FOOD INTOLERANCE NETWORK FACTSHEET

320 BHA and other antioxidants

Antioxidants 310-312 and 319-321, used in prevent rancidity in oils, can cause a full range of reactions from asthma to insomnia, depression, tiredness, learning difficulties and children's behaviour problems. There are safe alternatives (see below).

Antioxidants are the most hidden of all additives. There are four ways consumers can be tripped up.

* manufacturer fails to list ingredient on the product label

* ingredient is unlisted under the 5% labelling loophole

* consumer hotline gives wrong information when contacted

* staff give incorrect information regarding unlabelled food, eg takeaways

My family has been following the failsafe diet for ten years with excellent results, but over one recent three month period, my daughter's concentration and ability slowly decreased. We were appalled to find that we had been caught, yet again, by food manufacturers. This time the problem was unlisted 320 (BHA) in Devondale Dairysoft butter-oil blend, despite previous assurances from the consumer hotline that the canola oil (forming 22% of the final product) was antioxidant free. Since she was in the final year of a three year course, she was unable to catch up the damage done. The product is now correctly labelled, following strong complaints.

Antioxidants recently won the Worst Additive competition on this website.

After battling with her son's behaviour following such treats as supposedly additive-free fish and chips and icecream cones, the winner, Jenny Savige from Warragul in Victoria, wrote:

"Antioxidants are secret unless you go to extreme lengths to ask the supplier of the food and then the manufacturer of the contents … what hope have we got if such nasty additives are hidden in our foods?"

5% labelling loophole

Antioxidants do not have to be listed if vegetable oil forms less than 5% of the final product. In September 2003, Marnie Little from south of Perth suspected antioxidants in Signature Range frozen chips. She was assured by the consumer hotline that the product was free of antioxidants. While on a strict elimination diet she gave her three year old son a handful of chips fried in failsafe oil. Within an hour, her son was 'having screaming fits, teary, really temperamental - like world war three - and waking at night.' It took a week for his behaviour to return to normal. The company eventually confirmed the presence of both 320(BHA) and 319 (TBHQ) in the oil. These do not have to be listed under the 5% labelling loophole, but what are consumers to do when consumer hotlines tell us that their products are antioxidant free?

Harmful antioxidants

310 Propyl gallate

311 Octyl gallate

312 Dodecyl gallate

319 tert-Butylhydroquinone, tBHQ

320 Butylated hydroxyanisole, BHA

321 Butylated hydroxytoluene, BHT

Safe alternatives:

300 Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

301 Sodium ascorbate

302 Calcium ascorbate

303 Potassium ascorbate

304 Ascorbyl palmitate

306 Mixed tocopherols (vitamin E)

307 dl-a-Tocopherol

308 g-Tocopherol

309 d-Tocopherol

- opaque containers

Where to find harmful antioxidants

Look for these additives in cooking oils, margarines, lards and any other fats or oils. Then look for the products which contain these and you will start to understand the problem. Nearly every processed food contains some kind of fat or oil. It doesn't matter whether the ingredient label says vegetable oil, a specific oil like canola or sunflower, fats of vegetable origin, or beef tallow - unless they list some of the safe alternatives, they will probably contain one of these harmful additives. Small amounts don't affect people unless they are very sensitive, but if you eat them every day, effects will build up.

What the 5% labelling loophole says

If the amount of an ingredient in a food is less than 5% of the food (such as 4.5 per cent sunflower oil added to soymilk), a food additive (such as antioxidant TBHQ, 319) in that ingredient does not have to be included in the ingredients list on the label unless the food additive is performing a technological function in the final food. Who decides is the additive is performing a technological function? The food manufacturers. What if consumption of the unlisted food additive can affect consumers? Too bad.

Home and away

Unlike commercial oils, most but not all cooking oils for home use in Australia are antioxidant-free. New Zealanders are worse off. Virtually all vegetable oils in NZ, and products containing vegetable oils, include at least one potentially harmful antioxidant. In Christchurch, a girl avoided bread and wheat products for eight years after her mother noticed her asthma seemed to be related to sandwiches. When the girl finally undertook an elimination diet with challenges, they discovered her asthma was related to BHA (320), which is present in most breads and margarines.

Avoid fried takeaways

When you eat out, any oils used to cook your food will almost certainly contain at least one of these potentially harmful additives.

Check other products

Check the ingredients of your pantry. Look at your margarine, dairy blend, crackers, biscuits, bread, baked goods, croissants, potato crisps, snack foods, muesli bars, crushed garlic in oil, soymilk and other processed foods. Any food which contains vegetable oils may contain these antioxidants and they are not necessarily labelled. Eat these products every day and you will never know what has affected you.

I discovered this when I carried out research, published in a medical journal, using the failsafe diet for children's behaviour. In the first stage of the study, two of the children failed to improve on the diet. I noticed that both were eating large quantities of a particular biscuit. A call to the manufacturer revealed that the biscuits contained vegetable oil with unlabelled BHA. As soon as we removed these items from the diet, the children improved.

Soymilk

Failsafers were outraged when a health food company started using a sunflower oil containing TBHQ in their soymilks without any mention on the label. Many families using this soymilk gradually realised that the failsafe diet had stopped working for them. When the mother who discovered this change switched her son to another soymilk, he started doing much better. She said 'I'm so angry about manufacturers getting away with what they put in their foods'. The company has since switched to a safe antioxidant.

To avoid harmful antioxidants, you must stick to the products listed on the failsafe shopping list and read the product updates on the website. If you want to eat any unlisted products containing any fats or oils, phone the manufacturers and ask specifically about each of the gallates, TBHQ and BHA listed above - but you might still get the wrong answer. We shouldn't have to rely on word of mouth to judge the safety of food products. Public health is not protected when parents have to go to these lengths to safeguard their children.

What you can do

In a 25 year review of diet and behaviour (www.cspinet.org), scientists from the Centre for Science in the Public Interest concluded that:

"The obvious public health response would be to remove the irritants, if possible, from the foods that children eat."

The answer is clear: REFUSE TO BUY! And tell the food companies of your decision.

References

Clarke L. and others. 'The dietary management of food allergy and food intolerance in children and adults'. Australian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics 1996; 53(3):89-94.

Feingold BF. Dietary management of nystagmus. J Neural Transm. 1979;45(2):107-15.

Fisherman EW and Cohen G. Chemical intolerance to Butylated-Hydroxyanisole and Butylated-Hydroxytoluene, Annals of Allergy 1973;31:126-133.

Hanssen, M. New Additive Code Breaker, 2002, Lothian, South Melbourne, p14-15.

Juhlin L. Recurrent urticaria: clinical investigation of 330 patients. Br J Dermatol. 1981;104(4):369-81

Swain A, Soutter V, Loblay R, Truswell AS. Salicylates, oligoantigenic diets, and behaviour. Lancet. 1985;2(8445):41-2.

Witschi H and others. Metabolism and pulmonary toxicity of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Pharmacol Ther. 1989;42(1):89-113.

www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info

The information given is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with your doctor for underlying illness. Before beginning dietary investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food intolerance.

updated November 2004