scans from @kagomehigurashi !
israel apologists on here just regurgitating genocidal propaganda uncritically and running around like they’re the victim while thousands of palestinians are dead, disabled, starving, rotting under rubble, dealing with communicable illnesses under extremely dire and overcrowded conditions and grieving the loss of entire family lines….i hope u get dragged on all ur tumblr posts from now to the end of time. i hope u choke on the keyboard frankly.
Y'all...
FINALLY SOME REAL APPALACHIAN REPRESENTATIIN IM HOLLERING
my mom saw this pic and was like thats popcorn sutton on the right i know him.
dont fucking snitch bro delete this
love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking
you know how all those applesauce packets were recalled for lead?
well. it turns out the cinnamon used in them may have been laced with lead on purpose.
fun times in the united states food industry right now am I right folks
In case you’re a buffoon (like me) and thought someone was out here meticulously hand-poisoning applesauce:
An FDA spokesperson said that one of the agency’s theories for the WanaBana cinnamon applesauce contamination was “economically motivated adulteration.” (…)
Economically motivated adulteration, or “food fraud,” can occur when a cheaper ingredient is added to a product to enhance it or bulk it up, but is not disclosed, according to the FDA. One example, the agency said, is when lead-based dyes are added to spices to give the product a certain color.
We love cutting corners to maximize profit at the expense of our consumers
hand-poisoning applesauce would be too tedious. these applesauces were poisoned in bulk for maximum efficiency
Turmeric is also frequently affected by this. A lead compound with a bright yellow color can be used.
I'm not gonna dox myself by saying precisely what I do for a living, but I am involved in public environmental health, and in the past have conducted home investigations in child lead poisoning cases. For years, foreign spices have been a problem, particularly for immigrant families who visit relatives overseas and bring spices back from south asia in particular.
During and immediately after covid, however, we started finding domestically sold spices coming back from lab testing with high lead results. Sam's club, wal-mart, etc. We used to tell families to buy domestically instead of bringing things back from India, Pakistan, etc, but even that isn't safe anymore.
You might - might - be safer with higher end organic products but I really just don't trust anything anymore. This isn't a new issue, but it's definitely becoming more widespread.
is there a reliable way to test spices for lead at home?
if the spice you're using is water-soluble, you can mix it with water and then use a water testing kit. they sell water-testing kits at the hardware store; ones that you send off to a lab are more reliable (but also more expensive).
you can also buy lead-testing swabs on the Internet. some of these are not reliable, so I'd recommend testing the lead-testing swabs. use a swab on something that you know is lead (a fishing sinker, a car battery, etc) and another swab on something that you know is lead-free (most things in your home, hopefully) and make sure you get the expected results.
note that lead-testing kits are not food-safe, so you should not just put pipettes / test swabs / etc into your spice jar. spoon out a small amount (onto a plate or whatever), test that small amount, and then throw that small amount away. (and then wash the plate.)
gonna add this consumer reports investigation from a couple of years back that made the rounds. they looked into a bunch of american spice brands and found that this is a huge problem across brands, regardless of whether or not it's organic (exact quote: "CR’s tests could not determine whether one brand was consistently better or worse than any other. And organic products did not have consistently lower levels than conventionally grown ones").
summary of the results, which tested for things like lead, arsenic, and cadmium beyond safe limits:
- there was no safe oregano or thyme among their tests
- for basil and ginger, only one brand was found to be safe in each
- for paprika and cumin, half of the products were unsafe
- a few of the spices they tested were considered "high concern" as in, their highest level of danger on this scale
- consumer reports recommends growing your own herbs when possible because herbs and spices can be so dangerous to buy
fun!
