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Drink Starbucks? Wake Up And Smell The Chemicals!

Last week, I posted a new investigation into the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latte and exposed how Starbucks makes it difficult for its customers to know what they are drinking. This is because:

  • Starbucks doesn’t publish the ingredients online.
  • Starbucks doesn’t publish the allergen information online.
  • Starbucks is inconsistent. We were given slightly different ingredients depending on who we spoke to at Starbucks.

I also broke down the complete list of ingredients in this popular latte, including caramel coloring that contains the chemical 4-Mel, which is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and National Toxicity Program. A 2-year government funded feeding study found that 4-Mel caused lung cancer in mice. The Center of Science in Public Interest and the Consumers Union (the policy and action arm of Consumer Reports) recently petitioned the FDA to take action to limit caramel coloring in soft drinks.  

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This post quickly went viral, with over 3 million views on FoodBabe.com and 10 million views on Facebook in just a few days. I was incredibly impressed with your activism and how you fearlessly shared this post with your friends and family. You truly got the word out within minutes, and people were listening. This news spread quickly and major news outlets began reporting our story.

This morning I had the amazing opportunity to be on a very popular national TV morning show, Fox & Friends, which gave us a huge platform to continue spreading the word. In case you missed it, the video clip is right here below: (Can you guess my favorite part?) 


 

 Here’s some more national coverage that we received:

  • Entrepreneur, “Can a Food Blogger Force Starbucks to Change Its Pumpkin Spice Latte?”
  • USA Today, “One thing NOT in Starbucks’ pumpkin latte: pumpkin”
  • Chicago Sun Times, Food Babe takes on Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Latte
  • Jezebel, Not Even Starbucks Knows What’s In Your Pumpkin Spice Latte
  • WGN Radio, Food Babe: Starbucks needs to offer organic milk
  • Business Insider, “Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte Doesn’t Contain Real Pumpkin, And People Are Freaking Out”
  • Philly.com, “There’s no pumpkin in Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte”
  • Medical Daily, “Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Uses Carcinogens In Its Caramel And GMO-Laden Cow Milk”

While all of this coverage was nothing short of amazing, much of it centered on how this drink doesn’t contain any pumpkin. 

The fact that it doesn’t contain pumpkin is the least of my worries.  

I have been investigating Starbucks for a while and wrote my first blog post about them over two years ago (in 2012): “Top 5 Ways To Get Sabotaged at Starbucks“, in which I revealed the not so “real” ingredients in some of their food and drinks, including: 

  • Caramel Coloring (Class IV)
  • Pesticides
  • Carrageenan
  • High Fructose Corn Syrup
  • Refined Flours
  • Chemically Derived Sugars
  • Preservatives 
  • Growth Hormone (in food products)
  • Azodicarbonamide
  • Genetically Modified Ingredients (GMOs)
  • Inflammatory Oils

At the time, obtaining this information was a daunting task. It took several emails and repeated visits to Starbucks locations to finally nail down the complete list of ingredients in their flavored coffee, espresso drinks and frappuccinos. To this day, Starbucks still does not publish their drink ingredients online or in their stores.  

One of my main concerns from the very beginning was their use of class IV caramel coloring.

Following all of the attention that my 2012 investigation received and after a national TV appearance discussing their ingredients, the Starbucks PR team reached out to me and invited me to their corporate offices in Seattle to discuss my concerns. I was pleased about this opportunity to begin an open dialogue with them that could lead to improving the quality of their products.  

During the next few months, I was carefully preparing for this meeting and outlining what Starbucks needed to do to improve their offerings to make the biggest impact. That was until I was blindsided in May of this year, when they suddenly retracted the invite because they thought the meeting wouldn’t be “productive”:

“I want to follow-up on your request to visit our Seattle office. After much consideration, my team and I have decided that a visit probably won’t be productive for either of us at this time. We’ve made tremendous strides in our food and beverage journey to ensure transparency and quality is at the forefront in everything we do. We are passionate and thoughtful about each product we offer to our customers, made with care each time. We’re not perfect, but we stand by our products and ingredients, believe in our brand and continue to make improvements along the way. I’d still like to be your point of contact for fact checking and any questions you might have – keeping a dialogue is still important and I hope you feel the same”.

I was floored that they would not agree to an open face-to-face meeting, and I asked if a phone conversation would be possible instead. I let her know I was extremely disappointed and that they haven’t answered many of our questions regarding their use of caramel coloring. I made it clear that my only goal is to create a better food system for all. Yet, they again refused to meet with me:

…we’re not feeling confident a visit to our offices or phone call will solve your interests.

