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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
P.S. Sign up for free updates to get the next episode of Food Babe TV delivered straight to your inbox.
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I’ve been following you and your posts and I’ve been learning so much- so thank you. But what breads have you found that are healthy?! I found one a target brand called archer farms but it has other preservatives in it.
I skip bread as much as possible. It’s just not that good for us.
I eat jasmine rice everyday because I dont like bread.
Most rice sold in the united states contain lead. A large portion of the rice field today were usd as cotton fields where ddt was used to kill cotton bugs. The land is still contaminated so eating rice poses a health risk. Eat quinoa its safer and better for you.
Do you have any articles on how to make healthy bread..ie…what kind of grain, etc.?? It is hard to raise a family and live in this world without eating bread.
This comment was intended for Food Babe.
Hi Cathy,
I am a HUGE bread lover and I have been steered towards Ezekiel Bread–Sprouted Grain Bread. I have been reading thid blog for a few weeks and it seems as though Food Babe uses Ezekiel Bread as well.
I hope this helps. 🙂
Grind your own grain to be safe. My ex-wife was from Holland, and she could not BELIEVE what was in our food in USA. (Bread, especially, where in Holland, it’s basically “flour, water, yeast, and salt”. )
I have one simple go-to recipe I make almost weekly…
500 gr fresh-ground spelt flour
500 ml warm(ish) water
10g yeast
pinch salt
some flax or sunflower seeds, if I feel like it.
Back at 450 to 500 for an hour. NO KNEADING. Just mix it up, pour it into a pan, and bake it. It’s really good, and even the BigMac lovers say so.
You could not PAY ME to eat wheat. I quit it years ago and have never had hay fever (OR a cold!) since. No kidding, and I’m a cattle rancher who puts up his own hay. Haying used to be miserable.
Healthy Bread…is an oxymoron. Ezekiel bread is probably the best. It’s in your health food store’s freezer section.
To xhmob12: Could you convert that to American measurements please?
To Courtney & Nicole : My youngest daughter’s name is Courtney Nicole. 😀
@Cathy
I used to make the no knead bread , super fast to make. You can buy organic flour and make it your own: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2006/11/one-for-the-sling-files/ I hardly ever eat bread anymore I try to eat beans or wild rice, but this bread is delicious!!
Check the bakery section of the grocery store and always look at the ingredients. I never shop in the “bread aisle” anymore, i figure if the bread can sit on my counter for longer than a week without mold it’s probably full of chemicals. If you have a local bakery that’s best.
My local grocery store, Stop and Shop, uses the yoga mat chemical in most all of their store bakery dept. items. 🙁
Please, bake your own bread. It’s really not that difficult, and it’s so much healthier. You only need a handful of ingredients (as opposed to the encyclopedia of chemical additives/preservatives on store-bought/processed bread), and you can control exactly what goes into it if you have sensitivities or other health problems.
People have been blaming “gluten” on our health problems, but I cannot demonize gluten when all of our processed grain foods contain these unnecessary chemicals and modified ingredients. Is it really the gluten, or is it the additives/preservatives? I know our FDA has deemed these substances “safe,” but I have awful sensitivities to all additives and preservatives, and I have been forced to remove all processed foods from my diet for the sake of my health. And since removing these substances, I have felt so much better. I no longer have rashes, nasal congestion, migraines, nausea, or bloating.
(By the way, I’m not saying people can’t have genuine problems with gluten. I’m just saying that these chemicals they put in almost all of the foods we see and eat probably weaken or damage our immune systems, causing food sensitivities.)
Ezekiel Bread is really good!
Thanks to your information, I only go to my neighborhood bakery to buy my fresh, baked whole wheat hero bread. In fact, I stopped eating at subways, Wendy’s and a bunch of other places. I am now a much more savvy shopper.
I agree. I would love some recipes for a whole grain bread.
In the cookbook ‘Laurel’s Kitchen, there is a recipe for Black Bread that is soooo good…has lots of healthy ingredients in it.
Try this awesome gluten free “bread.” Easiest thing I ever made.
http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2013/02/the-life-changing-loaf-of-bread/
Total hysteria mongering.
