Imported US sweets with illegal ingredients seized

www.bbc.com Imported US sweets with illegal ingredients seized

Jolly Ranchers and Mountain Dew are advertised on TikTok and Instagram but contain products banned in the UK.

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Sorry, Brits. You can't have our unhealthy food. That's American food for American stomachs!
- Honestly I've never realized before that from that low-quarter-view, the eagles actually look kinda cute and friendly, not intimidating like from the side or ridiculous like from the front.
  
  Have you ever heard a Golden eagle call? They hae a weak thin call, like a seagull. This isn't macho enough for the US, so they always play a different call on films, that of a hawk!
  
  It's the eye socket and positioning. You can kind of see the pocket created by their "brow" in that picture, but we see them as intimidating or what have you, because we are trying to interpret facial expressions as language.
  
  I know someone who disagrees...
  
  Eagles are always cute to me, although maybe not always friendly
- And they're saying they can make it without the shitty ingredients, they don't wanna if they don't have to.
  The manufacturers of Lemonheads, Starburst Gummies, Hershey's and Jolly Ranchers told the BBC their products were produced legally in the USA and that any products being sold in the UK were being done so illegally, and not associated with their brands.
  
  And they’re saying they can make it without the shitty ingredients, they don’t wanna if they don’t have to
  ? That's not what they're saying. They're saying that the shitty ingredients are legal in the US.
- How appropriate that I have a ton of Eagles where I live, and they hang out at the dump eating rats will of garbage all day.

Jolly Ranchers hard candy has mineral oil in them.
Most often, mineral oil is a liquid obtained from refining crude oil to make gasoline and other petroleum products ... like a liquid version of petroleum jelly. Source
And America allows companies to sell this shit.
- AFAIK mineral oil and petroleum jelly are considered food safe. In the food industry they are used as lubricant on machinery that comes into contact with food (like meat slicers or even soda machines). Petroleum jelly is also found in a lot of skin care products, like Vasoline, vapo-rub, makeup -removing cream, and is also used in lip balm.
  That being said, oil & gas extraction has and is wreaking havoc on our environment and health. So, while these products may be safe for human contact, they have a cost.
  
  The UK doesn't deem them safe for human consumption tho, because they err on the side of caution instead of allowing big oil and/or corps to do what they want.
- In the U.S. it is commonly found in phamacies and sold as a laxative. It is excellent for cutting boards and wooden spoons since it does not go rancid. It is usually the only approved oil/grease to use on food processing equipment. Commercial and home espresso machines use it to lubricate seals and gaskets.
  Unrelated: it is great for rejuvenating Bakelite
  
  Hey thanks for that tip!
- If everything around us and inside us isn't somehow related to the oil industry, we Americans would wither and die immediately. Don't you know?
  Serious answer though: The FDA is slow, inefficient, and likely paid off from banning chemicals, but every once in a blue they do. States like California take a more proactive role in banning chemicals, and since California has an economy larger than some nations, they tend to have a lot of pull, so all is not lost. America is more like the EU these days than a cohesive nation. Some states are cool, some are ok, some are Texas...but...yeah, we really suck as a whole.
  
  Santa Cruz California is built around a old Mercury mine with literal Mercury red rocks just being normal rocks all around the city
  Nature is cancerous for the uneducated
- Deregulation, baby! 🇺🇸🦅
  That reddish-black stuff you’re coughing up is liquid freedom!
- you absolutely consume mineral oil. it is a lubricant often used for food related equipment
- Somehow the jolly rancher story just got even worse. Better? Worse.
- We classify mineral oil as food safe. It's a powerful laxative and you really wouldn't want to get a lot of it in your food but I use it on my cutting boards to keep them from drying out and cracking.
- Is there a way to make homebrew Jolly Ranchers without chemical bullshit? Anyone know of a recipe?
  
  homebrew Jolly Ranchers
  sugar, corn syrup and water will make hard candy. after that, it's just a matter of dialing in the amounts of flavorings and citric acid for some tartness
  
  I love how you used the term "homebrew" and not "homemade" lol.
  
  There's even a wikiHow, if you use a search engine you can find it ❤️

Oi Mate, got a loicense for that candy?
- american candy is literally drugs /ss

Americans dont get Our flavour of irn-bru nor do they get bovril though due to foot and mouth concerns.
- bovril though due to foot and mouth concerns.
  Is it because it tastes like someone put a foot in your mouth?
  
  Sorry that our beef taste like beef and not a hormone soup.
- “Lights” are also illegal for sale as food products in the US, so no haggis. Thanks FDA. No really, that stuff is disgusting.
  
  You won't eat a delicious all natural haggis supper, but byproduct of crude oil are fine.
  