And – she made a claim regarding their “safe” use of caramel coloring:

Regarding caramel coloring, we appreciate your feedback and want to assure you that in all instances where the color is used in our beverages, the level is well below the No Significant Risk Level (NSRL) allowed by California’s Prop 65, regarded as a conservative evaluation system, and safe to consume.

At no time during our email exchanges did they indicate they were interested in taking caramel coloring out of their products and simply defended its use as “safe”. 

All this changed last week after the Food Babe Army spoke up. 

I was surprised, but obviously thrilled, when a USA Today reporter quoted Starbucks’ spokeswoman Lisa Passe last week saying they are “actively looking at phasing out caramel coloring“. Also – PIX11 News in New York reported that Starbucks has a “team in place” working on getting caramel coloring out of their drinks. Starbucks changed their position towards using this coloring in their products because of you and this is awesome news!  They also indicated that they’re working on listing core drink ingredients on their website. I reached out to Starbucks to confirm this information and asked them several questions:  

  • What’s your timeline for removing caramel color?
  • When do you plan to inform your customers of this change?
  • Do you plan on offering organic milk in your stores?
  • Would you remove carrageenan from your soy milk offering too?

They declined to provide any answers:

“We actually don’t have anything else to share at this time, but thanks for checking!”

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Spill The Beans, Starbucks! What’s Your Timeline?  

  1. If your friends or family members are drinking Starbucks, please inform them of the truth. Take the picture above dissecting the ingredients and post it on your social media pages and keep sharing!
  2. Keep the pressure on Starbucks to announce a timeline and commit to taking caramel coloring out of all of their products. It’s unnecessarily used for cosmetic reasons and removing it should be a fairly easy change to implement. I can’t think of a logical reason (other than raising profits for Starbucks) on why you need to color coffee more brown in an opaque white cup!
  3. Removing caramel coloring will be HUGE, but Starbucks should step up to the plate and come clean on their ingredients. There’s nothing prohibiting them from listing core ingredient lists on their website immediately. Dunkin’ Donuts does it, so why can’t Starbucks?
  4. Ask Starbucks to set the bar and serve organic milk in all locations. This is a big priority, and they haven’t provided a statement or reasoning behind why they can’t add organic milk to their drink options. 

Contact Starbucks & Ask For A Timeline:

  1. Call Starbucks Customer Service: 1-800-782-7282. 
  2. Email Starbucks directly through their website here.
  3. Continue contacting Starbucks via their Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Also, if you saw the bogus Snopes article that came out last week trying to discredit this Starbucks investigation, check out my response to that here. The truth always prevails!

Wouldn’t it be nice to walk into a Starbucks and order a drink without potential cancer-causing additives and to know exactly what you are drinking? None of these changes could become a reality without you and your unwavering determination to improve the quality and safety of our food. I hope that you all are as proud of yourselves as I am in you. Together, we can do this!

Sending you much love and respect,

Vani

P.S. If you are a new reader to FoodBabe.com, please sign up for my email updates, you’ll be the first to know about any future breaking investigations. 

Fox&Friends

 

 

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187 responses to “Drink Starbucks? Wake Up And Smell The Chemicals!

  1. I just sent an email to Starbucks. Hopefully they will listen to the concerns of their customers. Thank you for shedding light on so many hidden dangers!

    1. I heard of this through fb and read the article and then did some research on what 4-mel is and the clinical trials. At 360mg/kg in mice, chicks, and rabbits it’s convulsive. So for a 200 lb person like myself, assuming that humans have the same liver metabolism as the rest of these animals. It would take 32,652mg of 4-Mel and I would go into convulsions. One dark beer or cola drink contains around 100 micrograms per 12 oz serving. 32,652 mg X 100micrograms/1mg = 3,265,520 micrograms. 3,265,520 micrograms X 1beer/100 micrograms = 32,652/12 oz beers or colas for convulsions to occur in a 200 lb human. This is in one dose. So if you can handle 32,652 beers or colas in one sitting then you better watch out for 4-mel cause you will go into convulsions. It’s basic chemistry and just conversion ratios. I can’t factor in human metabolism and how it differs from these animals.

    2. Just like the tobacco industry got people addicted to their cigarettes Starbucks adds something to their product to get a person addicted. Why else would someone wait in line for over ¾ of an hour just to get coffee? Know one in their right mine would wait in a drive through line for almost an hour just for a cup of coffee. I have witnessed this many times. Someone should have chemical analyses done of their coffee to find out.