Read this report done waaaay back in the 60s.
http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/40abcj28.htm
No one is eating their yoga mat for crying out loud and yes, if you dump a bunch of the stuff into the air an inhale it, it is a known irritant to the lungs. Totally different than it’s appearance in bread – actually, it reacts with the flour to become something totally different. This is totally different from its use in plastics manufacturing.
The funny thing is that many breads also contains soy products, yet I see no jumping up and down about how dangerous that stuff is, especially to per-pubescent males.
Please explain what you mean regarding soy and per-pubescent males! Or tell me where I can get more info
The ingredient list shows alot of Genetically Modified stuff ,such as corn syrup, soy,,cottonseed oil ,that have been proven to affect sterility in male rat test subjects .
=( Thank you Don. I hadn’t heard about that.
try google. wake up.
I did and oddly didn’t find anything! Try being less rude and more intelligent!!
Don’t Google. Google is big brother. Use Startpage. Privacy is Freedom!
Laurie,
Please forgive me for being blunt…and late to this conversation…but unless you have been living under a rock with no access to any health information….then issues with soy shouldn’t be news.
Soy is not good for you (period) (unless it is organic and fermented). It contains phytoestrogens called isoflavones that may mimic the activity of the hormone estrogen in your body…not good. It is also linked to infertility, several types of cancer and will reek havoc on other hormones as well. (this information is readily available EVEN on the propaganda laden sites like our government health sites and webmd).
When I heard of the Subway story tonight my very first thoughts were a) FoodBabe is an attention seeking blogger interested more in self-promotion and the ego of influence than in fact, and b) Subway reacted to address the potential fallout from ignorant readers who read and share misinformation and faux health nuts, not because azodicarbonamida is a genuine health concern.
So you are saying you are okay with unnecessary chemicals in our food?
http://www.examiner.com/article/azodicarbonamide-another-reason-to-avoid-most-bread
Your information is completely outdated. Study was done in 1960.
yeah right and lying was invented this morning.
Found azodicarbonamida in HEB BAKE SHOP WHOLE WHEAT. Thought this was a heathy option.
You might want to double check the ingredients for Starbucks they changed pastry suppliers a couple of months ago.
Starbucks hasn’t changed suppliers yet, that change occurs on Feb. 17.
I think different location rolled out the change at different times. Where I live in So Cal the change was many months ago
I recently started working at subway because I was under the impression that they were as healthy as I could get while working at a fast food place. Fresh meats, and veggies ( I am a vegetarian so i would actually be able to have a nice veggie sub for lunch) bread being made fresh everyday, and who can forget the image that Jared created for them? After stumbling across Foodbabe and finding all this out I was mortified! I can’t stand thinking that I’ve none the less been paying to poison myself for the last few months! I’ve told everyone I work with about this but I’m the only one who’s stopped eating there.. To each their own I suppose.
Thank you SO much for all that you do! I’ve learned so much!
Thank you. I really appreciate all the great info that you put online. And no, I fortunately haven’t eaten a yoga mat in years…
Natures own 100% whole wheat has it too…
Sprouted bread is our go to. Nothing with any unnecessary ingredients. Even buying from a local baker is not much different as they’re using the same flour sometimes. We also just make our own, this way we know what is going into it exactly and are able to choose the kind of flour we want.
The list of companies and products with this ingredient tells all. No need to spread the Evil Plague of rumors. The lesson is always the same, eating high on the food chain provides lots of extra components.
Just buy fresh bread from a bakery, bread is not suppose to last as long as it does if it doesn’t get stale in a few days then its full of chemicals.
Many supermarkets have bakeries and you can buy organic bread.
Azodicarbonamide is also in Safeway’s Artisan Como Bread
Hey Vani,
I love you and love love love what you are doing!!!!!
keep it up and never stop!!!!
tell us what to do, so proud to be part of the food babe army.
P.S. I have to pack lunch for my two year old. any suggestions? kids can’t take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to schools these days,
we made your home made mac and cheese with cauliflower and goat cheese and gluten free pasta.
thank you again for all you do!!!!
xoxox- best Nika Garcia
Niki…if you would like to find great lunch ideas for your kiddos check out http://www.100daysofrealfood.com She has awesome ideas for packing school lunches!
