Are you eating this ingredient banned all over the world? Find out on the next episode of Food Babe TV right here:
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Azodicarbonamide 101
- Azodicarbonamide is a yellow orangish powder, more commonly used commercially in the creation of foamed plastics – like yoga mats, shoe soles, floor mats and window gaskets.
- The FDA allows food companies to use azodicarbonamide as a flour bleaching agent and dough conditioner in any food product giving it a status of GRAS or “Generally Regarded As Safe”.
- But, the FDA doesn’t even keep track of the companies who use azodicarbonamide as an ingredient. The lack of information leads the FDA to not update or include an toxicity information about this ingredient in its EAFUS or “Everything Added to Food in the United States” database.
- When a truck carrying azodicarbonamide overturned on a Chicago highway in 2001, it prompted city officials to issue the highest hazardous materials alert and evacuate people within a half mile radius! Many of the people on the scene complained of burning eyes and skin irritation as a result. (Source: Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner)
- The U.K. has recognized azodicarbonamide as a potential cause of asthma if inhaled, and advises against its use in people who have sensitivity to food dye allergies and other common allergies in food, because it can exacerbate the symptoms.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) studied azodicarbonamide, and also linked it to asthma and other allergic reactions.
- When azodicarbonamide partially degrades with the heat of processing, it forms trace amounts of semicarbazide, which shows carcinogenicity that can result in tumors over time.
- The United States is one of the only countries in the world that still allows this ingredient in our food supply. It is banned as a food additive in the U.K., Europe, and Australia, and if you get caught using it in Singapore you can get up to 15 years in prison and be fined $450,000. I’d like to see the head of the FDA put in jail for allowing it, wouldn’t you?
Popular Products That Contain Azodicarbonamide
Sara Lee (many of their breads, bagels, etc.) 
McDonalds (almost all their breads, baked goods, bagels, etc.) 
Subway Breads (many items on the menu) 
Wendy’s (many items on the menu) 
Arby’s (almost all of their different breads) 
Starbucks
These are just a few examples, but there are many more companies that use azodicarbonamide in their products (Pizza Hut, Publix Grocery Store, Jason’s Deli, etc). There is a very good list of other companies and brands that use this ingredient on the “Good Guide” – check it out here.
Why The Heck Are Companies Using This Ingredient?
Dough conditioners allow companies to pass off chemically processed cheap food as “freshly baked” because it recreates perfect, evenly packed air pockets within the dough, improving the texture after coming out of large industrial machines from processing. If a company uses azodicarbonamide as a flour bleaching agent it speeds up the processing, making bread larger and whiter than normal. Faster processing with cheaper ingredients = more money in Big Food pockets.
The Next Time You See Your Friends or Family, Ask Them:
Remember to buy organic bakery goods that prohibit the use of highly questionable chemical ingredients like azodicarbonamide and other dough conditioners. Please spread the word and share this video with everyone you know… no one should be eating yoga mats, their shoe sole or a floor mat. Yuck.
Till next time…
Food Babe
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GREAT opening to your video – eating the yoga mat!! Excellent presentation, scary too!
Thank You Karen… it was a fun video to film, given all the circumstances and how much yoga mat I ate 🙂
Are there any issues with this ingredient being in yoga mats? (i.e., inhalation, skin absorption)?
Actually yes… that’s why I like products like Think Sport who have developed yoga mats without harmful chemicals. Check them out here – https://foodbabe.com/2013/09/03/products-that-rock-a-back-to-school-special/ They are also giving 15% for Food Babe readers 🙂
Thanks so much!
Thank you for being my “eyes and ears”!!!
my question too- thanks for creating a partnership with them!
Great video! Informative (and funny) as usual! Thanks!!!!
GREAT WORK FOOD BABE!!!! 🙂 I am loving the new ‘TV’ episodes for sure. Quick question about your last video (natural flavors). I have seen ‘natural flavors’ in Certified organic products as well. What does this mean? Am I eating Organic Beaver butt? 🙂 Thank you for ALLL YOU DO!
I would like to know on this one too. I just noticed some organic oatmeal had natural flavors listed as an ingredient.
