Subway bread is always known for it's delicious fresh bread but how do they do it? What makes that bread so fresh and bouncy? A new survey has found that ADA is the ingredient that helps keep their (and many other places) breads fresh. What is ADA you ask? It's a compound also found in yoga mats and sneaker soles! Awesome, so think?
1) Why is this product in the foods we eat?
2) Why is it allowed in our foods?
3) What other elements are in there that we are not aware about?
4) If this is happening in countries where the food standards are very high what about the other parts of the world where this is not the case? What are they eating?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/27/us-usa-food-chemicals-report-idUSBREA1Q08420140227
This is my post for the week:
ReplyDeleteI find news reports like this really interesting because a lot of times they make the problem seem worse than it really is. The reason why ADA is put into breads and bagels is to keep them fluffy and doughy like we love and clearly it is working.
I did a little bit of research into the whole ordeal with ADA and i found that the person who launched this scandal was a blogger who makes a living from writing about harmful food additives. She was very clever in by saying the ADA is used in things such as yoga mats and shoes. People that see the blog immediately see that accusation and jump to the conclusion that eating at Subway is like going to eat at Payless Shoes! This accusation may be slightly true but mostly just false.
When ADA is put into foods to improve them it must be in a ratio of 45:1000000 which is very little. With this tiny amount of ADA and when it does finally reach our mouths, most of the chemical bonds have been broken and restored to its original elements. This is why saying that if ADA is in your food you are eating a shoe, is false. They may have some of the same additives in them but that is no grounds to jump to that conclusion. That would be like saying if you cook with hemp oil you are pretty much smoking marijuana, which is clearly false.
I'm not so convinced that this is a real health issue. Sure there have been studies that say it MAY induce asthma but now-a-days anything can do that to you. I feel like people are just looking for ways to take a stab at the big companies like Starbucks and Subway to try and get some money out of it.
I am in no way supporting the use of potentially harmful food additives, i just don't see this one as being a huge ordeal like it seems to be made out as. As long as the consumer likes the taste of the food it will still be sold
Here is an interesting take that i found informative and all around interesting:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-reinagel-ms-ldn-cns/azodicarbonamide-subway_b_4770189.html
Great post Adrian! I was actually so concerned that Subway bread was a terrible thing to eat after reading this article. The information you provided reassured me it wasn't as bad, thank goodness because i've been eating Subway almost every time i go to work for about 2 years now. It's too bad that other people who read this article might be convinced that eating subway is like you said, eating at Payless Shoes.
Deletethis is really interesting, i eat subway all the time and when i heard about them uses ADA i was little worried about eating it but as you've pointed out, it really isn't that bad.
DeleteThis is a really interesting opinion Adrain. I see what you are saying when you say that it might not be such a big deal but I do not think that the fact that it could or could not cause health issues is the real problem. Personally I think the problem is that these additives were added to our food in the first place. Who allowed for that to happen? W e might not know if it does cause health issues but really, food should be food. We should not have the right to add all this stuff in the first place. I guess that it is our ignorance toward the subject that caused the problem so we really need to be more conscious of what we are adding to our food.
DeleteI have to agree with your point about reports making out the situation to be worse than it really is. If there is only a small ratio of ADA being used, then it should not be a major issue. Perhaps their use of the ingredient should be monitored, so that we are making sure that they are only using a certain quantity.
DeleteI definitely agree that we have to be careful when we read articles online, or even hear news reports to think about the other side too. Yes subway was using ADA but the fact is they were in the legal restraints. Now, they have removed the chemicals to avoid any health hazard it might create. As consumers however I think it is important for us to know that if we want to be safe we can just eat at home, companies have to add preservatives and fillers these days to compete economically. Saying that however, I think it can be said that their intention is not to intentionally harm their customers.
DeleteI agree 100% that we need to pay more attention to what we consume. There are so many chemicals and GMO's in our food these days, its actually pretty scary. I cannot beieve i went so long eating subway with the mindset that it was the healhty choice when really i was eating rubber basically. I feel as consumers we have the right to know what we are eating. Anyways i'm glad they removed it from the bread because I had subway tonight, yikes !
DeleteThis is my post for the week
ReplyDeleteIt is shocking to discover breads in a popular restaurant like Subway are containing harmful chemicals, also in common foods like donuts and hotdog buns etc. It is clear that the reason this chemical "ADA" is allowed in our foods is because it isn't banned in Canada and the United States, and approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. This product is in our foods because it is a flour bleacher, and because it is used to improve the dough in baking, and apparently can also induce asthma and other respiratory issues. I also learned recently that there is also a chemical in the highly advertised "MIO" water flavouring product called propylene glycol which is also the main ingredient in anti-freeze which sounds scary but on their website they state it as recognized as safe. However, I believe that since these chemicals are being passed by food and safety regulations in a country with such high standards, I don't believe they will do much harm to you with moderate use. They obviously aren't healthy for you but people have been eating Subway for years and obviously it isn't the healthiest choice but with moderation I bet the chemicals won't do any significant harm. In other countries with lower food standards they must have much worse situations, and I bet the chemicals and status that their foods are in are probably much more harmful.
http://www.makeitmio.com/mio-about.aspx
This is my post for week 7.
