Free Republic

For several years anti-abortion advocates have been warning that a new technology for enhancing flavors such as sweetness and saltiness uses aborted fetal cells in the process. The biotech company using this novel process, Senomyx, has signed contracts with Pepsi, Ajinomoto Co. (the maker of aspartame and meat glue), Nestlé and other food and beverage companies over the past several years. The primary goal for many of these processed food companies is to make foods and beverages tasty while reducing sugar and salt content. While Senomyx refuses to disclose the details of the process, its patent applications indicate that part...

Phosphates in food are an all too common occurrence these days. Phosphates, usually labelled under the generic term sodium phosphate, are added to food for a variety of reasons. Phosphates in food are used as texturizers to change the look or feel of a food and to increase the shelf life of a food. Phosphates are also used as an emulsifier to mix two foods together that would otherwise not mix. For example, a food product with added oil may contain an emulsifier to stop the oil from separating from the main food. Phosphates in foods are sometimes used as...

A U.S. consumer group called for an urgent Food and Drug Administration review of the safety of aspartame on Monday, but the FDA said there was no immediate need to do so despite a new study showing the sweetener may cause cancer.  Italian researchers published a new study last week that showed aspartame -- widely used in soft drinks -- might cause leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats.   "This is the second study by the same lab showing that aspartame causes cancer in rats," Center for Science in the Public Interest executive director Michael Jacobson said in a telephone...