Foodwatch
Toxin Warnings: Experts do not recommend eating products containing locust bean gum
When shopping you should definitely check the ingredient lists
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Locust bean gum is contained in numerous products – and should currently be avoided, as Foodwatch warns. The reason is a toxin called ethylene oxide.
This text first appeared at this point brigitte.de.
A few weeks ago, several products containing contaminated locust bean gum were recalled. Then it got quiet. Now Foodwatch expressed itself again on television on the problem – and warned strongly about the toxin ethylene oxide, which is said to continue to pose a danger.
The last problem came on the TV show “JENKE.” on. Jenke von Wilmsdorff has devoted his so-called self-experiment this time to the topic of food and in the current episode asks himself: What do we really eat? In return, the presenter eats numerous polluted products in the program. One of them: an Asian noodle soup that shouldn’t really have been on the shelf. Because in the course of the show it turns out that it contained locust bean gum – and was contaminated with ethylene oxide.
Ethylene oxide: highly toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic
Here you have to hook and distinguish: locust bean gum and ethylene oxide do not necessarily belong together. The flour is primarily an additive, which is also known under the number E 410, and is used as a thickener in the manufacture of numerous products. Ethylene oxide, on the other hand, is a substance that is used as a disinfectant – but is highly toxic and should not come into contact with food. According to the Federal Office for Risk Assessment, ethylene oxide is mutagenic and carcinogenic.
A few months ago, however, samples were found to have contaminated, among other things, locust bean gum with ethylene oxide. This resulted in a huge recall in several countries – because the flour is used in processing, for example, in ice cream, baked goods, meat products and jams. Or in the production of Chinese noodles, as happened in the Jenke experiment. But how can it be that contaminated products can still be bought in Germany?
“So at the moment you can only advise consumers not to eat products that contain locust bean gum”
This is what the presenter asks on the Foodwatch program Oliver Huizinga. Currently in Germany – compared to other countries – significantly fewer products related to ethylene oxide contamination are being recalled. It should be just 55, in France there are several hundred. Ice cream in particular is affected. According to Huizinga, however, companies in this country are currently of the opinion that small quantities are not so bad.
In the EU directives, however, it says differently: “With ethylene oxide (…) the EU states have agreed that it must not be contained, because theoretically every little bit can cause cancer, every tiny molecule can be harmful. Therefore, all products have to be be called back, where contaminated locust bean gum is contained “, demands Huizinga clearly in the report. The contaminated locust bean gum, which, according to Jenke, had already been imported by the ton in June, has long since been processed.
Inform regularly
That is why the Foodwatch expert currently sees only one drastic possibility for consumers to protect themselves from the toxin: “So at the moment you can only advise consumers not to eat products that contain locust bean gum,” advises Huizina in Jenke- Experiment.
According to the Hamburg Consumer Center, the ethylene oxide problem was initially noticed by contaminated sesame seeds. In addition to locust bean gum, the additive guacernum was also said to have been affected. The portal advises you to regularly check the website “Lebensmittelwarnung.de” of the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety to find out about further recalls.
Sources: JENKE. The food experiment: What do we really eat ?, Federal Risk Assessment Office, Lebensmittelwarnung.de, Hamburg Consumer Center, Foodwatch