Pepsi Finds Fungicide Traces in Tropicana OJ
Source: The Wall Street Journal
PepsiCo Inc. said it has found traces of the unapproved fungicide carbendazim in its Tropicana orange juice, but at levels that don't raise government safety concerns.
Friday's disclosure comes after Coca-Cola Co., maker of the Simply and Minute Maid orange-juice brands, confirmed earlier this week that it had alerted the Food and Drug Administration in December after discovering carbendazim in its own and competitors' orange-juice products.
Coke also has assured customers its products are safe, citing a U.S. government assessment that the levels didn't pose a health risk.
Use of the fungicide is widespread in Brazil, a supplier of orange juice to the U.S. The FDA has vowed to pull juice with higher than trace elements of the potentially harmful fungicide, which is 80 parts per billion or higher.
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577159633589976096.html
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)Angleae
(4,482 posts)One of the things it loses when concentrated is all the taste therefore it is artificially flavored
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)Agony
(2,605 posts)"There's a dirty secret in your glass of orange juice. Even though it says "not from concentrate," it probably sat in a large vat for up to year with all the oxygen removed from it. This allows it to be preserved and dispensed all year-round. Taking out all the O2 also gets rid of all the flavor. So the juice makers have to add the flavors back in using preformulated recipes full of chemicals called "flavor packs." Mmm, delicious, fresh-squeezed ethyl-butyrate!"
http://ctwatchdog.com/misc/premium-orange-juice-is-not-100-percent-pure
https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=139044
Gotta love our industrialized mega-corporation food "system"!
cheers,
Agony
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)harvey007
(1,188 posts)tawadi
(2,110 posts)Angleae
(4,482 posts)tawadi
(2,110 posts)Angleae
(4,482 posts)Vitamins and flavor are among them so they add artifical flavor and artifical vitamins into the concentrate to approximate the taste and nutrition of regular OJ.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)store. Those peels are dyed and coated with wax and fungicide. Sometimes my kids forget and toss them on to the compost pile and they just don't rot down at all! The chickens won't touch them either, and chickens will eat anything!
Thanks for the info.
Agony
(2,605 posts)just look at the label on a citrus fruit crate next time you see a worker stocking fruit in the produce section...
The fun stuff... if you are squeamish you might not want to read this
http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/2325fact.pdf
"Imazalil is a systemic fungicide for post harvest use on bananas, citrus, and preplanting seed treatments of barley and wheat.
Imazalil is classified as Likely to be carcinogenic in humans, according to EPAs July 1999 Draft Guidelines for Carcinogenic Assessment. Carcinogenicity studies in rodents indicate imazalil is carcinogenic to male Swiss albino mice and Wistar rats based on a significant increase in liver adenomas and combined adenomas/carcinomas. Based on current science policy and absent information supporting a mode of action in test animals, EPA quantified the human cancer risk by a linear low-dose (Q1*) extrapolation. The most potent unit risk, Q1*(mg/kg/day)-1 for imazalil based on male mouse liver adenoma and/or carcinoma combined tumor rates is 6.1 x 10-2 (mg/kg/day)-1 in human equivalents. In rats, there was also an increased incidence of combined thyroid follicular cell adenomas/carcinomas. In addition, imazalil is placed in Category II, II, and IV for oral, dermal and inhalation toxicity respectively. It is highly irritating to the eye (Category I), but is not a skin irritant (Category IV) or a dermal sensitizer.
Dietary Risks
EPA determined that there is a reasonable certainty that no harm to any
population subgroup will result from aggregate exposure to imazalil when
considering dietary (food and water) exposure and all other non-occupational
sources of pesticide exposure for which there is reliable information. " <------There feel better now!
Quantess
(27,630 posts)I have heard that anecdotally, but I never paid much attention. Disturbing.
Agony
(2,605 posts)as a small farmer and foodie I spend a lot of time researching food and food production issues. unfort I can't grow citrus...
but disturbing, yes. I find this paragraph disturbing --->EPA determined that there is a reasonable certainty that no harm to any
population subgroup will result from aggregate exposure to imazalil when
considering dietary (food and water) exposure and all other non-occupational
sources of pesticide exposure for which there is reliable information. "
does the EPA account for the plausible case of an uninformed consumer who regularly uses lemon zest and thinks that rinsing off a lemon will make it safe? maybe? 95% confidence interval and all? haven't got time to research that one, don't necess trust the EPA, so I just don't eat citrus peel
did you see my post upthread about "Flavor Packs" human ingenuity is amazing.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)Why did it take so long for the secret about OJ to come out! This seems like a big story that's been hidden for... forever.
Now, are organic lemons safe to use for lemon zest?
Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)constantly using citrus zest in recipes. I won't touch the stuff.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)And give my feet a nice citrusy smell, too.