I was just looking at that – the Stonyfield Yokids Squeezers I bought the other day contain natural flavor! And it claims to be organic!
I have been meaning to ask this same question as well!
My breakfast everyday is Nature’s Path Organic Oatmeal, and I just recently noticed that the Maple Nut flavored oatmeal contains natural flavors.
You will see both organic natural flavors and Natural Flavors (that are not organically prepared) on food labels… Here are the Guidelines that the FDA has layed out regarding Natural Flavors: The term natural flavor or natural flavoring is a man-made additive that is produced in
laboratories to give flavor to highly processed foods. It is described as the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants. This is an additive that could contain (processed free glutamic acid) MSG.
~~~The processing chemicals used to prepare the organic natural flavor are stricter than the (conventional, if you will) natural flavors. I personally avoid processed food products that contain Natural flavors, organic or otherwise… however, on occasion if the ingredient is Organic natural ______ Flavor… The problem lyes in the processed free glutamic acid (MSG) issue. As both organic natural flavor and natural flavor could contain this as a result of processing… causing me a big fat HEADACHE… Avoidable! ;D Check out the NxtNutrio App… it scans barcodes allowing you to avoid all the questionable ingredients in food and beverage products… It also has a profile setting if you are an allergen sufferer or if you want to avoid MSG, artificial sweeteners, colors, GMO’s…
USDA Organic does not mean 100% organic. Something can be certified as organic if 95% of its ingredients are certified organic and the other 5% are on the National Organic Program (NOP) approved list. This means that your organic processed food may contain msg (natural flavor), pectin made from chemically grown apples or citrus, citric acid that could be made with gmo technology (depends on how diligent the certifier is in verifying the ingredient) and many, many more. Even straight produce such as organic citrus may be coated in non-organic carnauba wax (the only requirement for labeling is on the shipping container) or apples sprayed with antibiotics (no labeling requirement). The National Organic Standards Board started out as committed organic farmers and consumers but now is more and more controlled by corporate interests. Consumers & small farmers need to take back organics. Let the buyer beware.
They had a research test with a famous breakfast food and rats , the rats started getting sick and were dying , they let the rats eat the box too and they started to thrive !!!!! I remember polypropylene being used a rope only , but now its in many health products . Wonder what that’s doing in our bodies ???
Also, if you see “dough conditioner” as an ingredient, it may be human hair! http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/03/human-hair-additive-your-food
These food companies are so disgusting 🙁
Agreed!
Hi,
This is very upsetting to me I’m even starting to wonder about our organic food about the Natural flavors?
Vera,
Hi, keep up the good work, you are doing all of us a big favor about whats good and not so good to eat.. and telling us how the food industry lie to us about their produts, how they hide some chemical on ther products using different names
I have a question for you: I eat “veggy patti” twice a week from Subway, but I have no way of knowing what are the ingrients for tha veggy patti, Do you know? if so, please let me know. Are veggy patties from Subway really healthy?
Thanks,
Plinio, Miami.
I know you’re asking Food Babe…. But I think I can help answer this one…. When you go to subway ask for a list of ingredients…. And the veggie patty should be on there too…. And no nothing from Subway is healthy for you… Food Babe did a video on Subway 🙂
Firs the truck was in 2001, and it was not a 1/2 mile. it was one building and some cars around the truck cus at that quantity it is flammable. Grains are also flammable.. Sensationalizing.
Andrew – I’m quoting the Chicago Sun Times and New York Times Writer and Reporter Melanie Warner.
My husband and I actually drove past that when I happened! Tons of men in hazmat suits!!
I agree with Andrew that there is too much sensationalizing going on. I’ve seen Haz-mat teams call out to pick up innocuous things like a spilled box of laundry detergent. (That was in Stockton, CA) Government only knows one way to react -OVER react. Government can’t be trusted to provide rational scientific judgment on anything. And quoting a newspaper is one of the worst indications of the truth. Every newspaper article on a story of which I have personal knowledge has been completely inaccurate or at least several major facts significantly wrong.
