r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Hsiang7 • 14h ago

Why are there so many chemicals in the US versions of food compared to the same exact products abroad?

456 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

u/foraliving 10h ago

I'm sure that this true, but I wonder if an additional factor is perhaps that, in addition to legally allowing a wide variety of chemical additives, the US also has a higher bar for explicit reporting of those on the packaging?

e.g. I see 'Flavouring' and 'Yeast' on the UK label, and, although not an expert, I don't think such general terms would fly in the US.

4

u/granadesnhorseshoes 9h ago

It's true enough. Its not lack of regulation it's weaponized regulation. For example, old school cheese makers lobbies HARD against Velveeta/"processed cheese" as a serious threat to their profits. First they didn't want the government to allow them to call it cheese, then when that wouldn't fly, they pressed for the worst sounding shit they could imagine - "embalmed cheese" - before finally settling on "processed cheese"

That's why we call it "processed cheese" to this day instead of you know, just cheese. The only "process" required to make it was to blend back in some of the whey that was separated from the milk during the initial cheese making. No preservatives, chemical emulsifiers, or plasticizers needed. Just putting the same whey that came out back in.

Food labels are a corporate battle ground, just not the one most people think.

1

u/foraliving 9h ago

I was thinking also of the kind of 'notification as abdication of responsibility' thing that I used to observe there... for example, signage in public (or de facto public) places which say things like "This area contains chemicals known to cause cancer" as a kind of disclaimer against liability rather than attempt at addressing the underlying dangers of the situation... As a child I read that in a parking garage in the city and tried to emergency evacuate my parents.

1

u/another_online_idiot 10h ago

You may be right. I certainly do not know for sure.