      1. I agree with you and have thought that for a long time. I work for Starbucks and have for 12 years . I’m older now feel it’s all I know and so here I stay. Have you looked into the dish sanatizer we have to use by law ? It’s deadly it is actually poison and burns the hell out of our hands arms and causes rashes cracked skin and we have to put our dishes in it and we are not allowed to rinse it off after and we put milk the pitches with this sanitizer dried on it and customers come into contact with this every step of drink making ect. You can’t even breath while it’s being despinced in our sinks to do dishes . It will actually cause you to not be able in inhale if you breath any of it I’m while filling up the sink with it . We have to change it every 2 hours or as needed to keep it up to its strength needed to properly sanitize dishes . If it’s not up to proper strength and health department comes in to check us we get a critical mark on our health department paperwork and that is very. Very bad to get a critical . There is so much Starbucks keeps secret from us also it’s sickening

  2. I truly support Food Babe’s program 100%. I understand the difficulty of trying to eat healthy in today’s chemically polluted world. I’ve done a lot of research on my own over the last 20 years and have discovered what appears to be a viable solution to this problem. It has worked for me and the friends that I’ve tested it on over the last several years, and even a 19 year old cat.
    It’s based on Quantum Physics and the theory that everything is energetic frequencies at the sub atomic level. That means we and the food we eat at that level is vibrating frequencies. I’ve discovered how to give the body the nutritional frequencies and bypass the digestive system. It has an immediate effect on the body that can be demonstrated on the spot.
    I’ve done seminars over the years in the Charlotte area demonstrating this. It works for me and the people who have one of my BioScalar Quantum energy devices, and works for that little 19 year old cat. Our bodies stay in a state of nutritional balance.
    Unfortunately the Food Babe wasn’t interested enough to even inquire about it after I emailed and offered to demonstrate it. Too busy I guess to look at an advanced technology ahead of it’s time that can provide the body with frequency nutritional energy and even protect against emf’s an cell phone radiation from the inside out.

    1. This has to be a joke or a Sokal Affair type hoax. Either that or this person is severely mentally ill.

      You say that you have a machine that is capable of providing human bodies with the “nutritional frequencies” of food, but not actually eat food? Even if this was possible, which it is not, do you really think that it’s a good idea to trick our bodies into thinking they are receiving good nutrition, instead of actually providing our bodies with good nutrition?

      Think about what this means for the planet as well. Let’s just forget about taking care of our environment, growing clean food, and living in balance with nature. We can just get a machine to simulate the “frequencies” of eating healthy and living in balance with nature (and what energy would this machine run on, exactly?). Who cares about doing the hard work of actually being the change we want to see in the world, when we can just create a machine that will do it for us.

      There is no easy way out of the mess we’ve created, John. We have to undo the damage and heal the planet, not put our hope in foolish transhumanist panaceas.

  3. We need more people like Hari to expose those who deceive the customers by not labelling the ingredients. Our Food industry is doing harm than good by putting toxic ingredients in the foods we eat. It is time to remember the wise statement of Hippocrites: Food is medicine. Better food, better health. Worst food , worst health.

  4. Thank you for all your hard work! It is truly mind blowing to find out how the public is duped by the food corporations. I always think “Don’t the people making this crap eat in the world? have kids? have families who are affected?” I can’t imagine what motivates those who create false foods filled with junk that damages the health of so many. So thank you for helping save us all!

    1. The questions you ask are the correct ones. This runs in the same vein as people who theorize that “Big Pharma” already have the cure for cancer, but are withholding it. The logic is flawed because a dead person is no longer a source of profits (that dirty “p” word), but one who is well or dependent on your drugs for life is still a viable line of credit. The corporations aren’t going to destroy their own income; which, as most people here are so quick to rightfully point out, is their number one concern.

  5. Wow: what an effect you’re having on the food industry, even budging along the obtusely stubborn Starbucks Corporation, one square at a time –thanks!

    ** So: are you going to join in on the Great Oregon Food Fight?

    > http://oregonrighttoknow.org/

    It seems a natural battle for the “Food Babe” to join.

    It’s not just about Oregon. Win this one, the demand to know what’s in our food and beverages will pick up everywhere — and other states will follow.

    Craig

    1. Wow! What a horrible Snopes article. I usually am a big fan of Snopes but they really failed to do research and made some terribly baseless claims!

