You never cease to amaze me Food Babe Army! The power you have to change the world is incredible. I just received confirmation that Whitewave Foods, who owns Horizon and Silk, will be removing all carrageenan from their products in 2015.
Earlier today, I received an anonymous email that stated:
“To whom it may concern, Through friends I have made in the industry an announcement from Whitewave was shared with me regarding their removal of Carrageenan from their products. Due to the overwhelming pressure from consumers and encouragement from your website foodbabe.com, Whitewave has announced that they will be removing Carrageenan. Keep up the good work. Attached you will find the announcement letter from Whitewave regarding this”.
Along with this attached document from Whitewave Foods:
We are removing carrageenan from our Horizon and Silk products!
- Our consumers have expressed a desire for products without it and we are listening!
- Carrageenan will be removed from Horizon flavored milk in Q1 2015, and from all other Horizon items by Q2 2015 (eggnog, Tuberz, heavy whipping cream, regular and lowfat cottage cheese and lowfat sour cream).
- It will be removed from our top 5 Silk ESL Soy and Coconut beverages by Q2 2015 and remaining Silk Aseptic and other ESL products by end of 2016.
- What is carrageenan?
- A purified extract of red seaweed that is widely used in food and beverage products as a natural thickener and stabilizer. Allowed for use in organic products since 1995
- National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) Handling Committee voted unanimously in February 2012 to recommend it for relisting
- Food grade carrageenan is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by FDA, and is permitted for use by federal and international food safety agencies including FDA, and Health Canada
It was just reported by the Associated Press via ABC News that they decided to remove it “because customer feedback has been so strong“. Yes, it is because of all of YOU and your resounding voices, they have decided to make this positive change. This is in direct response to your continued activism in holding companies accountable for the ingredients they put in their products.
Carrageenan Should Be Removed From All Food – Here’s Why:
I first wrote about this controversial additive back in May of 2012 when a cousin of mine asked me to investigate this ingredient. I highlighted research from food industry watchdog group, The Cornucopia Institute, who completed an in-depth analysis regarding the safety of this ingredient and subsequently petitioned the FDA to remove the additive from the “Generally Regarded As Safe” or GRAS determination and from organic foods all together.
In their report, they explained why even food-grade carrageenan is dangerous, yet how many food companies have continued to unscrupulously add it to their products. According to Cornucopia, animal studies show that “food-grade carrageenan causes gastrointestinal inflammation and higher rates of intestinal lesions, ulcerations, and even malignant tumors”. It can also cause cancer, because food grade “undegraded” carrageenan is contaminated with “degraded” carrageenan (the kind that’s not considered “food grade”). The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Research Council of the United States have both determined that degraded carrageenan is a carcinogen. So, it clearly should not be in our food – but it still is.
As reported this week in the Washington Post, Joanne Tobacman, a physician and professor, “asked the FDA in 2008 to examine the additives safety, submitting five of her own studies concluding that carrageenan can cause inflammatory bowel disease and diabetes. The studies were financed with grants from the federal government. The FDA denied her petition, citing several other industry-funded studies that contradicted her findings“.
Since the FDA won’t do anything to get carrageenan removed from our food, it is up to us to make this happen.
Other Companies Are Guilty, But This Can Be Changed.
I’m so thrilled that Whitewave made this announcement, because this will likely lead to other companies following suit. Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute has been working on this issue for years, and says that Whitewave’s decision reflects the rise of “people power” – which is so true. We do have the power to enact big changes in the food industry and this is proof of that.
Let’s help to be part of this sweeping change to remove carrageenan from our food supply by avoiding all products with carrageenan and ask companies who are still using it to drop it.
In this shopping guide, created by The Cornucopia Institute, you’ll find a list of all companies guilty of using this ingredient. If one of your favorite products is listed, please do your part and contact that company and ask them to remove it. If you know of other companies that are still using carrageenan, list them in the comments below.
FDA Asleep At The Wheel!
