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Monday, January 2, 2012

Formaldehyde in my Ice Cream, Reallly???


Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's true. 
 
Ice cream usually contains 20-25% cream and milk products, 15% sugar and sometimes egg and then lot of chemical additives as stabilizers, emulsifiers, buffers, synthetic colors, surfactants, artificial flavors and preservatives. Stabilizer is used in order to retain the smoothness of the ice-cream by preventing the formation of coarse ice crystals.
 
Many commercial ice creams today are simply chemical concoctions presented in appealing packaging designed to sell a product that is not fit for human consumption. Everything from hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and dry milk solids are used to produce something still allowed to be called ice cream.  Many ice creams are also filled with air to double the volume.

Research shows methylcelluose is formaldehyde used as a thickener in medicine and food including ice cream and avocado dip.  Same stuff used to emulsify wallpaper paste.  If you're lucky you might find other chemicals like caroxymethyl cellulose, butyraldehyde, and amyl acetate are additives in some commercial ice creams. How about some diethyl glycol -- a cheap chemical used to take the place of eggs, which is also used in anti-freeze and paint removers.
 
Now don't get me wrong, I love ice cream like the next person. In fact, most ice creams have the benefit of containing vitamins A, B2 & B12 plus they contain calcium. But, wouldn't it be great if they also had things like real raw cream, egg yolks, and pure maple syrup.
 
Just because most of these additives are on the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list by the FDA, doesn't prove they aren't harmful.   In fact, the FDA does not require ice cream makers to label all of their ingredients. Really???
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1 comments:

jbj said...

In chemistry you can't say "methylcellulose is formaldehyde." They each have specific structures, and they aren't the same. Methylcellulose (ends in ose...chemically it's a sugar, like a bunch of other -oses, fructose, etc.) is a major component in plant cell walls. Ants eat it. Being a plant fiber, it does make a great thickener. Amyl acetate is just banana flavoring. Organic chemistry students make it in labs. Just saying what it is, not that we should eat it, although it does occur in...bananas.

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