TBHQ: An Unwelcome Holiday Guest
As you stuff your stockings this holiday season, take a moment to make sure you aren’t including chocolate-coated poison with your edible treats. TBHQ, or Tertiary Butylhydroquinone, is a synthetic antioxidant used to preserve food. It’s pretty common in shelf stable snacks like microwave popcorn and crackers as well as fast food like french fries or fried chicken. It’s also incredibly common in some brands of chocolate.
The FDA and USDA have labeled this additive as “generally safe” but recent studies have pegged this chemical as a likely carcinogen. Still, the FDA hasn’t adjusted its stance and right now the ADI, or acceptable daily intake, for TBHQ is 0.7mg/kg of body weight a day. Even though individual foods are limited by the health department to 0.02 % of the total fat content, we’ve seen serving sizes adjusted before as a means of getting around this type of limitation. For example, say you produce cheesy crackers and your serving size contains more TBHQ than the allowed amount? No problem. Just adjust the total fat content and maybe tweak that serving size and voilà! You know consumers aren’t going to eat any less of your product but who cares? You’ve met the health department’s requirements.
This is a pretty scary loophole as this chemical can cause a wide range of serious side effects and there is a strong argument for it not being allowed in our food at all! Testing shows that it’s linked to an increased risk of convulsions, liver enlargement, tumors and neurological impacts similar to that of a neurotoxin. Not only that, but TBHQ is said to negatively impact the proper functioning of your immune system. There is even some evidence to suggest that TBHQ reduces the effectiveness of the flu vaccine. Additionally, there is an added risk to women as it has been recorded to mimic estrogen, causing an estrogen dominant state which can increase one’s risk of female reproductive system specific cancers, such as breast or ovarian cancer.
Even at a glance, we can see that it’s worth our effort to truly limit if not completely eliminate TBHQ from our diet. We mentioned that chocolate is a very common category of food for this additive to hide in. Reece’s, Ghirardelli and Dove commonly contain this chemical! Other repeat offenders include plant-based meats, frozen pizza, and nearly every flavor of Cheez-its. Some of these companies are taking steps to eliminate TBHQ from their ingredient lists but until they do, make sure you know what you are ingesting! This holiday season, do a little research and make sure you aren’t giving your loved ones a candy-flavored nightmare.
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