Find out what's in your food

I was just stuffing a few jellybeans into my mouth when I spotted the ingredients list. Invert sugar syrup, colour 157, emulsifier 471, glazing agent 903, preservative 202, etc. A quick search took me to a wikipedia page about 'E numbers,' the 3 digit numbers that identify some of the ingredients in everyday food.

All you have to do is type into wikipedia-search 'E471' or 'E202' and it comes up with what that chemical actually is. Just stick an E in front of the number. I never knew it was this easy to work out exactly what I'm eating.

I found out the colouring used in my licorice is a waste product of petroleum production, has proven carcinogenic properties in humans, and is also used to colour car tyres black. Yummy.

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E Numbers In Our Every Day Life.
What Is Really In Our Food ?
Proof Food Additives 'ARE' as Bad as we Feared
Food additives
Ground-breaking study links food additives to hyperactivity in children

YUCK! thank you...wikipedia is gonna get a hammering over the next few weeks with requests for EXXX hahaha. thanks for that.

Originally posted by watch_the_rocks:
I found out the colouring used in my licorice is a waste product of petroleum production, has proven carcinogenic properties in humans, and is also used to colour car tyres black. Yummy.

Why should anybody care that it’s used to colour car tires? You’re just saying that for shock value, am I right?

Why do you insist on using the term “waste product” instead of “byproduct”? Oh, shock value again I bet.

Which leaves it being carcinogenic as your only valid point. In what kind of exposure (and what quantities) is it proven carcinogenic to humans? I have a feeling it's a value that would need not only to be present but also constant in much higher quantities than contained in your licorice.

If those questions aren’t enough food for thought, the following fact ought to be:
Drinking too much water can kill you.

[edit on 23-10-2007 by NRen2k5]

Having too much of anything at all can kill you, not just water, NRen2k5.

And I was making an unmentioned comparison to what most would call natural foods, i.e. carrots, beans fresh meat, etc. I'm pretty sure they're not carcinogenic and aren't byproducts of industrial processes.

Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
Having too much of anything at all can kill you, not just water, NRen2k5.

That was my point. I’m glad you understand it.

And I was making an unmentioned comparison to what most would call natural foods, i.e. carrots, beans fresh meat, etc. I'm pretty sure they're not carcinogenic and aren't byproducts of industrial processes.

Funny, I asked for your proof that the additive is carcinogenic, and you didn’t supply any.

More food for thought: Carrots spend their entire life in - and feed on - dirt and cow sh##. Yummy.

[edit on 23-10-2007 by NRen2k5]

I'm afraid, NRen2k5, I don't see why you are being so short with me. All I did was offer a resource from which people can find out what E numbers actually stand for, but you seem to have taken offence to this.
I'm sorry if I have offended you in any way, it wasn't my intention to offend anyone.

Just to demonstrate that I am not making up facts:

Source

Carbon black is considered to be a POSSIBLE CANCER HAZARD - may cause cancer, based on animal data and a POSSIBLE MUTAGEN - may cause genetic damage, based on animal data.

www.cdc.gov...