Whitewave’s announcement proves targeting companies works much faster than targeting the FDA. Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for food, even admitted this week that “We simply do not have the information to vouch for the safety of many of these chemicals” and “we do not know the volume of particular chemicals that are going into the food supply.” The FDA is completely asleep at the wheel. It’s up to us to hold these companies accountable and that’s exactly what we are doing.
You are so awesome. Congratulations Food Babe Army! We are changing the food system once again.
Sending you lots of love and courage to keep moving forward,
Vani
P.S. If you are new to Food Babe and want to change the food system, come on over and sign up here, it’s completely free!
How terrific! As an Australian living in NC, I am stunned by how many unnecessary additives are in the foods here in the USA. I have been searching high and low for whipping cream that contains only what it needs to….cream! In Australia my bottle of shop-bought whipping cream would last 3-4 days in the fridge once opened and then turn sour and/or mouldy, and last just over a week unopened in the fridge. Here, the whipping cream lasts months, and months and months…whether opened or not! What are the companies putting in the fresh cream to extend the life so long? Interestingly, in Australia we consume a lot more fresh whipping cream than the USA as revealed by the amount stocked in the grocery stores. It’s all about convenience in the USA…consumers are happy to buy cream in a spray bottle to save themselves time, but at what cost to their health and the environment? I find that in the USA things are done a certain way because that’s the way they have always been done (eg. we live in the internet age, but still are writing checks?? When I moved here, I hadn’t seen a check for over 20 years!!). Thank you Vani for challenging the establishment and encouraging them to change the way they do things for the good of all.
WOW! Thank you Food Babe for all the hard work and research you do for us!! Keep telling us who to contact to complain about products and we WILL help!!
Keep up the great work! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!
Great news! Thank you! It is just too bad that we have to go through all this work and time to remove these unhealthy ingredients at a snails pace. Like the Tortoise and the Hare story, slow and steady wins the race, Eventually I hope the food industry will realize the power of the internet in stopping them from adding these unhealthy ingredients and just do it sooner.
This is INCREDIBLY AMAZING news!!!! Great work!!
That is great news! I try to avoid carrageenan and have been surprised at how many products have it in them. I hope more companies will follow! Stonyfield Organics for one!
Dear Vani and Staff and Vani heroes; I am so proud of you guys and so honored to know you and be part of this amazing feat of bringing in safe, healthy, eatable, drinkable items to families and children of this planet!!!!! There is a statement that sounds true and applies to everything and all: Evil succeeds when good people stand around and do nothing. I am glad that we are not just standing around and doing nothing.
Thank you Vani, and may God bless you and grant you a long, healthy, happy and active life!!!!!
One of your soldiers….☺
Enrietta
Your single?
So Delicious products also have Carrageenan in them.
YEAH!!!! Thank you Food Babe! I live in Boulder, Colorado home base and HQ for White Wave and Silk etc… I never buy their products b/c they are all about soy which I do not consume in the forms they process but for people who still do this…(plz at least do not feed you children soy milk etc…horrible hormones issues for them especially boys!!!) I am glad to see that they responded and listened to your plee. Now if they could only remove the soy!? and the palm oil!!!!????Well they would not have a company but for their almond milk.
Way before I knew of you I was having conversations with friends about how many people we knew had cancer. All kinds of cancer. We thought that the only common thing was cancer causing additives in all kinds of food. Years ago it was rare for anyone to get cancer (the BIG “C”). Now it’s fairly common and accepted. When I first saw you on The Doctors, you opened my eyes (and mind) that what we thought was true. I am so glad I saw you. I do not eat organic, but I do read labels.
I often wonder what these additives are and why in God’s name they have to be in foods. I think we should have a campaign against the FDA – they ARE NOT doing their job and protecting the public. I want to thank you for all your good work!
Love ya!!
I absolutely love Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk. This product also has carrageenan in it. Do you think that you can go after them next to get them to remove it from their products.
Thanks so much. Love what you do. Keep it up.
Contact them directly. I did. (And So Delicious products, too.) Tell them you’ll be basing your future purchase decisions based on their actions ( or lack of).
