It is no secret that grocery stores in the US have shelves stocked with a multitude of products and consumers have the option of choosing from numerous brands, making the choice of picking the best product in question even harder. But why do American grocery stores even have over twenty different varieties of peanut butter or cereal? Is that really necessary and if so how are those different from the products available in Europe?
When comparing products that are available in both the US and Europe, it quickly becomes apparent that even though it is the same product, the ingredient labels vary drastically. Heinz Ketchup in the US for instance contains high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup and additional flavoring whereas in Europe the same bottle of ketchup is only made up of tomatoes, sugar, salt and spirit vinegar. This is not only the case with ketchup but also popular candy like M&M’s and skittles. In America, these contain a shocking amount of colors such as Yellow 5 Lake, Red 40 Lake or Titanium Dioxide. Most of these additives are banned all around Europe due to the concern of posing a potential safety risk to people with the consumption of that product such as allergic reactions or even cancer.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has been exposed to critique for a couple of reasons, one of them being that they are administering new products too quickly without carrying out enough safety checks.It appears that the health risks for the general public are not assessed adequately, especially when compared to the standards on other continents like Europe and Asia. Instead of getting rid of various chemicals, they are added to our food and the long-term effects of this are not necessarily positive.
It might seem trivial at first, but it is always worth it to take a look at your food labels and check the ingredients at first. Non-Gmo foods are known to be more expensive than those foods that are considered to be “non-gmo” as they do not include chemical fertilizers and therefore mostly contain at least 1 genetically modified organism. Again, the use of GMOs is much more regulated in the rest of the world and products that contain an organism that has undergone genetic modification must be labeled, at least in Europe. Due to the increased attention to regulatory gaps in American foods, more and more people start to look out for the “healthier”, non-GMO options and opt for grocery stores that only offer these kinds of products. Nonetheless, the consumption of these products is spread out in the American food industry and these factors are not always considered.
