Why food in America sucks.

I found out that McDonalds new McRib has a chemical in it that is used to make gym mats and shoes.

Photo from McDonalds website.

Mmmm looks good. I bet it never looks like that in the store ...

So I had to check if what I'd found was true.

Here's the link to McDonalds website with the nutritional information. Click on the little red cross next to the tiny word "Nutrition" to actually discover what's in the McRib.


Aside from all the other nasties, BHA ("BHA is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen..."), TBHQ ("At higher doses, it has some negative health effects on lab animals, such as producing precursors to stomach tumors and damage to DNA.") and other unpronounables, one can find azodicarbonamide in the dough conditioners of the bun.


The wikipedia entry for azodicarbonamide, (linked above) has the information that it is used as a food additive, flour bleaching agent and improving agent. It's also banned in Australia and Europe. 


The "Other uses" list it as an additive in the production of foamed plastics, such as gym mats, and shoe soles.
It thermally decomposes to produce gas which is trapped in the polymer to produce the foam.


Mmm yum, this just gets better and better.


The main reaction product when azodicarbonamide is cooked is biurea, whose only claim to fame is that it is the product of azdicarbonamide when it's cooked !! And to be fair, it has been found to be rapidly eliminated from the body.


That's the main product though, let's look at the other products, semicarbazide and ethyl carbamate. Semicarbazide seems relatively harmless, it a derivative of urea and is used as a detection reagent in thin layer chromatography. 
Ethyl carbamate on the other hand was discovered to be carcinogenic in 1943. It does occur naturally in some foods, especially alcohol, but I don't think that it's good to put a chemical in bread that is known to have a carcinogenic product.


So, from all of the above I have come to several conclusions. 
I'm never eating at McDonalds in America.
I know another chemical to look out for when I read the list of ingredients in the foods I buy.
I'm sticking to my brand of bread that only has 4 ingredients, non-enriched flour, yeast, water and salt.


Are you going to start reading the ingredients of the things you buy ?