If all of us were to inundate the companies with e-mail concerns, they might begin to get the message.
Awesome suggestion and Tactics! I love it. Change can be as easy as a phone call or email away. You just have to muster that assertive power and DO IT. Great Job!
It’s in cat food also!! It almost killed my cat, if she gets any food with Carrageenan, Guar Gum or Xanthan gum she would be dead in two weeks. Vaccines destroyed her immune system 7 years ago, and she developed Rodent Ulcer in which these ingredients inflame her lips, they bleed, and she gets dehydrated and would die within 2 weeks. I home cooked for her for years until I figured it out. Carrageenan is a poison that is in almost all cat food, except Stella and Chewey’s raw, Tiki Cat (12 of the 20 or so flavors) Fromm which uses potato instead, and that is about it and that’s about it.
The reason cats get IBD that vets don’t know about is they don’t realize Carrageenan is an inflamatory, and my vet refused to believe it because he’s been brainwashed into selling “Science Diet” which is GARBAGE!!
Oh God, this is so the truth. Thank you so much for writing this. I agree with everything you said. I’m going to check my cats’s food now. I’m sure it has carrageenan in it. I want to also look for a BPA free can of wet food for him. Does anyone know of any? The vet is selling Science Diet because he probably gets paid by them to promote this “junk” as you said. Very brainwashed society where TMI is considered a negative by most Americans. We are lazy and do not want to know what’s in our food. It’s costing us dearly. Instead of being empowered to stop these companies from killing us, we just say, oh that’s TMI-2much info. Don’t want to know-what I don’t know won’t hurt me mentality. Ew!!
The only can food I can find with BPA free liners is called Precise Holistic which I feed to my young healthy outdoor cat, but it has carrageenan in it. I probably shouldn’t but it’s all she wants to eat at the moment and she goes after my 18 year old cat who can’t defend herself, so until she passes I have to give her what she wants.
The best food I’ve found is Stella and Cheweys freezed dried, they have a duck, turkey, chicken, and the fish ones my cat isnt’ crazy about, but it’s amazing food.
YES!!! So incredibly happy about this!!
A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS!!!
This is fantastic news Vani!! Let’s all keep the pressure on all these “bought for” companies that don’t seem to care what kind of poisons go into our food. Without constant diligence keeping an eye on what goes on behind our backs, we get what we deserve but I believe people deserve to be healthy and happy and this is a great step in the right direction.
I just want to say thank you to all who spread the word on all the food additives in our foods. It’s so rediculous how we have to fight for not only our lives but our kids lives. I will continue to sread the word on my part. Thank you Food Babe and the Food Babe Army!!
Would be nice to see a list on your site with all the safe products we should be eating.
This is fantastic news!!
Thank you so much for all of the work you do! It’s tough being a mama who tries to feed her kids “naturally/organically” and things are still hidden in them! I have Horizon milk in my fridge right now! I’m disgusted that I can’t even trust “organic”. Without you not coming to my inbox, I would never have known. I appreciate you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I quit buying Horizon, too. They contributed a bundle of money to stop GMO labeling!! Another reason NOT to buy Horizon products! :-/ what are they hiding from us? I don’t want to know. Ew!
SO Delicious Dairy Free started reformulating over a year ago 🙂 Woohoo!!! Great job guys!
Lactaid Fat Free with extra calcium has it too. The regular Fat free Lactaid doesn’t…idk why? Guess I will get the regular one next time.
Good News!
To our favorite one and only Food Babe:
WHOO-HOO ! you are the best! thank you thank you thank you
I may be wrong, but if memory serves me correctly Horizon used to come under the shingle of Con-Agra before I ever heard of Whitewave. I am now seeing Horizon Organic Cheese Food (processed) replacing Organic Valley Organic Cheese in the grocery stores at a greatly reduced cost. I ain’t buying it.
These idiots (Horizon) contributed $$$ to stop GMO labeling. I buy Organic Valley.
