What's Really In Your Food?

By Brandon
Published January 16, 2025

Is your breakfast a bowl of Froot Loops and is your favorite candy a handful of Skittles?  Before you continue eating you should be aware of the chemicals you are putting inside your body.  We all assume that the food that we eat is completely safe because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for providing oversight for food safety in the U.S.,  but we may be mistaken.  Additives are used in food products to serve a purpose, such as changing the color, texture, taste or to preserve the food longer. The public is almost completely unaware of how dangerous some of these chemicals can be. Research from the EWG shows that some additives can have catastrophic health implications. According to the Guide to Food Additives on the Environmental Working Group ( EWG) website, commonly used additives can increase the risk of cancer, can impact the nervous system, and affect the immune and endocrine systems. Artificial colors, ( Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, and Green 3) that can be found in candy, soda, cereals and other snacks, can lead to neurobehavioral problems in children. 

Why do companies use harmful ingredients and additives? In a word: Profit. Coloring agents and texturizers are used to make the food more appetizing to consumers. Preservatives keep the foods fresh longer and therefore increases their shelf life. If manufacturers produce foods that consumers find more appealing, then they will maximize profit.

The FDA is responsible for providing oversight for food safety in the U.S. Several reports, like this one from NYU, have found that the FDA cannot effectively regulate the food industry because they have broken or nonexistent systems for reviewing current and new additives and ingredients. Inadequate resources may also impede their ability to enforce their policies.

Knowing this, the companies take advantage of the loopholes in the regulations and they add potentially dangerous ingredients into our food supply. For example, food regulations differentiate between “food additives” and “Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) ingredients”. Food additives are required to be evaluated and approved by the FDA while GRAS ingredients do not. Instead, the company can decide for itself how to classify the ingredients which has resulted in many unknown chemicals found in various food products. 

According to the article, “How a Legal Loophole Allows Unsafe Ingredients in U.S. Foods”, experts in the field believe that stronger oversight is imperative in order to eliminate dangerous additives in our food. Other solutions may include more warning labels posted on food products, expanding the amount of congressional funding, an increased measure of consumer awareness, and a strengthened quantity of manufacturer credibility. 

Although this is a big issue occurring throughout America, there are numerous possible solutions that are capable of decreasing the amount of chemicals inside our food.