FDA allows Big Food to get away with murder

I’ve told you a lot about how incompetent the drug half of the FDA is, but what about the half that deals with food?

Well, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s like Scotland Yard!

Recently, it’s been hot on the trail of a Massachusetts bakery that’s deceiving the granola-eating public.

The FDA has sent Nashoba Brook Bakery a warning letter giving the business 15 days to fix a serious issue with one of its ingredients.

And the problem? It’s a little “love.”

In a show of whimsy, the company listed love as the last ingredient in a line of its products.

But while the agency musters all its authority (and it has a lot!) to stop this “misbranding,” it allows big food manufacturers to practically get away with murder — especially where one ingredient in particular is concerned.

The FDA bends over backward to look the other way whenever this toxic food additive is used –in everything from soup to nuts.

Looking for love, but not MSG
While there have been zillions of songs and poems written about love, don’t attempt to add any to your food!

And especially don’t try to pull a fast one on the FDA. It knows for a fact that people will be totally confused, since love isn’t a “common or usual (ingredient) name,” like sugar, salt, or pepper.

But here’s where this agency could use its police powers to actually do some good: Stop allowing food manufacturers to sell us products that contain hidden monosodium glutamate but are labeled as having “No MSG.”

And believe it or not, that’s something it once actually did!

Now, if you’re wondering how the FDA would get involved, there’s a very good reason for that. It’s none other than what the agency cited Nashoba Bakery for when adding that love — a violation called “misbranding.”

Basically, a food label is misbranded if it contains “false or misleading” information. And in past years, trying to hide MSG was a serious violation. Not only did the feds take steps to stop it –including actually seizing products off store shelves — but so did individual states!

But that was then. Now, you don’t have to look very far to find soups, gravies, dressings, frozen dinners, and lots more that trick us into believing they contain no MSG — when it’s been deliberately added.

Here’s how that works:

• Instead of adding pure MSG, which a lot of consumers recognize immediately as an ingredient to avoid, these companies use one or more additives that contain enough MSG to act as a flavor enhancer, which is the only purpose MSG serves in food.
• List those ingredients on the label, and, since they have names that sound nothing like MSG, most people will be totally unaware it’s in there.
• For a finishing touch, add “No MSG” or “No Added MSG” to the label in really big print.

Whatever the reason might be that the FDA stopped going after this fraudulent practice, the bottom line is that we’ve got to take matters into our own hands to avoid disguised forms of this dangerous ingredient. That means knowing the names of additives in which hidden MSG is found.

The top ones are:

#1: anything hydrolyzed, such as a hydrolyzed protein,
#2: soy protein, including soy protein concentrate and soy protein isolate,
#3: sodium and calcium caseinate, and
#4: autolyzed yeast and yeast extract

And if you need a reminder of why you should avoid it, here’s the short list: MSG has been linked to migraine headaches, obesity, eye damage, reproductive problems, brain damage, and even Afib.

Also, if you suffer from migraines, experts have warned that when you ingest MSG in hot liquids, such as soup, you’re putting yourself in big danger of triggering an attack.

“FDA tells bakery that ‘love’ is not an ingredient” Bruce Y. Lee, October 4, 2017, Forbes, forbes.com