Food Babe Family - Header

You Won’t Believe Where Silly Putty Is Hiding In Your Food

You won’t believe where silly putty is hiding in your food. Find out on the latest episode of Food Babe TV and don’t miss the details below:

Watch Now:

Dimethylpolysiloxane 101 (a.k.a. Silly Putty)

Dimethylpolysiloxane is commonly used in vinegary-smelling silicone caulks, adhesives, and aquarium sealants, a component in silicone grease and other silicone based lubricants, as well as in defoaming agents, mold release agents, damping fluids, heat transfer fluids, polishes, cosmetics, hair conditioners AND IN OUR FOOD!

There have been no major studies conducted on the safety of dimethylpolysiloxane in food by the FDA or the Food Industry since it was approved in 1998, but the food industry is allowed to use it in anything they want (except milk). Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwiches, McDonalds French Fries, KFC Mash Potatoes and Biscuits, Taco Bell Cinnamon Twists, Five Guys French Fries, Dominos Bread Sticks, and on and on – the list of guilty restaurants is mind-blowing.

Companies Using Dimethylpolysiloxane

Dimethylpolysiloxane Can Contain Formaldehyde

The FDA allows dimethylpolysiloxane to be preserved by several different chemicals that don’t have to be listed on the label either, including formaldehyde! Formaldehyde is one of the most highly toxic substances on earth. It is linked to allergies, brain damage, cancer, and auto-immune disorders. See chart below directly from US Code Of Federal Regulation:

Formaldehyde

Dimethylpolysiloxane is commonly used as a filler fluid in breast implants, however this substance has started to be phased out due to safety concerns. If this substance is considered to be a hazardous ingredient when it’s placed inside our bodies, it makes you wonder, how can the FDA allow us to eat it?

American Companies Exploiting Us Once Again

When I compared the ingredient list of McDonald’s french fries in the US vs. the UK version, I was floored to witness the drastic differences. Europeans do not use dimethylpolysiloxane. Look closely at the ingredients in McDonald’s french fries below. Do you see how the french fries in the U.K. version are basically just potatoes, vegetable oil, a little sugar and salt? How can McDonald’s make french fries with such an uncomplicated list of ingredients all over Europe, but not over here? Why do McDonald’s french fries in the U.S. have to have an “anti-foaming” agent? Do the brits like extra foam? No, they don’t, Europe actually regulates this ingredient because they know this man-made chemical was never intended to be consumed by humans. This whole time McDonalds has known about this and chooses to continue to serve it’s US citizens silly putty.

McDonalds French Fries Ingredients

A Secret Ingredient In Fountain Drinks

When I drank soft drinks as a teenager, I always wondered how and why fountain drinks tasted better. My friends and I would go on and on about this and say to each other “fountain drinks are the best!” and hit up the local gas station to get our fix. Thank god those days are over.

FountainDrinks

During my research, I found out that fountain drinks have a totally different formula than their bottled counterparts found on store shelves. Dimethylpolysiloxane is found in Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Fanta and other countless fountain drinks. The food industry doesn’t want you to know about the differences either. Coca-Cola was sued for being misleading to consumers and not disclosing that Diet Coke has two different artificial sweeteners in the fountain version vs. one in the bottle version. I wonder if there will be another lawsuit regarding this ingredient!? How many people do you think actually know that silly putty is in their Sprite?

Diet Coke Ingredients

We all know drinking soft drinks is not good for us, but does Chipotle, who prides themselves as a pioneer for better quality in the food industry, know they are feeding silly putty to their consumers by serving a wide variety of fountain sodas at their establishments? Chipotle recently phase out GMOs from their restaurant food by next year, but in order to do this, are they planning to remove their Coca-Cola fountain drinks too? I am pretty sure this isn’t part of the original plan. Maybe being associated with silly putty and formaldehyde will finally give Chipotle the nudge to switch over to drinks without GMOs and chemicals. It’s crazy, that even the companies that are trying to make a difference, are still pulling these dirty secret industry tricks in our food right under our noses.

Restaurant Cheap Shortcuts

Many fast food and causal restaurants use a butter substitute product called “Phase Oil”. You may have never heard of this substance, but I can almost guarantee you have eaten it. My husband first introduced it to me, when he said his cook at his fraternity house used it to cook all of their meals. (College kids, listen up!). Needless to say it was horrifying finding this out after looking up the ingredients.

Ingredients in Phase Oil: Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Beta Carotene, TBHQ, Citric Acid, Dimethylpolysiloxane

When I saw “Phase Oil” on this list of ingredients Dominos uses, I called them up to ask why. The headquarters wouldn’t tell me and asked me to leave an inquiry. I ain’t got time for that, so I went straight to the source and visited a local Dominos to ask. I found out Dominos uses Phase Oil in their Cheesy Bread Sticks, instead of real butter – yum!