That is what you took from this article? What you want to focus on? I think you are missing the point. Go chow down on your fast food, my friend. Enjoy it. That is your inherent right as a consumer. I personally prefer to be a critical thinker and I welcome information about any and all ingredients in the food my family eats (or chooses not to eat). FYI, I am used to sensationalism (I see it every day, on both sides of the “nutrition/food” platform)…and I can navigate my way around it quite simply.
Have a wonderful day!
If you read anything on this blog with a straight face, you are absolutely as far from a critical thinker as it’s possible to get. No critical thinker would visit here for anything other than an object lesson in logical fallacies. In fact, I give the blog plenty of traffic, because I direct students here to gather examples of errors in reasoning. Every single post has at least one howler. It certainly isn’t somewhere you would go to learn about nutrition or any other aspect of health.
I urge you to think through your assumption that ‘Andrew’ enjoys fast food.
Andrew,
You should really do your research and post your information before attempting to discredit and deamplify someone else over a very serious and real matter – especially while trying to use misspelled words and incorrect punctuation.
I’d like to point out some facts from the article that are NOT here to sensationalize::
*Two Chicago Housing Authority high-rises were evacuated
*Tens of thousands of motorists were rerouted throughout the South Side
*Vehicles were backed up on highways feeding the Ryan Expressway
*Part of the Red Line “L” Train was suspended
*More than 20 emergency workers were sent to area hospitals.
For those who don’t subscribe to Andrew’s “Internet Troll-ism,” here is the actual article from the Chicago Tribune dated August 9, 2001 – he at least got the year correct. Being an ignoramus however, was his own doing.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-08-09/news/0108090262_1_spill-firefighters-truck
Hi! i would like your thoughts on alkalaine water systems… they claim to be beneficial to your body. Could you dig deep and find this out for me?
Sincerely
Bev Hearn
Yes Food Babe, I would love to know more about the best home water systems. Is Alkaline the way to go? What is the best brand of machine? Thank you in advance and also for your great work. I’m a big fan! 🙂
That is gross!!! Grrr!!!! I can’t believe this, but I know it’s true! I feel almost violated knowing that our gov. thinks poisoning its people is okay. Keep up the great work! I’m passing this one around on FB yo!
Thanks for your informative articles!
I live in Canada and was under the belief that azodicarbonamide was banned in Canada. Guess not, as I just checked the McDonald ‘ s Canada website for the latest product ingredient list (dated Sept 22/13) . Sure enough azodicarbonamide is listed there in bread products.
http://www1.mcdonalds.ca/NutritionCalculator/IngredientFactsEN.pdf
Hi
You have Starbucks croissants listed here. They have a new bakery line of goods from what I understand. I was curious if your research into their ingredients was from their new or old line of baked goods and if this new line of baked goods is any better than what they had in the past?
Thanks!
This is current information – you can see it here on their website: http://www.starbucks.com/menu/food/bakery/butter-croissant
Hey there!
Thanks for the information! I love reading you investigations. I was curious whether you had noticed Starbucks’ change in pastries – they now sell pastries from “La Boulange,” which has theoretically healthier ingredients. I actually just looked up the ingredients for their new butter croissant, and according to the ingredients on the starbucks website, they don’t contain azodicarbonamide. Would you consider this an improvement?
Thanks again for enlightening us about the hidden dangers in foods (:
The new Starbucks croissants cheese & spinach do not have this ingredient in them. Hope this helps!
Sherlock Babe does it again!
That’s cute. Thanks!
In Hawaii , Li Hi Mui is very popular, and it is like candy for adults and children, is it really harmful to your health?
Great investigation but I believe there are even worst banned ingredients in our food/ bread such as potassium bromate which causes cancer and tumors. I have been trying to get companies to stop using this one for years. This willful blindness has got to stop…we all need to end this insanity and shut down the FDA for allowing them to harm all of us U.S. citizens. Please guide this protest Vani… lets shut down the FDA they are useless. Thank you very much!
I agree Potassium Bromate is so nasty!!!!!
I always read your articles with interest and have made many changes in my
eating habits as well as forwarding your info to my friends and family.
The FDA is a political entity and we all know politics is a business..not a “calling.”