  Idk what "lights" are, but haggis is bloody delicious

Genuinely surprised the illegal ingredient was not THC
- that is now a legal medication and would simply require a tax and loicense
  
  Thanks Teresa May.

And here I thought just the sugar content was the issue. Welp if I needed another sign that it's time for that colonoscopy, I do no longer.

I'm surprised post brexit eu didn't cut the "red tape" of Food Standards & Hygiene.

I’m confused. I’ve been using Swedish Fish to potty train my kiddo so I’m obviously concerned. But I don’t see any of the scary substances on the ingredients: SUGAR, INVERT SUGAR, CORN SYRUP, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF CITRIC ACID, WHITE MINERAL OIL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, RED 40, CARNAUBA WAX
What am I missing?
- Might be red 40. Colouring agents are highly regulated in the eu. Maybe the mineral oil.
  
  Yeah, it's the red 40: https://www.commodious.co.uk/knowledge-bank/food-safety/food-additives
  Edit: you're likely right about the mineral oil too: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1966/1073/body/made?view=plain#:~:text=Prohibition%20of%20mineral%20hydrocarbon%20in%20food&text=(b)no%20person%20shall%20sell,food%20containing%20any%20mineral%20hydrocarbon.
  
  And being allergic to Red 40 sucks. It causes severe breathing issues for me. I developed the allergy later in my 20’s, probably from eating it too much.
- The article said mineral oil
- Mineral oil supposedly. Do your own research since it's your kid, but it's considered food safe here. Food grade mineral oil is used on knives and cutting boards regularly.
- They included Jolly Ranchers hard sweets containing mineral oil, which if contaminated with other compounds can initiate cancer formations.
  It's literally one of the first sentences in the article.
  
  That’s literally the 7th sentence of the article, which is literally not literally one of the first.
  Also, how in the hell is it informative to say x can cause cancer if contaminated with other compounds?? Wow, thanks for that amazing reporting, BBC!
  THIS JUST IN! Air causes cancer!!*
  *when contaminated with powdered asbestos flakes
- It's the red 40.
- What, Red 40 is still legal in the US?
  
  Is it illegal elsewhere? I’m allergic to it and would like to drink something red one day again. Even just some shitty fruit punch.

in Australia we have shops that sell American candy, im pretty sure it's illegal because many of those ingredients aren't allowed in Australian food HFCS being just one because you can't buy it in supermarkets.. i assume it's just not enforced. like illegal vapes that they also sell to children here.

weird. what about good candy, like peanut butter cups?
- Illegal in Japan at least due to a preservative used in it https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-candy-idUSBRE87L0IN20120822/
  (Seiyu stopped making Reece's here (almost?) entirely so I only get them when family sends them or someone on one of the military bases is feeling kind and gifts us a pack).
  
  Holy fuck.
- That’s a really low bar you have there for “good candy.”
  
  Sweets quality in US is shit overall. Their chocolate is simply disgusting and everything else is made to a lower standard.
  
  gotta set the bar somewhere.
  
  I'm a suckered for a peanut butter cup, but it is basically spreading peanut butter on the worst quality chocolate you can find.

Ah yes, the mischevious substances wrecking our kids' health, smuggled from the New World... mountain dew.
- The substance:
  Calcium Disodium EDTA, which is banned within drinks in the UK, was found in Mountain Dew.
  In animal studies, the crystalline powder caused adverse reproductive and developmental effects and has been shown to contribute to cancer of the colon.
  
  But what about human studies?
  This paper (PDF warning) states:
  No evidence exists suggesting the compound exerts genotoxic or carcinogenic effects. Overall, Calcium Disodium EDTA seems to be safe for use as a food additive, as the noted toxic doses are higher than can be achieved via the addition of Calcium Disodium EDTA to food. However, human data is limited and the gross of available (human and animal) data, as well as the ADI, stems from several decades ago.
  However, that paper is almost a decade old. I found this one from just a couple years ago which states:
  Numerous studies in healthy animals have shown no considerable acute or repeat dose toxicity of EDTA. Based on a no observed adverse effects level (NOAEL) of 250 mg/kg body weight (bw) for Fe-EDTA, international authorities recommend an acceptable daily intake (ADI) of maximum 1.9 mg EDTA/kg bw for humans.
  
  I worked with someone who downed several bottles of Mt. Dew a day. One day he was laying on the floor of the office and I had to take him to the ER for kidney stones.
- Yes, but unironically.
- Something something no Kinder Eggs!
- Yes, it used to have brominated vegetable oil before it was banned for being obviously toxic.
- All this time we've been worried about the Kinder Eggs.
  
  Cause those are legal in Canada and that's where most of them were coming from.

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