December 22, 2007
By Andrew Schneider/Seattle P-I
America’s favorite breakfast is bacon and eggs — and often it is cooked in a product that contains the same chemical that has damaged and destroyed the lungs of hundreds of popcorn and food-flavoring plant workers.
A study commissioned by the Seattle P-I newspaper shows that top-selling butter substitutes, when heated, release vapor from a chemical additive called diacetyl. When inhaled, this vapor has been linked to a rare, sometimes fatal respiratory disease called bronchiolitis obliterans. Read the rest of this entry »
The nation’s four biggest makers of microwave popcorn have agreed to remove a flavoring chemical, diacetyl, from nearly all their products.
ConAgra Foods Inc. of Omaha; General Mills Inc. of Golden Valley, Minn.; and the American Pop Corn Co. of Sioux City, Iowa, all promised to change their microwave popcorn recipes. Those three companies sell Orville Redenbacher, Act II, Pop Secret, and Jolly Time microwave popcorn.
Diacetyl has been linked to cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare life-threatening disease often called popcorn lung. The FDA has approved its use as a flavor ingredient. Read the rest of this entry »