    1. And they charge 60 cents extra for it!!! The least they can do is use a soymilk that is safe. Starbucks is becoming increasingly socially irresponsible.

  6. Starbucks used to serve organic milk about ten years ago. It was such a low seller then. It was hardly ordered. But the move towards organic food over the past ten years has grown, and I fully agree that Starbucks should offer organic milk

  7. Thanks for opening my eyes to this wonderful drink! I’m overseas, and they finally got this drink in, so I gave it a go! I can’t wait to have another one. Then I read this report closer :(. I made sure to call Starbucks and ask if it was really true that they were changing the recipe. They aren’t, thank God. I told to please not change anything and that I was worried about this report and that my new favourite drink would be changed. They reassured me it will not be changed. Whew!

      1. That’s her right even if we do NOT agree with it which I do not, something about fundamental rights? Changing the formula? They’ll be changing it or at least some of the worst ingredients.

    1. I know this is old but I’m reading it in 2019. This is hilarious. So you hope that Starbucks does NOT eliminate a known cancer causing chemical ingredient because it “tastes good”? I have a suggestion. Why don’t you try a little 10w 30 motor oil to your Starbucks coffee? One tablespoon per cup should do it. I hear that it gives the coffee an even better thickness and consistency than the carrageenan already in it, another cancer causing chemical. After all what is tastes like is ALL that matters right?

  8. What is the best salad dressing to buy? I went to a health food store and still was not sure which one was a better choice.
    Thanks,

  9. Really, all you Starbucks drinkers,,this is surprising??
    Perhaps you need something else to wake you up to smell the “whatever” your drinking

    1. I was going to say the same. you order a drink with whipped cream and corn syrup based caramel flavoring and milk – where you really think it is going to be healthy?
      You should be worried about the calories than smae ingrediant that you also ingest in a multiude of other foods. Check any food label, you’ll see

  10. If you’re gonna cry foul about ambiguous natural flavors, you should note that many processed foods contain unusual (and possibly unappetizing) sources of flavorings, such as castoreum from beavers and flavorings derived from hair or feathers. So go ahead and educate people, but you might want to let them know that it’s not just Starbucks and it’s not just this particular drink that they should worry about.

  11. All of you DO realize that chemicals does not equal bad, because EVERYTHING is a chemical, right?

    For example: Water, that you drink every day is a chemical.

  12. I first learned of the latte ingredients dangers (pumpkin spice) from Starbucks while I was ordering pumpkin spice latte from a very well known health food store. The young lady preparing my drink explained that she quit working at starbucks when she found out what was going in their drinks and how toxic the ingredients were. She said she could not longer work for a company that she could not agree nor support. I am very happy I found out.

  13. The video shows your passion behind the food babe. I am absolutley loving it and wish they gave you more than 3 odd minutes!! You need your own TV show!

    apartment2504.wordpress.com

  14. Why starbuck?? the WHOLE american food industry contains pesticides GMOs coloring preservatives artificial stuff EVERYTHING ok? all the midwest is GMO fields! and animals fed with medication etc.
    high fructose corn syrup in every product in supermarket..
    What’s the news about all that?

    People are really funny..

    1. I totally agree yacea. You, Yanni of Food Babe and myself can stand on box preaching the gospel about all the chemicals in everything we drink and eat. It is up to people to change their way of eating and drinking. I really became very interested in learning doing research and reading information on this website and have become very aware of foods. The USA do not do enough to ban chemicals from our foods and drinks. Our food is ban in the UK and other countries. Those countries already have been banning chemicals from their foods. Why can’t we? Starbucks always want to be the superior one in coffee but how if they use chemicals to make fake pumpkin Latte/ I remember when they finally stop use bugs to use in their strawberry Latte and I think a desert as well . hey are too high so natural drinks should come with the high cost. You supposed to pay more for quality. Right?

  15. I love that caramel stuff they put on there dirks. This kind of irrelevant reporting will not stop me from my Starbucks.

  16. Isn’t this a huge first world problem? Seaweed is in my luxury coffee drink? Vani, we have lots of problem with our food system, but I feel you are making ignorant claims about non-issues. What about the importance of buying locally and seasonally? What about the treatment and conditions of food workers? What about drought and how that’s effected California’s central valley? Or even more importantly, something that should be an issue to you, the four companies that own our nations meat? The fact that we only have seven slaughterhouses for beef? If only you could get your army on issues like this, issues that literally are a matter of life or death. Drink black coffee and this problem is no longer an issue.

