ADDITIVE 320 - peanut butter....I've been doing some research on additives

[Mad Scientist]

Mods, please move if not in the right spot.

Hi all,

Just wondering how many people knew that Kraft Peanut Butter contains Food Additive 320? I did some research on all the numbers that are often found on the packets of food we buy and I'm shocked at some of the things that are allowed to be in our food. Food Additive 320, or Butylated hydroxy-anisole (BHA), has been banned from use in foods for infants and young children but is still used in Kraft peanut butter, which many young children eat! It can provoke an allergic reaction in some people, may trigger hyperactivity and other intolerances. There are serious concerns over carcinogenicity and estrogenic effects. In large doses it has caused tumours in lab animals. It was banned in Japan in 1958. McDonald's eliminated it from their US products by 1986. I've just bought a new jar of the smooth peanut butter and I will be returning it to the store for a refund. I also have a jar of the Aldi peanut butter and it uses the safer additive 306, so I'll be buying that one from now on. I've contacted Kraft to ask for an explanation as to why they use the dangerous additive instead of safer alternatives. I'm not a paranoid mother when it comes to what my children eat. I just try to give them as healthy as possible and don't often look at ingredients, but after hearing about many behaviours being due to some additives, I had a quick look through my cupboard just out of curiosity. I wanted to know what number MSG was too, so I could avoid that completely, seeing as I get headaches from it. It really freaked me out. But luckily a lot of the food we have doesn't contain many additives and if they do, they are the safer kind. Anyway, the reason for me posting this thread is to find out if any other people knew about this and did you contact Kraft at all? I have never contacted a company before about this type of thing but I was so annoyed, I had to do something!

PS Check if your kids' multivitamins have artificial sweeteners in them. They are scary things too!

[CrazyLady]

Ewwwwwwwwww! I read EVERYTHING i buy for DD now. Something in most breads makes her hyper and grumpy at the same time. She can only eat brumby's bread now.

Thanks for the heads up on peanut butter. I will look out for it when I try her on nuts!

[Trillian]

I buy either d-ick smith or sanitarium peanut butter and they don't have any additives at all - just peanuts, salt, sugar and vegetable oil - but it is possible that the additives aren't listed under the 5% loophole which states that if the ingredient makes up less than 5% of the product it doesn't have to be listed

[Salad]

NikW - it is truly amazing isnt it, I have been researching recently also additives in food, did you know 250 is also banned in baby and infant food but its on/added to bacon which I am sure many of us let our kids eat.

I am really struggling with healthy snacks to take in the nappy bag for DD, she cant have grapes anymore so I dont take sultanas either. Food in the failsafe/fedup books feel like would be giving her sugary stuff or bread/biscuits all the time. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

[*EJ*]

I too read a book that said this and haven't bought Kraft peanut butter since. Infact DS1 who is 3 has never had peanut butter. I have bought the 'health food aisle' option but it's either really dry or really oily. I may give the d-ick smith or sanitarium ones a go!?

[Trillian]

I decided I would email Sanitarium and ask them if it does contain it or not. I hope they are able to tell me.

Myboys, I defnitely prefer those brands and can't stand kraft peanut butter anymore.

[Cherished]

Thanks for the post Niki I checked the IGA peanut butter brand and it has a safer additive in it

[Peg]

i was hunting around and found an article on ninemsn about a particular nutritionist in australia.

Nutritionist Sue Dengate has been fighting the fight against the dangerous food additives for the past 15 years, now she's compiled her dirty dozen.
She says any of these additives can cause severe asthma, serious rashes, swelling of the lips and tongue, or behavioural problems such as ADHD.

* Food colourings: Tartrazine (102), sunset yellow (110), amaranth (123), erythrosine (127) and annatto extracts (160b).
* Preservatives: Sodium benzoate (e211), sulphur dioxide (220), calcium propionate (282).
* Antioxidant: Bha or buylated hydroxyanisole (320).
* Flavour enhancers: MSG or monosodium glutamate (621) and ribonucleotides (635) artificial sweetener aspartame(951)

[Mad Scientist]

The other scary thing is that they don't have to declare that it is in the food if it's contained in an ingredient of the food eg a certain spice mix added to the food might have the additive in it....ITMS

[Salad]

Thats right NikW if there is an ingredient that makes up less than 5% of the total ingredients then it does not have to be listed, for example, a bread may not have the nasty 282 in it but if the label says vegetable oil then you need to contact the manufacturer and ask them whats in the oil they use as some vegetable oils contain artificial antioxidants which can affect people. Also it might have been mentioned in a previous post I am not sure but some yeast extracts contain MSG e.g vegemite among others.

[mrsmac]

Sometimes even though the bread may not contain 282 they use it to clean the breadmaking equipment so it may be on the bread.