lahoo.ca In order to make snacks more visually attractive and sell better, merchants have put a lot of thought into their "shape" design. Among them, many chocolate candy snacks in Canadian supermarkets are added with titanium dioxide to make their colors look brighter.
As parents may already know, titanium dioxide is a controversial ingredient that has been banned from food manufacturing in Europe, but in Canada, there is no such rule.
Hershey brand chocolate contains titanium dioxide (screenshot from: X February 16, 2024)
CBC Marketplace recently ordered snacks such as M&Ms chocolate and Nerds rainbow gummies, which are also available in Canada, from Europe to compare the additives.
Screenshot from: X February 16, 2024
In May 2021, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) banned titanium dioxide after a review that it could not be ruled out as causing DNA or chromosomal damage to humans.
Camilla Smeraldi, head of the Food Additives and Flavorings Group at the European Food Safety Authority, said in an interview, "We have come to the conclusion that the possibility of titanium dioxide destroying DNA and genetic material in human cells cannot be completely ruled out. This is not a substance that we should add to food. ”
This time, the snacks investigated by the CBC included M&M chocolate, Nerds rainbow gummies, Skittles sour and sour candy and Nerds fruit flavoured soft candy that are commonly purchased by the Chinese, and found that titanium dioxide was not present in the version ordered from Europe, but the additive was present in the Canadian version of the snack.
图自：David MacIntosh/David Abrahams/CBC
Health Canada released a study on titanium dioxide in June 2022, stating that there is no conclusive scientific evidence that this food additive has an effect on human health.
At the time, there was already an initiative by the Consumer Health Watchdog that food manufacturers should take the initiative to differentiate between snack versions and offer consumers a tiO-free taste.
Thomas Galligan, a scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, who studies food additives, recently pointed out that "there is no need for food companies to wait for regulations," and that they should take the initiative to offer a titanium-free version. Canadian consumers should be protected in the same way as European consumers.
In response to this situation, Mars Wrigley, which produces Skittles and M&M's chocolate chips, said only that all of its products are "safe and that the production process meets the strict quality and safety requirements set by food safety regulators", and that there seems to be no intention of changing the version.
So as a savvy consumer, if you want to enjoy food and eat relatively healthy at the same time, you may have to train a pair of sharp eyes.
At a time when rare childhood diseases are no longer rare, it is not good to let children put any snacks in their mouths.
It is worth noting that titanium dioxide, also known as titanium dioxide, is usually codenamed "E171" in the ingredient list. It itself is a colorant used for white, opaque, or to create a cloudy effect. There are currently not enough data to determine what a safe daily intake is per person.
But what is certain is that this "hidden killer" has been widely noticed by scientists. When you buy food in the supermarket, you may wish to pay more attention to the titanium dioxide content on the nutrition list.
One in every 25 newborns! BC Children's Hospital discovers new rare disease
There may be more rare diseases in children than we think. Children's Hospital BC estimates that one in every 25 newborns in BC has a rare disease, and about 5 in 10 of them are untreatable. According to existing data, there are about 7,000 known rare diseases, and dozens of new diseases are added every year.
Pictured: Global News February 14, 2024
After years of genetic testing, a team of doctors in B.C. has discovered a new rare disease, Gain-of-function MARK4, in a pair of teenage brothers. The disease can severely affect children's neurodevelopment.
According to the team's findings, published last month in the journal Human Genetics and Genomic Advances, gain-of-function MARK4 is associated with "developmental delay, intellectual disability, behavioral abnormalities and malformed features."
"Gain-of-function MARK4" is an overactive variant of MARK4 (a kinase that has been shown to be involved in the microtubule organization of neuronal cells) that causes children to speak slowly and not grow as healthy as their peers. One of the brothers suffered from epilepsy.
About two years ago, the Precision Health Initiative at BC Children's Hospital, which has been working to identify diseases that specialists are currently unable to diagnose, took over the case.
Dr. Stuart Turvey, head of the precision medicine program, said, "Symptoms that affect neurodevelopmental changes in children are not uncommon, so I expect that there will definitely be more children with this condition." Children with rare diseases inevitably experience being "isolated", especially when the disease is not diagnosed, and it is difficult for patients to find a group to belong to.
And the goal of the "precision medicine program" is to solve another 25 percent of the problems, "increasing the diagnosis rate from 50 percent to 75 percent." ”