The average American consumes approximately 3-5 pounds of food additives per year. Most of them have never read the label carefully enough to know what they are eating. This is by design — ingredient lists are written in chemical nomenclature that requires a chemistry background to parse, printed in the smallest legal font, and organized to bury the concerning items behind familiar ones. The food is engineered to be eaten without thinking about it.
This post is about thinking about it. Not to create fear around eating — food should be nourishing and enjoyable — but because knowing what is in processed food and what the evidence says about it is basic information that most people are never given. The regulatory framework that governs food additives in the United States has significant gaps, and the gap between what is legal and what the research supports as safe is wide enough to matter.
HOW FOOD ADDITIVES GET APPROVED — THE GRAS PROBLEM
Food additives in the United States are regulated by the FDA under two primary pathways. Additives that require formal FDA approval go through a review process that includes safety data submission. The second pathway — and the more significant one for understanding the current regulatory landscape — is GRAS: Generally Recognized As Safe.
GRAS designation means that a substance is considered safe based on expert consensus or a history of use before 1958. The critical detail: GRAS determinations can be made by the food company itself, without FDA review or approval, and without public disclosure. A manufacturer can decide their new additive is GRAS, start using it in food, and never notify the FDA at all. A 2010 Government Accountability Office report found that the FDA cannot ensure the safety of all GRAS substances because it does not have a complete list of what is being used or the safety data behind those determinations.
This is the regulatory foundation of the U.S. food additive system. Substances banned in the European Union, Canada, and elsewhere as insufficiently tested or demonstrated to cause harm continue to be used in American food products under GRAS status or existing approvals that predate modern toxicological standards.
PRESERVATIVES WITH DOCUMENTED CONCERNS
BHA and BHT (butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene) — Synthetic antioxidants used to prevent fat oxidation in processed foods including cereals, chips, baked goods, and meat products. BHA is listed as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” by the National Toxicology Program. BHT has weaker but existing evidence for endocrine disruption and potential carcinogenicity in some animal studies. Both are banned or restricted in Japan, the European Union, and other countries. Both remain on the GRAS list in the United States and appear on ingredient labels of major brand name products sold in American grocery stores today.
Sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate — Used to preserve color and prevent bacterial growth (particularly Clostridium botulinum) in cured and processed meats — bacon, hot dogs, deli meats, cured sausages. Under certain conditions, particularly at high heat (frying bacon, grilling hot dogs), nitrites combine with amines in meat proteins to form nitrosamines — compounds classified as probable human carcinogens. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen (known to cause cancer in humans) based primarily on the nitrosamine pathway and the associated colorectal cancer risk.
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) added alongside nitrites inhibits nitrosamine formation — some manufacturers include it for this reason. “Uncured” or “no nitrates added” products typically use celery powder or celery juice as a nitrite source, which produces equivalent levels of nitrites through natural conversion. The “uncured” labeling is largely marketing — the chemistry is the same.
TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone) — Another synthetic antioxidant preservative, used in fast food frying oils, packaged crackers, microwave popcorn, and many other products. Studies have found TBHQ impairs immune function — specifically, it appears to impair the immune response to influenza infection and to COVID-19 in laboratory research. It has also shown genotoxic effects in some studies. It remains on the GRAS list in the United States. It is banned in Japan and restricted in the EU.
Carrageenan — Derived from red seaweed, used as a thickener and emulsifier in dairy products, plant milks, infant formula, deli meats, and many “natural” products. Degraded carrageenan (poligeenan) is a known inflammatory agent and carcinogen. The concern is whether food-grade carrageenan degrades to poligeenan in the acidic environment of the digestive tract. Research is contested — industry-funded studies generally find it safe, independent research has raised consistent concerns about gut inflammation. It was removed from the USDA’s approved organic ingredients list in 2018 and then reinstated in 2019 after industry pressure. People with inflammatory bowel conditions report symptom improvement when eliminating carrageenan.
ARTIFICIAL COLORS — THE ONES STILL IN THE SUPPLY
The United States currently permits nine synthetic petroleum-derived food dyes. The European Union requires a warning label on foods containing six of them — “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children” — a label requirement so commercially damaging that most manufacturers reformulated their EU products to remove the dyes entirely while continuing to use them in U.S. products. The same Skittles, the same cereals, different ingredients depending on which side of the Atlantic they are sold on.
Red 40 (Allura Red) — The most widely used food dye in the United States. Used in candy, cereals, beverages, and snack foods. Associated with hyperactivity in children in multiple studies, including a landmark 2007 Southampton University study that prompted the EU warning label requirement. Red 40 has also shown genotoxic effects in some laboratory research — damage to DNA — though this finding remains contested.
Yellow 5 (Tartrazine) and Yellow 6 (Sunset Yellow) — Both associated with hyperactivity in children. Yellow 5 is also associated with allergic reactions, particularly in people with aspirin sensitivity. Both appear in cereals, candies, beverages, and snack foods, and in medications and supplements. Yellow 5 and Red 40 are the two dyes most frequently cited in the hyperactivity research.