Thanks Vani for all you do. My daughter has been drinking the Horizon milk for a school snack because its organic and I didn’t want her drinking the school milk. I’m shocked at the article! Thankfully she is healthy but the thought of her drinking the milk make me sick! I will be looking for another alternative!!!
Thanks!
Stephanie, Horizon also contributed $$$ to stop GMO labeling!!
I have been avoiding a lot of products with Carrageenan in it since I found out what it was,I am glad that some companies are removing it. I found it in several ice cream brands by companies I thought were making a natural product while looking for gelato. I am willing to pay more money to have a product that is safe to eat.
Thank you Food Babe! I agree, the answer is not to buy the product. Why will some products not be cleaned up until 2Q of 2015 and others in 2016?
ALL of Walmart dairy products, heavy cream, cottage cheese, sour cream and ice creams and more, ALL have carrageenan in them. In fact, nearly all GV products, whether soup or frozen dinners have it in them. I learned about carrageenan on FoodBabe.com, and have stopped purchasing them and I have had almost no intestinal discomforts since. I used to purchase the Great Value brand, since money is tight. But, in the end, I saved money because I got to stop going to the doctor for those pesky issues that I had no idea of the cause.
Thanks, Vani, for doing this. I just wrote to Trader Joe’s to ask them to remove carrageenan from my grandson’s favorite cereal bars. I won’t buy them again until they change the formula. Meanwhile, I will make my own!
could you tell me if any studies have been done on chicory. a customer of mine from the uk, told me that studies were done in the uk and they found out that chicory caused cancer. maybe this is the reason we do not see luziane coffee on our market shelves any more. please tell me if you know anything about this. thank you.
GREAT WORK…IF you could do for our country what you are doing for food it would be a “miracle”. Our government needs to be re-vamped and we need someone who cares for the people of the USA. We need “leadership”, we need “courage”, we need the American spirit to shine so our colors don’t run.
Too bad Food Babe isn’t a politician…She could turn this country around and get it back to where it used to be into of going straight down the tubes as it now seems to be doing.
Now if only we could get them to remove it from pet food.
WTG! Vani, and the Food Babe Army another victory! Thanks Vani 😀
Thank you food babe for bringing such enlightenment to the sheeple. We would be lost without your great, all knowing wisdom
Good job, thank you so much! We need to work on Trader Joe’s and Sprouts now. They always put it in their store brand dairy : (
I flat out stopped buying commercial almond milk when I read in a scientific journal that they used carrageenan to induce edema (swelling) in lab rats.
So now I make my own almond milk.
It’s good to know that the companies do listen to the consumer, sometimes.
Monica.
You’re kidding!! Awful, awful. :-/
As asked I’d like to point out Ben and Jerry’s icecream also has this uneccessary additive carrageen. This seems counterproductive to their recent announcement of being GMO free. I think Ben and Jerry’s should be next to eliminate this additive. Thank you for continuing to educate us and bring light to so much of the secrets of the food industry.
Thank your for your efforts and for this great news!!! I’ve spent plenty of time in the store aisles trying to avoid carrageenan and have purchased items that didn’t have the ingredient listed but could tell later after consuming that the ‘poison’ was added. There are so few products without it anymore. Even rotisserie chicken by Perdue and Harvestland add carrageenan! I only learned about it due to the tell-tale misery that followed after consuming. Why does the food industry think people want intestinal misery/sickness as a trade-off for changing the natural texture of products to supposedly make them look/taste better?
How is it that you know carrageenan is put in? Are you just assuming since it’s not listed and you feel sick? Makes no kind of sense. I avoid carrageenan like the rest of us, but come on, you have to start pointing blame somewhere else if it’s not a listed ingredient.
I wrote to both So Delicious and Silk sometime last year requesting that they remove Carrageenan from their Coconut milk. So Delicious responded, claiming they would remove the ingredient by early 2014 (have they done it yet?), while Silk seemed less than accomodating, claiming that there were two types of Carrageenan and that they were not using the harmful kind. Huh! I came away irritated with their apparent attitude but this changes things.