  17. While I appreciate your candor and care for the consumer, I am a little hesitant to completely accept all the findings you are posting. The warrant for your argument is your personal interaction with Starbucks and your personal interaction with various research findings. The method of your logic is inductive reasoning, which can only yield probable conclusions. And to be probable, at some point your conclusions have to be replicated and/or confirmed by other studies and findings. Until these conditions are met, the logical strength and effectiveness of your argument cannot move too far from the realm of personal opinion. I would encourage you to use your blog to help assemble a team of researchers to bolster the veracity of your conclusions. I support your efforts to make the public aware of food risks to consumers. However, I would be an even more ardent supporter if you would take the time to ensure your claims are independently verified to be factual. I am sure others would as well. Keep up the good work. If you are already taking these measures to verify your findings, I commend your efforts.

  18. With all the shows out there in the morning, YOU had to go on FOX & FRIENDS ? I can appreciate wanting to get the message out to the public…..BUT….FOX & FRIENDS They are the absolute worst! Hasselbeck & the other two wingnuts are just a morning disaster ! Why not request to go on IMUS in the Morning ? It’s on the FOX BUSINESS CHANNEL. THEY are #1 on morning television. Nobody comes close to their ratings. Appreciate the info on STARBUCKS…..

    1. My favourite comment out of all, I myself have been trying to perfect my health and have become a much more balanced and aware person by doing this. The thing is that most people just don’t have a single clue about what’s in their food. I find it quite sad that Starbucks and other food companies put these cheap, nasty ingredients in their products and sell them really expensively, giving the customer a false sense of quality in their drinks. Humanity must acquire the instinct of suspicion to make the right choices and discover the real meaning of life. What Vani has created here is another step to a better world and she can be proud of it.

  19. Starbucks coffee tastes terrible. So strong. So bitter, sometimes even burnt. I used to drink the Mocha daily for about a month. Then, I realized how overpriced ($56 a month!) and unhealthy it was for me. Now, I take my own instant coffee and drink it with a little hormone free milk. Hopefully, they will listen.

  20. Thank you Hari for your valuable work and information! You ROCK!!! (and your beautiful)

    God Bless you! ; )

  21. I love articles like this. But I’m pretty sure carmel colouring is banned in the EU? Ditto growth hormones and GMOs, thank god! But the worst thing about Starbucks–and I mean, anything in Starbucks–is probably the sugar content. I honestly think Americans are so much fatter than most people in the world because of all the sugar in their diets, and Starbucks is just the beginning. Apparently, it’s even in soup, salad dressing, you name it! http://eluxemagazine.com/magazine/the-dangers-of-sugar-how-sugar-is-killing-you-and-your-kids/
    Would love to see you cover more on the dangers of sugar!

  22. We should all just stop buying this crap and they would have to change, just like we should demand american made products and only buy american made products and put americans back to work with good jobs

  23. This is not their only tie with Monsanto. Have a look at a blog post I wrote about this last year: http://rainforesteco.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/look-whos-at-the-bottom-of-your-coffee-cup/ Their environmental partner is partnered with Monsanto. I also understand there’s a tie through the lids used on cups. Need further research there, but it’s extremely likely that they’re biodegradable because they’re made from GMO corn. And last but not least, there’s a ton of glyphosate (herbicide) used in the production of coffee, unless it’s organic. So while we’re at it, how about giving us an OG coffee alternative too?

  24. Ummm the real problem lies in the fundamental need for all of the iPhone mindless late mom’s driving their gas guzzling suvs to get their caffeine guzzling fix no matter what the cost to the environment or social well being of others.

  25. I’ve been emailing them too asking about why they don’t offer organic milk or organic coffee. They simply won’t answer my questions. This one of the emails I’ve sent.I was frustrated at this point and decided I was done with Starbucks– btw, thank for saving me money Vani!

    Here a copy of my email to them:

    Thank you for your response. I appreciate the effort Starbucks is making. Lawful falls woefully short of best quality. You have not answered my question. I’m sure this isn’t the first time someone has asked. The foodbabe.com has written some very informative blogs about Starbucks coffee that I recently read. I would strongly suggest you offer organic milk and coffee if you want to see my continued business. I spend about $150/ month at Starbucks, but that is about to change. Thank you.