Sorry, I meant to type Nika.
This sickens me. I buy this bread to make my children sandwiches for lunch. What is the point of highlighting no high fructose corn syrup if you are putting more harmful crap in it. No more sara lee for me.
Amen to that No more Sara Lee for me either!!
Love this video and such great info. Food Babe!! I couldn’t be a bigger supporter of you and what you do…this is why I want you to be safer in coming out of your wheel pose! As a certified yoga instructor, it made me cringe to see you come down out of such a beautiful wheel pose that way and open yourself to injury:( Make sure to keep hugging your elbows in, as you lower down slowly, keeping your gaze straight ahead and not turning your head to the side while you are still in the pose:)
Stop being an alarmist. While I understand avoiding preservatives in food; I do, alarmism is not necessary. Azodicarbonimide comes in 2 forms: industrial and food-grade. It’s the industrial that’s used in the plastics industry and is banned only in the UK and Australia, not all over the world. Food grade is allowed up to 45ppm and is recognized as safe for human consumption. There are no side effects with the food grade variant at that concentration. Here is a link to a peer reviewed study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16192074/
So no, the same stuff in yoga mats is not the preservative that’s found in bread. Again, Food Babe omits some facts and instead goes for the alarmist approach. Do your own research, people.
a bit a math to support this statement.
the WHO Study found that 5 grams per kilogram of body weight had no effect on animals. The average person weighs 68 kg, meaning that 340 grams of this has to be consumed in 1 setting. At 45 parts per million (assuming that it weighs the same as flour, probably not a great assumption but good for illustration purposes) that means at 1 million grams you’d reach 45 grams of Azodicarbonimide. 340 grams / 45 grams = 7.56 then 7.56 x 1,000,000 = 7,560,000 grams to make 340 grams at the allowed 45 parts/million. 7,560,000 grams ends up being 7,560 kilograms. 2.205 kg per pound… and to eat 340 grams of this in a single setting (which still wouldn’t be harmful ) you would have to eat 342,857, or 171 tons or bread. (1 ton being 2000 lbs.)
for further illustration each slice a bread is roughly 1 oz. 16 oz to a lb, and you have 5,485,712 slices of bread to eat. I’m pretty sure most people don’t eat that many pieces bread in their entire lives, much less all at once. So even if this weighed 1/100 of what flour does, the amount of bread you’d have to eat to be harmful is prohibitively large.
a great man once said : there’s no sense in being stupid if you can’t show it,
lewis cook, so you decided to prove him right be showing it? Seriously if you have an argument to make that more that simply saying “you’re stupid”.
Got any facts, or research that supports the assertion that it’s bad for us? Got any info at all floating around inside your head that might have actual bearing on this?
I’m not sure if lewis meant to say that you are stupid, but that the people who aren’t doing the math or stupid.
Anyway, thanks for doing the math for everyone. It really grinds my gears when people get all worked up over “chemicals” in food without any consideration for concentration. After all, even water is a chemical and it can be harmful in high doses too.
I still have to point out that ADA is not a naturally occurring chemical and no studies have been done to assess the hazards of chronic exposure to low levels over many years. I doubt the ADA is a significant health risk, but we should still be wary of adding things to food without more extensive study of its potential risks.
Just so we are clear, John LOVES food with chemicals in it! Flour, Sugar, Butter, Milk, Yeast and salt? NO! Where’s my hydrazine chemicals?? Where’s my defoaming agents?? Where’s my GMO’s??? John feels it is always ok to add chemicals into our food, as long as industry funded and government agencies deem it safe. The point of Food Babe’s articles is to open peoples eyes, our food is full of chemicals which were never intended for human consumption. If I had a pill with 126 industrial chemicals, and I could link to a study or two showing they were “generally regarded as safe”, would you take it everyday? I doubt it. Food babe is consumerism at its best- inform the consumers and let them make their own decisions. You can take your chemicals any way you like them, in my bread I want Flour, Sugar, Butter, Milk, Yeast and salt. THATS IT.
