molecular biologists have accused carrageenan of being a potential inflammatory agent as a conclusion from laboratory experiments with cells of the digestive tract. It requires a lot of unproven assumptions to even suggest that consumption of carrageenan in the human diet causes inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract. The objectivity of the Chicago research is also flawed by the fact that Dr Tobacman has tried to have carrageenan declared an unsafe food additive on weak technical arguments that she broadcast widely a decade before the University of Chicago research began.
Q. What brings poligeenan into a discussion of carrageenan?
A. Poligeenan (“degraded carrageenan” in pre-1988 scientific and regulatory publications) is a possible carcinogen to humans; carrageenan is not. The only relationship between carrageenan and poligeenan is that the former is the starting material to make the latter. Poligeenan is not a component of carrageenan and cannot be produced in the digestive tract from carrageenan-containing foods.
Q. What are the differences between poligeenan and carrageenan?
A. The production process for poligeenan requires treating carrageenan with strong acid at high temp (about that of boiling water) for 6 hours or more. These severe processing conditions convert the long chains of carrageenan to much shorter ones: ten to one hundred times shorter. In scientific terms the molecular weight of poligeenan is 10,000 to 20,000; whereas that of carrageenan is 200,000 to 800,000. Concern has been raised about the amount of material in carrageenan with molecular weight less than 50,000. The actual amount (well under 1%) cannot even be detected accurately with current technology. Certainly it presents no threat to human health.
Q. What is the importance of these molecular weight differences?
A. Poligeenan contains a fraction of material low enough in molecular weight that it can penetrate the walls of the digestive tract and enter the blood stream. The molecular weight of carrageenan is high enough that this penetration is impossible. Animal feeding studies starting in the 1960s have demonstrated that once the low molecular weight fraction of poligeenan enters the blood stream in large enough amounts, pre-cancerous lesions begin to form. These lesions are not observed in animals fed with a food containing carrageenan.
Q. Does carrageenan get absorbed in the digestive track?
A. Carrageenan passes through the digestive system intact, much like food fiber. In fact, carrageenan is a combination of soluble and insoluble nutritional fiber, though its use level in foods is so low as not to be a significant source of fiber in the diet.
Summary
Carrageenan has been proven completely safe for consumption. Poligeenan is not a component of carrageenan.
Closing Remarks
The consumer watchdogs with their blogs and websites would do far more service to consumers by researching their sources and present only what can be substantiated by good science. Unfortunately we are in an era of media frenzy that rewards controversy.
Additional information available:
On June 11th, 2008, Dr. Joanne Tobacman petitioned the FDA to revoke the current regulations permitting use of carrageenan as a food additive.
On June 11th, 2012 the FDA denied her petition, categorically addressing and ultimately dismissing all of her claims; their rebuttal supported by the results of several in-depth, scientific studies.
If you would like to read the full petition and FDA response, they can be accessed at http://www.regulations.gov/#!searchResults;rpp=25;po=0;s=FDA-2008-P-0347