    Sent from my iPhone

  26. I’m pretty sure most restaurants in America don’t care what they serve you. The FDA doesn’t care either. That’s one reason why America is so unhealthy as a whole (AND obese) The fact that someone calls them, e-mails or writes them and requests that certain chemicals be taken out of their food, chances are they are not going to do it. It costs them more money to feed you healthy and that’s what they are worried about — the almighty dollar. I actually do care about my health and I try to eat as healthy as possible, BUT a lot (ok, MOST of the time) that’s extremely hard because the majority of places to eat don’t offer truly healthy options. The ones that do offer truly healthy food, charge an arm and a leg because they know they can get away with it.

    For example, I go to this salad place where I work in DC called Chop’t. For what I get, it’s relatively “cheap”… $6 and change for a salad with 4 toppings and a “homemade dressing”, no meat. It seems healthy, BUT I don’t know what is in their “homemade dressings” and I don’t know if their salads have been sprayed with chemicals. I assume they probably have been. Their ingredients are not posted online, so maybe they have something to hide, who knows. Point is that you can THINK you’re eating healthy, but you really don’t know. I just assume that 99.9 % of the time when I’m eating out, even if it seems healthy, there is more than likely something unhealthy about it, such as maybe the oil/butter they use to cook with. It could very well be trans fat oil/margarine.

    Now don’t get me wrong, I avoid eating a lot of salt, a lot of refined carbs and sugar. I completely avoid places like Micky D’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, Wendy’s and Roy Rogers and Subway and Domino’s, etc. I KNOW their foods are loaded with chemicals and that they are trying to kill you. For a while there I would eat Chik-fil-a occasionally because I had heard they were the “healthier” option comparing to other fast food places, but not anymore. I now know they use GMO in their food as well.

    When I go to restaurants, I always say I want my steak and veggies or whatever it is I’m getting, prepared with no butter. That’s really all I can do. Half the people working there (probably more than half) wouldn’t know what trans fat even is or if they use it in their cooking.

    Some restaurants I do go to are Chipotle, Nando’s Peri Peri, Pei Wei, Breadline (in DC), Chop’t (in DC), Au Bon Pain (in DC), Bonefish Grill, Qudoba, which is kinda like Chipotle and that’s about it. Foodbabe would probably know more than I do as to weather these places are actually ok to eat at, but I know they are better than traditional fast food, so I just go with it (for now) lol.

    As far as grocery shopping, no I don’t buy bread, cereal, crackers, cookies or any of that processed junk. If I eat cookies or bread, it’s something I made myself. I even hate buying most meats because unless they cost an arm and a leg from the Organic store, you know the animals were treated with antibiotics/growth hormones. This is a SAD country we live in, one that does not care and that is trying to kill us, but all I can do is a consumer is try to eat the best I can and hope that I don’t end up with cancer or kidney disease as a result.

  27. Tina, that’s another issue. A lot of Americans don’t even care. A few people that I know at work, if I see them eat fast food or processed crap, I’ll ask them if they know what’s in their food. Most of the responses I get are “Oh well, we all have to die of something eventually” or “Everything gives you cancer, even using your microwave or talking on your cell phone” and my FAVORITE, “If it was that bad for you, the FDA wouldn’t allow it”…LOL…the FDA doesn’t care what restaurants serve people, as long as it doesn’t make you drop dead before you leave their doors. Lots and lots of people just don’t care what they eat, SO maybe that’s another reason why all these companies are still in business, using harmful chemicals in our food/drinks, because Americans allow it to happen. They continue to go to these places to eat, giving them business.

  28. Thank you for all your hard work! It is truly mind blowing to find out how the public is duped by the food corporations. I always think “Don’t the people making this crap eat in the world? have kids? have families who are affected?” I can’t imagine what motivates those who create false foods filled with junk that damages the health of so many. So thank you for helping save us all!

  29. I have been a big Starbucks fan for many years until recently. My coffee has been better and it’s cause my eyes to sting burn and swell. Shut on my drive home after getting coffee.
    I contacted local store about this several times and they claim that it may just be the cleaner they used in the machines and they’re very sorry come back and they’ll give me another one but very little has been done to assist me with my burning eyes that are swollen shut so badly I could barely drive replacing a nasty cup of coffee. It’s probably laden with cleansers and chemicals. It’s not really fair compensation for drinking poison. I have a pursued it any further, but I wanted to make everybody aware that this could be happening to other people. I did see an article on Reddit that has people who work there talking about how their eyes swell shut halfway through the shift. I don’t think this is a coincidence. .

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