Information is for the consumer is always a good thing (IMHO). It is not good information when the facts are purposely dressed with alarmist tones and vital details are left out (See Mike’s response). The studies done on animals do not establish any carcinogenicity for ADA: “…Some studies suggest that Semicarbazide hydrochloride is a mutagen, an animal carcinogen and a teratogen. Due to the lack of data in humans and overall limited evidence of carcinogenicity in animals, semicarbazide hydrochloride was classified as an IARC Group 3 agent: not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans…” http://www.ehs.utoronto.ca/Assets/ehs+Digital+Assets/ehs3/Chemical+Safety/Semicarbazide.pdf – my note: notice it says “tremors”, NOT ‘tumors’ as stated above!
This study was done on the industrial grade equivalent! Not as a trace compound produced as a minuscule by-product of a proven harmless dough conditioner.
Something that gets missed when alarmist topics like this are given: these people are making money off of the alarmism! At a fundamental human-needs level they are justifying their existence through playing on the relative ignorance of the general public…and making a buck off of them in the process!
If you eat the stuff 3 times a day everyday for years on end then you should expect some health issues. An egg mcmuffin once in awhile wont send you to an early grave. As with anything enjoy it in moderation. You should be more concerned with the air you breath, you dont have much control of that like you do your food choices
But don’t you think that putting pressure on the big food companies, to get rid of such crap, is a better idea? Azodicarbonimide does NOTHING except give companies a way 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, thereby increasing the company profits.
So you see, why should you eat that??
Gerald,
I have worked in the food industry for over 30 years and am now a technical consultant in that industry. The compounds that are used to condition dough are added in order to enhance the saleability of the product: to make it taste better, to make it last longer, or to make it more nutritious. We use the compounds (of which ADA is one) so people will BUY the bread. If the US consumer tells the industry, AND BUYS THE PRODUCT, that they want large irregular air pockets, bread that stales in 3 days, and has off odors and flavors I can guarantee you that
Commercial bakeries in this country will make it so. However, in this country they typically lose anywhere from 3% to 15% of their product from store returns: FOOD IN THE DUMPSTER; because it doesn’t “look nice” or it “isn’t soft enough”, etc, etc.. If we took the product enhancing ingredients out can you imagine how much food would be wasted?! As a real life example; have you ever seen organically grown crops of corn or lettuce? They look like crap! I won’t eat them. The produce is culled extensively because the growers know people won’t buy it. That is why organic is more expensive. That is why we have technology and the proven safe compounds it has produced so that we can make products people actually WANT and WILL buy.
“Moderation?” Do you understand that the big yellow M does NOT stand for moderation?
If it did then there would not be a McDonalds on every street corner in every major urban dwelling in America. Fast Food giants like McDonalds depend on getting customers to consuime ever devolving food and to keep wanting more and more of it no matter how sick it makes them feel.
Bashas grocery store here in AZ has that ingrediant in their bread 🙁
Yay for change. Good for you for making this happen! Now we need McDonalds to quit poisoning are kids!
wow, amazing research, you rephrased what can be readily found on Wikipedia and googled some ingredient panels of breads….
This is horrible…I bake my own breads and never put preservatives in it and it turns out (almost) every time. If I can bake it or cook with real ingredants so can they!
bad ass right!! make my own too.
Congrats to you on raising awareness of this BS and educating us at the same time.
Why use chemicals if you don’t have to? They state that they are used to make the bread whiter… Who cares if the bread is white?!? I know I don’t! As far as air pockets….isn’t that what yeast is for???
over-exertion will kill you too. too much salt will kill you too? Carbonic Dihydrogen monoxide is in your coca-cola. You drink bottled water is petroleum based polymers, and … coffee and white teas are acids.
Besides your good medicines (HBP, Pain, cholestrol, etc) if you take too much will kill you too.
senstationalism at its greatest.
If you want wholesome good food, make it yourself.
Now that Subway has agreed to remove this ingredient (although we don’t have a timeline) are there any plans to petition these other companies? This may be a good time to strike while there’s so much media attention surrounding the Subway campaign and now that it’s top of mind for some of the general public who have become educated.
Well, the answer to this is to shop at spots like Whole Foods where they closely monitor what is sold. Also read labels. A bread shouldn’t have more than 6 ingredients. If it does, I put it back. Also don’t buy food at fast food places!