You are so cute! Thanks for all your useful info :0) will look into buying a safer yoga mat!!!
I thought you were going to have a “wardrobe malfunction” too, but I think it’ll attract more people than it will scare them off. Bea, lighten up! A little (or a lot, in Food Babe’s case) of cleavage will not kill anyone, but ignoring the poisons in our foods will, so share away!
I with Bea on the choice of clothing. You just about let your girls out! It’s hard to take you serious after this.
I have no problem with Vani’s yoga outfit 🙂
Seriously, though, that’s a YouTube video. If it were to go viral, a lot of people would learn something about their food that would surprise them. I’m sure FoodBabe’s wardrobe selection wasn’t an accident.
Wow! Great video! But now I’ve learned that azidoo…..(never mind) is in the Nature’s Own wheat bread that I eat! I’m starting to feel like there’s nothing out there that’s safe! 🙁
I was replying to BEA when saying I agree. I cannot find her comment anymore?? Huummm. Well, Keep your top on Vani 🙂
I agree with you!! Several other comments regarding the “boobage” have been taken down?!
Cute video! This one has a Jessica Simpson flair to it! Haha! I wonder how much yoga mat pieces are in everyone’s tummy? Could be why we cannot lose those extra pounds no matter what we do! Great job yet again!
For the record – I can finally pronounce azodicarbonamide 🙂
Prove it… We want to see a video of it.
I love your videos! I have learned so much through your website and I love it. My daughter on the other hand… I told her about your video today and she said that she wasn’t giving up Pizza Hit (gross) because it is promoted through her school with their reading program Book It. I told her if she ate a piece of my yoga mat she can get Pizza Hut.
HAHA. Love it!!!!
haha I liked this video. Normally I find your views kind of extreme but this one really struck a chord with me for some reason. You’re cute, I like your spunk Food Babe!
Boobermercial…. Lol.
Nasty stuff, but found in the usual toxic places, Mcdonalds, Subway, Starbucks, etc.
Try Aunt Millies Organic Indian Grain Bread – she promises no yoga mat! And it is still Indian.
http://www.auntmillies.com/products/ProductView.aspx?prod=1875&cat=Breads
Why oh wh do folks eat processed food.? And eat at Arbys, fer gawd sakes?
I just make a sandwich or bring something, so easy. And just cook something. It’s easy.
Great video!! Fun, energetic and informative! Thank you SO much for keeping us all in the loop!!!
I just want to thank you for keeping me aware to watch for “natural flavours”. I am now automatically checking all the ingredients on the label before I buy and if it lists natural flavours, I put it back on the shelf.
Ok so I totally just told my friend the other day that I thought the reason my son was acting strangely hyperactive (not normal for him) was the bread I started buying him (Sara Lee). It was the only thing I changed but I bought it bc it had the fewest chemically sounding ingredients at the grocery store I went to. Then I saw this! I knew it so I decided to look up the new bread I bought (in a pinch) which my son has seemed to do better on (Earth Grains) and it turns out, Saralee owns them!!!! This is the article: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0119320120100201 HELP!
Wow… Great intuition!
Thanks for all your informative information!!! Am wondering how those who are food conscious might be able to get our US legislators to require better oversight of the FDA… Seems like we would have an ally in Michelle Obama.
I am so sick and tired of hearing about the US approving all of these harmful ingredients in our foods. What’s wrong with the FDA?? I’m starting to think that the reason why the U.S. is #1 in obesity is not only because of people’s poor choices but because the darn country makes it so hard for us to make good choices. I feel so tricked.
wait till you find out about all the products that have genetically modified ingredients in them
Just a comment that personally I find the videos harder to watch.. I often read your blog on my phone while nursing my infant but I can’t watch videos while nursing 🙁 I imagine others have a harder time watching it if they are on the train, bus, waiting in a line, etc.
Food Babe,
That was probably a very informative video…….I didn’t hear a thing……but my heart rate went up…:)
Mike
Wow. This is crazy. THANK GOODNESS I KEEP KOSHER and don’t eat at any of those places. Disgusting. Thanks for posting. I will stick to my own home made challah breads instead 🙂
All I can say is, Food Babe you are awesome!