ReplyDeleteThe first time i read this article i was ready to dive in and talk about how terrible these companies are for putting such harmful products in our food and how disgusted i was. Then i read Adrian's post and realized i should probably be more skeptical and less gullible. So i did some research and found a lot of the same information on how ADA is not as bad as you would think and certainly not like eating shoes or a yoga mat.
According to the main website i found there are actually a lot of ingredients found in food that are also used industrially/ for non food products. The bread brand Nature's Own actually used this same chemical ingredient (ADA), but they have phased it out in 2013. I find it ironic that they even used it in the first place considering their brand name. In this website they mentioned that a bakery consultant mentioned that tofu contains an ingredient that is also found in drywall.
So with all this talk about what is in our foods i wanted to mention some things that are (surprisingly) missing from our foods. For example, while working at Bayfield Cinemas i got to know a few things just from talking to customers and my coworkers. For example, something i was told when i first started was that our nacho "cheese" (same as Cineplex's nacho "cheese") contains absolutely NO DAIRY at all. So i guess if you're a vegan or you don't eat dairy this is something you actually can eat, you're welcome. Another interesting fact i learned just the other week from a coworker in culinary school, is that grade A and grade B meat have virtually no difference. In fact the only difference is that grade A is meat is cut more precisely than grade B. The actual quality of the meat has nothing to do with it. Sadly, i could not find any websites that i could link to prove this but i just thought i should share it with you.
Here are my links for other information i found:
http://www.naturesownbread.com/assets/uploads/Natures_Own_Bakery_Foods_Do_Not_Contain_Azodicarbonamide_2-14.pdf
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/06/286886095/almost-500-foods-contain-the-yoga-mat-compound-should-we-care-keep
This is my post for the week.
ReplyDeleteWhen I originally read this article I was really surprised, and somewhat disappointed with subway and their decision to use this product. Subway's main advertising campaign is healthy and cheap, but to be using industrial chemicals in their bread does not sound very healthy.
Azodicarbonamide is a chemical used in many plastic and petroleum based products. It reacts as a gas and forms small bubbles with in the products which creates a spongy feel. They realized that they could use small amounts of ADA in breads and pastries to make them more fluffy, which clearly has worked!
I believe this this article has made ADA seem much worse then it actually is. It is just one chemical from plastics that has been used and is it being used in very small amounts. Now saying that, I still do not support the use of ADA in food products, and I like the idea that is has been banned in several countries in Europe as well as Australia.There are still many other ways to make delicious bread with all natural and healthy ingredients.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-27/how-a-rubber-chemical-found-its-way-into-500-food-products
http://apps.who.int/bookorders/anglais/detart1.jsp?codlan=1&codcol=38&codcch=16
Great post Michael! I agree that this article was definitely trying to paint ADA as some sort of toxic ingredient but at the same time, the common usage of this chemical shouldn't go ignored. I never knew that it was banned in certain countries and although I'm not sure whether Canada will be willing to go to that length - I still think that's something they should consider when adding it to any of their products.
DeleteI agree with you, they didn't clearly explain what the chemical really does. Why it's so bad, and why the FDA allows it.
DeleteI agree with your points Mike. It seems like this article may have blown the chemical out of proportion, but I also agree with you that it should not be in our food. Good post!
DeleteYeah, great post, Michael! it's super important to be aware of what we are putting into our bodies
ReplyDeleteThis is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteI have to admit although I’m not surprised that this is an additive in breads and pastries, it does concern me. If it is the topic of potential concern for our health why would we risk ingesting ADA. Our bread might not be as fluffy but is that really that bad of a thing?
The article did make me a little concerned because it was a very one sided article, we were not offered a different view on this topic. We were told that it is comparable to eating rubber and plastic, yet it is in such a low concentration that I would be surprised that it actually makes it into every loaf produced with it. This makes me wonder why the author wrote the article in the first place, was it truly to inform the public about this potentially unhealthy additive in breads or was she hoping for a quick viral session that would result in a nice pay day. There are many articles like this that have little to now truth, but the the question arises what if this is actually “the bad one”. I would like to clarify that I am not promoting additives that could potentially be harmful, I am just concerned that this article was a bias view on this topic.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-27/how-a-rubber-chemical-found-its-way-into-500-food-products
http://www.ewg.org/release/yoga-mat-chemical-found-nearly-500-foods