Great post.
great info….but on a good note, http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/health/subway-bread-chemical/index.html
I just checked my Butternut loaves of bread, they all had that ingredient listed .? Say what?
Can’t we get the FDA to stop the use of this chemical in our food? What needs to be done? How do we contact them and let them know enough is too much?
maybe a little of any chemical may not hurt you , but over time it will . when you get older these chemicals will effect the body, we see it in people in there middle age with so many things gone wrong with there body. we need to stop trusting big goverment and there bottom line being money. make sense to eat as healthy as you can, read the ingredients! ty babe !!
I sure hope that this stuff doesn’t really improve the bread a lot, like I suspect it does. As anyone who’s had fresh Subway bread (some places make it around noon others don’t), it tastes a heck of a lot better than homemade bread, so they were doing everything right in my book. Now some people who no ability to understand dosages and relative risks are worried about 40 ppm of some chemical that has no proof of harm are going to ruin my sandwich.
Is the chemical in the flour they are using to make their breads from and do we know who that flour supplier is so we can all avoid them and their other customers?
Thanks for uncovering this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into Subway and wondered why it smelled funny to me. I bake my own bread and know that smell in their stores wasn’t exactly right.
Your comments, while sensational, have very little science behind them. Just because a food ingredient also is utilized in industrial applications, doesn’t mean that it is harmful. Case in point, since corn is used in the production of ethanol, should it be banned for human consumption? Just because foreign countries have banned an ingredient, doesn’t make it unsafe. With all their faults, I trust the folks at the FDA and USDA over their counterparts in Singapore. If you aim is to scare folks with no science to back up your claims, then I guess you are successful.
I was actually going to say that just because ethanol is used in other industrial processes and could be used instead of gasoline in the first model T’s, are you going to scare people into demanding that they take all ethanol (alcohol) out of all alcoholic beverages? The two terms don’t add up. I imagine they use H2O at some step in making yoga mats too, should we avoid that as well?
In fact, have you ever even seen the Azodicarbonamide molecule? It bears a striking resemblance to urea (it is essentially two urea molecules stuck together), which is a byproduct in our bodies, and our bodies flush it out. Azodicarbonamide likely does not react with our bodies if it is ingested, which is probably why the FDA said it’s alright as a food ingredient. As long as it’s not inhaled, it’s most likely harmless. However, you’re leading people to believe that if they ingest it, they are going to have respiratory problems.
I second Bob’s comment. If you aim to scare folks with no science to back up your claims, then I guess you are successful. Congratulations.
@Bob & Tyson
The point of this piece has clearly been lost on you both; that or you both are shills for the food industry that post on sites like this one to try and supposedly “debunk” stories/articles that expose questionable/unethical practices by corporate giants.
The FDA has a revolving door policy where its leaders come from managerial and executive positions at the same companies they are supposed to oversee/regulate. When they leave the FDA they often go right back to the same companies there were over seeing/regulating while at the FDA. Even a blind man can see there is a serious conflict of interest and potential for mass corruption. These substances that are banned overseas are not getting banned because some group of citizens have gotten together and paid their government to ban these items.
The “Yoga Matt” is a gimmick used to grab your attention and get you to look deeper into what is really going on. You say your Bob & Tyson but you both act more like a Dick then any Bob or Tyson I know.
Wow- getting nasty. Tell me, do you actually know any Tysons? I’ve never met another one.
No I am not a shill for the food industry. I am a chemistry/biology student- certainly not an expert, but I know enough to know that just because a chemical is used in a process that makes plastic doesn’t mean it is unsafe to ingest it. I also know that you don’t need to get people riled up simply because you don’t trust the FDA. Have you ever thought that maybe the people who work in the field are the most knowledgeable and therefore qualified to work for the FDA. Then, when they realize they could make more money in the private sector, especially due to their FDA experience, they switch? The most likely scenario is not that they simply don’t care if they poison everyone, or that they want to kill you. Are you a conspiracy theorist too?
Your post annoyed me because when my mother-in-law, who is just like most other people, hears something that sounds appalling, she simply assumes it’s true instead of looking into the source or sensibility of it all. “I can’t believe they would feed us the same thing that’s used in making yoga mats.”
