"carcinogens" news and stories

KFC Grilled Chicken. Photo: Erk Pod, Flickr.

KFC is getting grilled over its new chicken offering.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has sued Kentucky Fried Chicken over a carcinogen, PhIP, which the nutrition advocacy group says is in KFC's new grilled chicken. PhIP is a compound on California's list of carcinogens that is created when meat is grilled.

The PCRM filed the suit in San Francisco Superior Court for violating California's Proposition 65. This proposition mandates that businesses must warn customers if there are carcinogens in their products.

I'm usually glad to peruse tomorrow's New York Times headlines when it comes to food as I did last night. I say usually because last night the news I learned was rather disturbing. The FDA has issued an alert about the safety of five types of farm-raised seafood imported from China. It seems that multiple tests showed contamination from carcinogens and antibiotics.

The five types of seafood in question are shrimp, catfish, eel, basa (a type of catfish) and dace (Chinese mud carp). These fish will have to be tested before they can be sold in the U.S. The FDA noted that there's no immediate health threat, but that prolonged exposure could cause health problems. Somehow that doesn't make me feel very safe, probably because I've consumed more than a few cans of canned dace with black bean sauce in my day. And the ban may not be such good news for fish eaters in general, either. Chinese seafood accounts for 21 percent of all seafood imports. Shrimp lovers may be hit especially hard since it's the number one seafood imported from China.

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When ascorbic acid and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate mix together, they can make benzene, which is known to cause cancer.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) last month put out a list of popular drinks like Country Time, Kool-Aid, and Sunny D on grocery store shelves that contain both ingredients. Now, the EWG states that the "actual levels of benzene formed in these products may be at trace levels and within legal limits for drinking water," and that they have "no information indicating that benzene is actually present in any of these products at any level." However, still makes you want to put fresh-squeezed orange juice instead of Fanta Orange in your sangria.

 

It's that time of year, the time to look back on the stories that made 2005 great. Our countdown began with God and TV, then touched on the weird and the wonderful. Finally, that most American of all themes: the lawsuit.

There are more than a few people out there who continue to give lawyers a bad name. Some of them are the lawyers who take on what many people deem to be frivolous lawsuits. Sometimes it is the lawyers who take it upon themselves to speak up for people and protest what they perceive is a legal violation or some sort. These may not be all the legal battles caused by food this year, but they certainly were noteworthy ones, whether they deserved to be or not.

1. Silver dragées. This lawsuit isn’t new to 2005, but it is ongoing nevertheless. A California lawyer had essentially managed, much to the chagrin of bakers in the state, to block the sale of little, silver cake decorating balls in the state in a suit against candy makers and bakers. He cites health risks despite the fact that there has never been a documented case of poisoning from silver dragée consumption.

2. Bottled Fly Trauma. In , a hairstylist and his wife were awarded more than $300,000 after finding a fly in a bottle of water. Neither the man nor his wife consumed any water and, in fact, the bottle was unopened. The couple mentioned that they were “plagued by nightmares [and lost] of their sense of humour” as a result of the incident.