WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- A group of health organizations filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday calling on the agency to ban eight artificial flavorings found to be carcinogenic in lab animals.
The petition, led by the National Resources Defense Council, said studies by the National Institutes of Health's National Toxicology Program and other scientific agencies found the eight food additives can cause cancer in animals. It's unclear if they pose risks to humans because the potentially harmful chemicals aren't clearly labeled on food items, the NRDC said.
"Consumers are vulnerable, the government isn't doing its job, and the food industry is calling the shots," Erik Olson, director of the Health Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a news release. "The FDA should be doing much more to ensure our food is safe, and that should start with obeying the law by banning these synthetic flavorings known to cause cancer in animals, rather than just continuing to let the food industry have its way."
The synthetic flavorings include benzophenone or diphenylketone; ethyl acrylate; eugenyl methyl ether (also known as 4-allylveratrole or methyl eugenol); myrcene (also known as 7-methyl-3-methylene-1,6-octadiene); pulegone (also known as p-menth-4(8)-en-3-one); pyridine; styrene; and trans,trans-2,4-hexadienal.
These chemicals can be found in foods like baked goods, ice cream, beverages, candy, chewing gum, jelly, pudding, gelatin, condiments and pickles.
The petition was also signed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Center for Food Safety, Consumers Union, Improving Kids' Environment, the Center for Environmental Health, the Environmental Working Group, and Dr. James Huff, the former associate director for chemical carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The groups seek to have the FDA revoke its 1964 approval of seven of the flavors and overturn its 1974 approval of the eighth chemical as "generally recognized as safe." The petitioners also want the FDA to ban the use of the eight synthetic flavors from use in food.
