Dirty Little Secret in Natural Soyfoods Industry - Toxic Chemical Use - Organics Offers Alternative

The dirty little secret of the "natural" soy foods industry: A neurotoxic chemical solvent is commonly used to process soyfoods -- The Cornucopia Institute explains how consumers can avoid hexane-extracted foods in the grocery store. View the report in online buyers guide: www.cornucopia.org




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[ChrizstianC]

Sorry to keep posting but is hexane and n-hexane the same product? A cousin, perhaps? I know N-hexane was used by Apple Inc to clean the screens of the iphone prior to packaging and made many workers sick. Some actually ended up in hospital for periods of 6 months. Certainly not something you'd want to ingest.

[CornucopiaInstitute]

@ChrizstianC Yes, the hexane solution used by food processors to make products like canola oil and soy protein isolate contains n-hexane, sometimes as much as 60%. It is a neurotoxin, which is why workers who are exposed to it can become very ill. It is also highly explosive, and a hazardous air pollutant.

[RedPirateLord]

It's difficult to view a source of information as credible when that source blatantly pushes specific brands.

[CornucopiaInstitute]

@RedPirateLord We view our independent and objective critique of all brands to be a major part of our mission. Our goal is to empower consumers and wholesale buyers so they can make good marketplace decisions. Without naming brand names this would be impossible.

We will continue to differentiate between the true heroes in the organic foods industry and the corporate agribusinesses that, through their flowery public relations rhetoric, betray consumers trust.

Mark A. Kastel, Codirector

[winitred000]

Wait a minute.........I trusted Amy's..........I can understand Trader Joe's but AMY'S??? Wasn't Amy's always organic........they don't have any non-organic products? Why would they have ever used hexane in their food products? Never mind changing the formula, why would they do it to begin with? I knew I should avoid hexane in supplements but not in SOYBEANS.........I always by hexane-free evening primrose oil, but I didn't know I had to worry about it in my food.

[CornucopiaInstitute]

@winitred000 Even people intimately involved in the industry, like Amy's, were not always aware of the manufacturing process that went into some of the ingredients they were buying. The suppliers of soy protein ingredients do not typically disclose the toxic chemicals they use to process these ingredients, and represented them as "natural" to their customers, like Amy's.

[Jodo4]

@BrainOrgy Do a google search "hexane msds". MSDS stands for Materials Safety Data Sheet. Chemists like myself use these sheets to read up on the properties of chemicals we use. MSDS sheets exist for most chemicals used on a daily basis. They are present as pdfs all over the internet. Toxicity information is present on all MSDS sheets. For humans and other animals as well sometimes.

[BrainOrgy]

where's the proof that this stuff is bad for you

[lamiagata]

wow!!! Thanks

[ChrizstianC]

Also remember: the more our food becomes genetically modified the more pesticides we're consuming. These pesticides cannot be washed off the food you're eating - they remain in the gut. Over 70% of the foods eaten in America contain some form of GM ingredient. Here in Australia we're fighting the introduction of GM wheat. See: Institute of Responcible Technology webs for info on how to avoid GMOs in a US diet and, Vandana Shiva for amazing talks about saving the Third World from seed theft.

[ChrizstianC]

My father has always refused to eat meat, even when he was a very small child. Back then, in the '60s , there was no alternative protein; soy didn't exist in Australia. Much later, he was told by his trusted Chinese-born medical expert to avoid soy unless he could get it fresh-made from a few select places around Sydney.

True soy - the stuff of Western marketing Promise, Myth & Legend - goes 'off' within 72 hours. Any soy that comes in a box, wrapper, carton is billion dollar marketer$ dream.

[hellokittyfruitsnack]

I appreciate them showing the brands!!!!! It helps me choose the poison ones from the non poison! Now that they showed which ones don't have it like amys etc I don't have to stand ther forever studying the back of labels! Also why is it so bad that they show them when they are pro health, not deceitful! I dont get y everyone's so up in arms about them pushing great organic foods!

[haydenman2]

forget about hexane, soy itself is toxic, if you want organic food grow it at home its the only way to be sure of what you are eating

[RedPirateLord]

@CornucopiaInstitute

I think it's entirely possibly to advocate eating organic foods without mentioning brands. This is a little-known secret, but one needn't rely on processed foods for nourishment. There are entire sections of grocery stores set aside to display raw produce and a careful explorer might even happen upon organic produce.