PhaseOilFoodBabe

It’s important to note, most restaurants don’t use this to intentionally harm us, they use it to cut costs. And this point hits the nail on the head. Using dimethylpolysiloxane is another cheap industry ingredient to make big profits for the food industry and does nothing to keep our health in check (especially with formaldehyde as a potential preservative!).

How many more people have to die from disease and how much more are we going to pay as a nation for health care until the FDA wakes up and starts regulating our food?

Don’t let the food industry trick you with this rubbery substance. Next time you see your family or friends eating and drinking the popular products discussed in this post and video – ask them:

“Do You Eat Silly Putty?”

Many of the fast food restaurants are required to post their ingredients online. Check em’ before you eat out. And remember to ask your server what oil your food is being cooked in and request it be cooked dry, with coconut oil (if they have it), 100% olive oil, or real butter.

Please spread this information and share this video… no one should be eating silly putty!

Till next time…

Food Babe

P.S. Sign up for free investigations like this and get them delivered straight to your inbox. I promise on all the organic food in pantry, my personal emails to you will be worth it!

Food Babe Family - Book
Food Babe Grocery Guide

Sign Up For Updates

And Get A FREE Healthy Grocery Guide Sent To You Now!

Find out what to buy and where at the top grocery stores near you

Posts may contain affiliate, sponsorship and/or partnership links for products Food Babe has approved and researched herself. If you purchase a product through an affiliate, sponsorship or partnership link, your cost will be the same (or at a discount if a special code is offered) and Food Babe will benefit from the purchase. Your support is crucial because it helps fund this blog and helps us continue to spread the word. Thank you.

343 responses to “You Won’t Believe Where Silly Putty Is Hiding In Your Food

  1. For a number of years, athletes and health
    enthusiasts have been adopting a protein-rich diet to build more muscle mass and promote
    weight loss. Together with the hydrochloric acid, these digestive juices further
    breakdown the food into absorbable substance.
    One of the key properties, and health benefits of pineapple, is ‘bromelain’.

  2. Just want to point out that Five Guys fries should not be on this list. They are literally fresh cut potatoes and 100% peanut oil. This chick didn’t do her research..

    1. Just read it (dimethylpolysiloxene) off the jug sitting on the store floor, the second of two ingredients in the jug of oil labeled simply Five Guys Peanut Oil. Made me a little disgusted so I web searched it and found this article. You gotta read the fine print.

  3. You can add Publix to the list. I had a hot cuban sub two days ago. I saw the deli worker squirt some kind of oil on my sub right before she put it in put the toaster to be toasted. While it was toasting, I smelled something that reminded me of plastic burning. When ai got home and bit into the sub, it tasted just like what I smelled; plastic burning. Not being able to eat it, I called Publix deli department and asked them what kind of oil they put on my sub. The woman insisted it was just olive oil. However, I went back to get a Publix Cuban sub today and saw the exact same oi rightnext to the toaster (it is in an unlabeled bottle but in a different bottle design than the olive oil bottles they use). I pointed to the bottle and asked the deli worker what kind of oil it was. She said, “it is called “Phase”, it is like butter but not really”. I told her that I found the taste very offensive and she said she didn’t like it either. Dear restaurants and food establishments, please don’t put chemicals in my food. Especially without telling me!

  4. If “you’re buying food at mcdonalds apparently you are too poor to buy real food”. That makes me laugh.

    I don’t spend money at McDonalds – it’s far too expensive for junk. Kroger, which isn’t the cheapest grocery company to purchase from, and Whole Foods, Inc.’s biggest competetor, is where I buy my groceries.

    I can get 3 meals from my grocery for the price of 1 bagel mcbreakfast.

    McDonalds is for the lazy. That’s all McDonalds is.

  5. Please do a petition to remove all of those fries in the US version of fries and make them the exact same as the UK version. Even though I would never eat there (and never have). I just think it’s time to make the change. It has been too far long and most should know by now they won’t do it willingly.

  6. This is funny, sort of. We in the US don’t even have the right to know if we’re eating GMO’s or real food.
    Even cloned meat has been approved for years in the US. We don’t know if our food is ’round up ready’ meaning the seeds are modified so the plant from the seed can be sprayed with round up and survive. Our food rights here are as bad as our SAD (Standard American Diet). It’s a tragedy. Our ‘government’ is not out for HUMANS. They are revenue generators, and that revenue is very rarely, if ever, for our benefit. When was the last time that Congress did anything for HUMANS? I don’t remember…….

  7. OMG What an awesome woman you are!!! With a handful of clones of you the upside down toxic world would be perfecred at light speed!

  8. While I agree that some of the ingredients are not ideal, I think the carbs are more harmful than any of those ingredients.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

food babe with grocery cart - footer image