Food Additives

You can spot Dawn Wynne at the grocery store. She's one of those conscientious label readers busy studying cans, bottles and jars in aisle after aisle. But it's not calories, sodium or preservatives she is looking for. She is on patrol for high fructose corn syrup; it's an unadvertised part of sauces, cereal, candy and especially soda, and she wants none of it. The Redondo Beach resident looks for foods sweetened with "pure cane sugar, honey or fruit juice."

Almost every parent has a story about their kid bouncing off the walls after downing a package of jelly beans or eating a neon blue-frosted cupcake at school. Most blame the sugar. But some new research suggests that the rainbow of artificial colors may have a bigger effect on children's behavior. And in other parts of the world, some organizations are starting to take action on these ingredients.

If we've learned anything watching our 401(k)s go down the toilet and the stock market take a pistol-whipping, it's that too-lax regulation and the nowhere-to-hide nature of the global economy leave us vulnerable to all sorts of shenanigans. Need more proof? Three words: China. Food. Melamine. On Tuesday, the Chinese government ordered all liquid and powdered milk manufactured before Sept. 14 to be removed from store shelves for testing.

The Food and Drug Administration's conclusion that a controversial chemical is safe for use in food containers is badly flawed, an independent panel of scientific advisors said in a report released Tuesday. The chemical, known as bisphenol A, is used to make plastic for food packaging, baby bottles and other consumer and medical goods. Environmental groups want to ban BPA in products for infants because of concerns that it can interfere with their development.

EVER wonder what goes into a bottle of wine? The story winemakers love to tell on the bottle label is one of a mystical alchemy of climate, soils, ancient practices and long traditions. Wine labels tend to focus on romance; the small amount of government-mandated information includes the percentage of alcohol, a warning against consuming wine when pregnant or driving, and a disclosure of sulfites.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter to pet food maker Iams Co. about an additive in some of its products for overweight dogs and cats. The letter, dated Jan. 8 and posted on the FDA website Thursday, said that several Eukanuba-brand dry and canned pet food products made by Iams, a unit of Procter & Gamble Co., contain chromium tripicolinate, which is allowed as a source of supplemental chromium only in swine feed.

U.S. health officials will test more food additives for melamine, a substance found in pet food linked to the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs. Tests will be expanded to imports of six food additives, including soy protein, rice bran and corn gluten, Stephen Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said in a news conference. The FDA is already testing wheat gluten and rice protein for the substance.

As the recall of tainted pet food mushroomed into an international scandal, two of the largest U.S. food manufacturers put out a blanket order to their American suppliers: No more ingredients from China. The directive from Mission Foods Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc., made quietly this month, underscored consumers' and manufacturers' fears about the safety of imported food ingredients after contaminated wheat products from China killed and sickened cats and dogs in the United States.

WHEN I began researching the ingredients for Twinkies, I naively thought that their raw materials were extracted from nuts, beans, fruit, seeds or leaves, and that they came from the United States. I was looking to link places with foods -- along the lines of California wine or Maine lobster, but for thiamine mononitrate. It turned out that I was way off.

With the "USDA organic" seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch calls its Wild Hop Lager "the perfect organic experience." "In today's world of artificial flavors, preservatives and factory farming, knowing what goes into what you eat and drink can just about drive you crazy," the Wild Hop website says. "That's why we have decided to go back to basics and do things the way they were meant to be ... naturally."