In actuality, they probably use water in the synthesis process too. – I think you should instigate a nationwide ban on water. What do you think?
I did not miss the point of your stupid article that you posed as journalism. I just didn’t agree with it. The health risks due to this product are, and have been due to inhalation (this is a process that is very different from ingestion- I tell you this in case your lack of research has hidden obscured this observation). If you would have done decent research you would have realized that this chemical, if eaten, would not affect people the way inhaling it would, and you might not have wasted people’s time with this. Or maybe you would have anyway……….
From what I understand in this article, after the dough is moist, azodicarbonamide makes urea….so when you eat fast food your eating urea, which is pee. So all of you are feeding yourselfs and your kids pee….think about it that way.
http://www.aaccnet.org/publications/cc/backissues/1963/Documents/Chem40_539.pdf
Or a component of pee rather……. Urea isn’t the same as urine, it just contains it and our body already has processes to remove it. :0)
LOVE TO LEARN ABOUTGOOD HEALTHY FOODS
What about ezekiel bread,I eat it all the time?
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Being the scientist that I am, I was curious about what kind of studies have been done on the health hazards of azocarbonamide (ADA) in foods. After perusing all of the primary literature I could find I feel I need to point out that although there are a few studies out there linking ADA exposure to cancer, asthma, and endocrine disruption, those studies were done only in rodents (and one study in dogs 🙁 ) using enormously high concentrations of ADA (100 – 1000 mg/kg of body weight given every day) compared to levels of semicarbazide and ADA in treated bread (0.2 to 1 mg/kg). Considering that a piece of bread only weighs a few grams, a person may only ingest a dosage that is 10000 times less than that required to affect the health of rodents. It should also be noted that, in practice, rodents are often more sensitive to carcinogens than humans. So I think its safe to say that you don’t need to freak out if you’ve been eating a few Subway sandwiches here and there.
Still, as I said, I perused ALL of the literature I could find, and I did that in a matter of a few hours. That is what troubles me. Although, there is little indication so far that ADA as a bread conditioner is a health hazard to humans, there are also not a lot of studies done to address it. Even WHO admits to knowing very little about the hazards of chronic ADA ingestion to humans. Furthermore, ADA was being used in bread BEFORE many of the studies were done. In my opinion, we should not be adding any man-made chemicals to food without extensive studies to support that they are not hazardous. Studies on ADA are closer to non-existent than extensive. The WHO and FDA also admit that there is no necessary reason to add ADA to bread. The only reason it is there is to make the bread “look” fresher longer. It’s there to dupe us into thinking we are buying freshly baked bread when we are not, and so the big food company can skimp on the cost of making their product. That is not a reason to add anything to our food, harmful or not.
What kind of bizarre world do we live in when some FDA official sits in a room and decides it’s okay for us to consume rubber? Why not just put a tennis shoe in his mouth, his foot is already there!
http://www.cbc.ca/the180/excerpts/2014/05/07/does-canada-have-a-bad-case-of-chemophobia/
I have to admit I really enjoyed getting a sandwich from subway everyone in a while. But since my roommate and I learned about ada we made a promise to not eat there until they took out this horrible ingredient.
I was watching television last night and came across subways new bread commercial: they said they got rid of not only high fructose corn syrup but yep..you guessed it “no azodicarbonamide” but I looked up to find some news on it and nothing yet, if this is true, power to the people!!
here is the link to the commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybEXhYGyBq0
Great info, thank you. But have you done an expose on the use of human hair in food also? Subway is running an ad now that says their bread doesn’t use this or that chemical, but it doesn’t say anything about whether they use human hair…l-cysteine or cysteine as an ingredient. I know the Huffington Post did an expose of human hair in food and a list of companies, and I also found a list of companies whose foods that use it in a diet book called the Happiness Diet.
Thanls.
Mother Jones article on human hair in food
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/03/human-hair-additive-your-food
Nature’s Own products are now ADA-free. They stopped using ADA in their breads last year. I saw this mentioned on the Nature’s Own homepage, and EWG has removed Nature’s Own from their “blacklist” as well.