When Kellogg Co. pulled about 28 million cereal boxes from store shelves last month, the company said only that an "off-flavor and smell" coming from the packaging could cause nausea and diarrhea. But the culprit behind the recall is a class of chemicals now making news in the Gulf of Mexico: hydrocarbons, a byproduct of oil. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported yesterday that the hydrocarbon methylnaphthalene, which the government has yet to evaluate for human carcinogenicity, was behind the recall. For EWG and other public-health advocacy groups, the appearance of a chemical missing consistent risk data in popular products such as Apple Jacks strengthens the case for food safety reform -- an issue that remains stalled in the Senate.
"There are potentially many thousands of chemicals that could leach out of these materials into our food," said Jane Houlihan, EWG's vice president for research. "In this case, methylnaphthalene and other hydrocarbons are what Kellogg's is saying publicly about what ended up in their cereal. They need to be more forthcoming about what exactly they found." A food-safety bill passed by the House one year ago this month gives the Food and Drug Administration power to order mandatory recalls, rather than voluntary efforts such as the one initiated with Kellogg. But that legislation sits in limbo in the upper chamber as industry groups chafe at Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) bid to ban another chemical with an unclear safety history, bisphenol A, from food containers.
Sarah Klein, an attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the mandatory recall provisions in the pending food-safety measure would provide greater consumer protections in the case of packaging hazards such as the Kellogg case. But, she added, "in this particular instance, it's clear that FDA needs to take a closer look at the packaging of consumer products and this chemical that's been identified as a problem."
Kellogg consulted independent toxicologists and chemists before pinpointing "elevated levels of hydrocarbons, including methylnaphthalene," as the source of the smell and flavor defects in the cereal, company spokesman J. Adaire Putnam said via e-mail. The paraffin wax at issue in the June 25 recall is FDA approved and "commonly used as a protective coating for foods including cheese, raw fruits and vegetables," he added. "We have verified that the elevated levels of hydrocarbons are not present at harmful levels. We are working with our supplier to ensure that this situation does not happen again." Putnam declined to name the other hydrocarbons found in the cereal boxes and to state whether the company would back EWG's call for increased FDA testing of food packaging.
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http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/07/13/13greenwire-hydrocarbons-in-cereal-stoke-new-debate-over-f-30342.html