These toxins in our food almost certainly shouldn’t be there | Hacker News Reader

These toxins in our food almost certainly shouldn’t be there

bbc.com

46 pointsblacktulip13 comments

Also the word "toxin" in the title shouldn't be there.

From Wikipedia: A toxin (from Ancient Greek: τοξικόν toxikon) is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms;[1][2] synthetic toxicants created by artificial processes are thus excluded.

In other words a toxin is a poison (not a generically harmful substance) produced by living organisms for attack or defense.

Food fraud is going to emerge is a major issue in the near future. As this issue gets exposed to the light, the size and illegal revenues generated will stagger the public. It makes the drug trade look like amateurs.

The lack of transparency in food labeling, such as origin, facility processed, ingredients, will be looked at with horror in future

http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/hooching-with.2831420...

New phrase learned

If these levels were found in EU, scared to know what a US analysis would find.

Organic is meaningful in context of info like this.

Weird headline. I guess it's click bait, but the way it's phrased makes it sound like there are some toxins (unlike "these" toxins) that SHOULD be in our food.

Also they're not quite sure about it, but almost!

Many chemicals that we regard as toxic actually occur naturally in foods we live.

Formaldehyde in most living things, cyanide in apples, etc.

Some substances should not be in our food at all, such as mercury. Other substances shouldn't be in our food above certain quantities, such as formaldehyde.

So yes, there are some "toxins" that should be in our food assuming what we are eating isn't synthesised from scratch.

The article is mostly about food fraud. The only references to "toxins" are arsenic in rice and formaldehyde used as a preservative in milk (which apparently is a problem in Brazil).

There are toxins everywhere, even in nature. It's not a problem that they are there.. only if they are high enough to warrant a correction.

Apples have naturally occurring cyanide for example

This title should be changed to a less "click bait" one.

Generic "poison in food" article. What else is new?

It's not, though? Range of new analysis discussed and the scientist wrote a report on the horsemeat scandal (was found in range of minced beef products) - huge uk news story at the time.

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