Red 3 (Erythrosine) — Classified as a known carcinogen (thyroid tumors in animal studies) since 1990. The FDA banned Red 3 from cosmetics in 1990 based on this evidence — and simultaneously continued to allow it in food, a regulatory inconsistency that persisted for over 30 years. The FDA finally banned Red 3 from food in January 2025, with a compliance deadline of 2027 for food manufacturers and 2028 for ingested drugs. Products containing Red 3 are still on shelves and will remain so through the compliance period.
Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3 — Less studied than the red and yellow dyes. Some animal studies have shown tumor development at high doses. Widely used in beverages, candies, and baked goods.
Children are the primary consumers of the most heavily dyed products — breakfast cereals, candy, fruit-flavored beverages, snack foods, and school lunch items. The school lunch connection is not incidental — federally subsidized school lunch programs purchase products containing the same dyes that EU manufacturers reformulated out of their products years ago.
ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS AND “NATURAL FLAVORS”
“Natural flavors” is one of the most misleading terms on a food label. Under FDA definition, a natural flavor is any flavor derived from a natural source — plant, animal, or microbial — regardless of how extensively it has been processed. Natural strawberry flavor may contain dozens of chemical compounds extracted and concentrated from strawberries through industrial processing. Natural beaver anal gland secretion (castoreum) is an FDA-approved natural flavor used in some vanilla and raspberry flavorings. Natural flavors are proprietary — manufacturers are not required to disclose the specific compounds that constitute them.
Artificial flavors are synthetic compounds, but the practical health distinction between natural and artificial flavors is less clear than the marketing implies. The more meaningful question is not natural vs. artificial but rather the overall degree of processing and the cumulative chemical load of a product.\s full ingredient list.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) — Worth addressing separately because the MSG conversation is largely based on bad science. MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, an amino acid that occurs naturally in many foods including tomatoes, mushrooms, parmesan cheese, and soy sauce. The “Chinese restaurant syndrome” attributed to MSG in a 1968 letter to the New England Journal of Medicine has never been replicated in controlled studies — double-blind challenges consistently fail to demonstrate MSG sensitivity at doses found in food. MSG is used to reduce sodium content in some applications (it provides more flavor impact per gram of sodium than salt alone). It is not the concern it was once believed to be.
WHAT TO DO WITH THIS INFORMATION
The practical application is not eliminating every additive from your diet — that is an unrealistic standard for most people and misses the point. The point is reducing cumulative exposure to the highest-concern additives while building a food foundation that does not depend on heavily processed products.
Read ingredient lists. BHA, BHT, TBHQ, sodium nitrite, carrageenan, and the synthetic dyes are easy to spot once you know the names. Buying whole foods and cooking from scratch eliminates most additives by default — not because whole foods are morally superior but because they simply do not contain these compounds. When processed food is part of your diet, knowing which additives are higher concern allows you to make informed choices about which products to prioritize replacing.
The EWG’s Food Scores database (ewg.org/foodscores) rates processed food products by ingredient concern and is a useful reference when evaluating specific products. The Environmental Working Group’s additives of concern list is a reasonable starting point for additives to actively avoid.
SUPPORTING YOUR BODY
Liver support: The liver processes synthetic food additives through phase I and phase II detoxification pathways. Milk thistle, dandelion root, and burdock root support these pathways. Turmeric with black pepper provides anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective support. Daily practice, not occasional intervention.
Gut support: Synthetic additives including some preservatives and emulsifiers disrupt the gut microbiome and compromise gut barrier integrity. Fermented foods daily for microbiome repair. Prebiotic fiber. Marshmallow root and slippery elm for gut lining support if inflammation or permeability is a concern.
For children specifically: The hyperactivity and behavioral research on food dyes is most relevant for children. A 2-4 week elimination of synthetic dyes — Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and the other petroleum-derived colors — followed by reintroduction is a practical way to assess individual sensitivity. Many parents report meaningful improvement in attention and behavior during elimination periods. The EU warning label was put in place because the evidence was considered sufficient to warrant consumer choice — give yourself and your children that same choice.
Cross-reference: Know Your Food — Ultra-Processed Food | Know Your Food — Food Dyes | Know Your Body | Herbal Remedies — Liver Support | Know Your Water
FROM THE BUNKER
Feed the Nation (With What) — Civic Hush
“This ain’t cuisine it’s chemistry / And we are the lab unwillingly.”
Civic Hush wrote the briefing this post is based on. The bright packaging, the dyes still in school lunch meat, the poisons banned in France sitting fine on American shelves. Every line of this song is a line in an ingredient list.
Listen →
FROM THE WASTELAND
Leaf Juice — Wasteland Survival Series, Book 1
The liver and gut support herbs in this post — milk thistle, dandelion, burdock, marshmallow root — have full preparation protocols in Leaf Juice as teas, tinctures, and tonics.
Paperback | Kindle