Can we say, WOW!!! I cannot believe that ingredient is allowed in food!
Food Babe, Could you please clear this up for me Natural Flavor is listed in the ingredients on Organic food labels is this ok to eat or drink?
Just wanted to share a website that might make everyone feel a little better about Azodicabonamide. We eat a lot of store-bought bread so I got worried and did some more research. I think this website offers a lot of information to explain why its not as bad as you think. As always though, fresh is better!
Thank you for trying to share more info with us. I assume there is something about the website that they disagreed with, as other people have shared links in the comments with no problems. To the staff: better to post a comment saying why you disagree/ discrediting what other sites have to say than censoring it out. Thanks.
Maybe they won’t allow me to share the website. Would they allow bubblews and search the chemical.
That’s why my poop has been floating so much lately, here I thought it was from all the fiber I’ve been eating, oh no, it’s the azodicarbonamide. Haha
Seriously, thanks FoodBabe for bringing this info out!
It would be interesting to find out why companies would use this, texture or?
I listed the reasons in the post 🙂
Informative and important info Vani
Have you started a LDF (legal defence fund)
because in naming and shaming these corps.
a collar will be required somewhere
You are beautiful & strong Vani but so is your info
Let it stand on it’s own
Or start a beauty/ fitness site serving the people already
marching behind you
Best
Please note – I am a professional chemist who runs Dye Diet website as a hobby. You are right, Azodicarbonamide is a NASTY chemical by itself BUT it is very reactive that is unstable, especially in the process of baking when heated in dough. Baking is a bunch of chemical reactions in the course of which perhaps ALL the Azodicarbonamide is converted to non-toxic products like urea and semicarbazide (which may still sound scary for a non-chemist ear). So, while I am NOT a proponent of adding chemicals to human food, Azodicarbonamide is perhaps a less concern than infamous artificial food dyes most of which are AZO compounds like Azodicarbonamide but much more stable and more dangerous. As a scientist I simply want to deliver truth without needless fear mongering. For the same very reason I keep telling the public that only DNA and protein carriers can pose GMO threats to public, not fats, sugars, maltodextrine, soy lecithin and the like….. The below is a quotation from Wikipedia on Azodicarbonamide which is worth reading:
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“Azodicarbonamide is used in the food industry as a food additive, a flour bleaching agent and improving agent. It reacts with moist flour as an oxidizing agent.[2] The main reaction product is biurea,[3] a derivative of urea, which is stable during baking. Secondary reaction products include semicarbazide[4] and ethyl carbamate.[5] The United States permits the use of azodicarbonamide at levels up to 45 ppm.[6] In Australia[citation needed] and Europe[7] the use of azodicarbonamide as a food additive is banned.”
YIKES!I may as well eat a Yoga mat or two. I should really start making my own bread again.
thanks for doing all the research and sharing.
This makes me so mad, I could scream. What breads are safe & what other foods also? We are slowly being poisoned & don’t know it.
Thank you! I love the videos, keep them coming!
Informative and quick relay of valuable information! Good to know that the places which people tend to trust to sell food, are actually selling something totally disgusting.
For what it’s worth, I would appreciate less cleavage in videos. I know you’re the food *babe*, and you’re very pretty and fit, but please try to stay classy so I can feel better sharing the videos with the respectable men in my life. Your information and straightforward presentation are enough to promote your cause. You’re very talented on screen! You don’t need to give those who are only entertained by a smart woman if she’s showing a little cleavage something more to gawk at. Thanks for your efforts in research and informing!
Brooke – I was wearing yoga clothes while doing yoga. That’s my body and I’m not going to apologize for it.
I am new to this site and have been checking out all your investigations. I just watched this video. I am a fit, large breasted woman and I do yoga. It is possible to wear yoga clothes without spilling out, I do it all the time. Of course there is always a little cleavage:) You may be more well received with the female audience if you dialed it back just a little. Your message is important, I’m sure you want it to reach as many people as possible:)
Love the video. No more yoga mats for this kid.
what a really fun way to give great info to us