I’m so glad! I guess enough of us made this request and they had to listen! I was not yet a Food Babe subscriber when I made this request, so this proves that people are becoming more conscientious consumers these days.
Yay! Thanks for telling me. I’ve got some Silk coupons that I can now use!
by the end of 2016?? Welp, until then, let me see what So Delicious is doing…
Call them! They chose to reformulate over a year ago! They will tell you which ones are done already. 🙂
Thanks Bianca! I sure will.
How can we get you elected to Congress or be on the Executive staff so you can be heard in all 50 states both by consumers and food companies? Thank you for doing what you do.
I use So Delicious brand coconut milk beverage (which has similar fat content to 2 % milk) to make ice cream to go with apple pie during the holidays. Because of the lower fat content of the coconut milk beverage as opposed to the canned coconut milk the ice cream comes out more like a vanilla sorbet but that’s OK with us. But according to the website for So Delicious non-dairy milks carageenan is in the ingredients list for their unsweetened coconut milk beverage which kinda sucks though I haven’t noticed any adverse effects from consuming it. The recipe is 3 cups coconut milk (if you want richer ice cream then get 2 cans of either light or full-fat coconut milk), 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. salt. Then you blend it all up in the blender and chill the base overnight then churn it according to your ice cream maker’s directions. But it looks like I’ll have to find different coconut milk 🙁
Joseph, I called So Delicious Dairy Free. The website doesn’t reflect the carrageenan free coconut milk beverages. They have been reformulated! I just picked some up last night!! Call them!!!
Ah ok then I’ll check the ingredients on a carton of it next time I’m at the store then. Thanks for the info 🙂
Now if only I could figure out how to make ice cream out of rice milk (rice being even less common of an allergen than coconut)
Congratulations Everyone! I keep wondering why it will take so long to get carrageenan out of these foods. Also, if the FDA can’t do it’s job then why does the organization still exist? Again, good going everyone! Let’s keep moving forward!
Watch out for coffee creamers. Fresh and Easy sells an organic version and It contains carrageenan.
I love a cup of coffee with breakfast so Finding a coffee creamer without carrageenan has been a nightmare. I’m so excited that Silk with remove it.
Keep up the good work Food Babe!
Xoxo
Appreciate what you do. There is no way food companies will change w/o pressure and then they will resist. Look at GMO’s and Monsanto. How they attack any research that shows how dangerous GMO’s are.
Keep up the good work
A*W*S*O*M*E*!!!!!!!!!! This is such wonderful news Vani!
I can now maybe go back to Silk after having eliminated it from my diet in 2011!
As always, THANK YOU for all your hard work!!!
That is awesome news, as I have stopped using all products containing carrageenan a few months ago. Great job Vani and the Food Babe Army!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Vani, this is indeed good news! To say that I am SICK of looking for dairy products without all the carrageenan, guar gum, Xanthan gum, locust bean gum, etc. would be to put it mildly! Do these ridiculous markets need 6 brands with the identical ingredients and a tiny slot for the REAL or “organic” product??
You absolutely cannot get a heavy cream without all the gums added because the all-knowing “food scientists” took out all the fat and had to substitute something….anything….to merely give the appearance of what it was supposed to be!
The original Sorrento brand ricotta is a perfect case in point; the “Italian” company that bought them out and that does some big advertising about how great a company they are, almost immediately changed the ingredients from milk salt and vinegar to a formula of a cluster of the above-named gums! My email to them protesting it fell on deaf ears as they ignored it!
Let’s hope that with your tenacity and “army” we can have real dairy products once again and even better than simply “organic”, from grass-fed herds!!
My daughter lives in Japan and she told me to stop drinking the milk because go that ingredient,I checked my carton,vanilla silk almond milk and that is not listed.She makes her from almond butter,alga a syrup,pinch of salt and water or instead of the syrup dates, I made some and it was delicious
Congrats Vani! This is very good news. I currently use Whole Foods brand organic almond milk & it does not list carrageenan in its list of ingredients but I can’t help to wonder which ingredient makes it so creamy?