From sesame seeds to ice cream. Thousands of foods contaminated with ethylene oxide are being recalled from shelves and from consumers. The alarm over the carcinogenic pesticide began in the fall of 2020 and seems never to end.
Ethylene oxide, the health risks
Ethylene oxide is a colorless flammable gas with a sweet odor. It is mainly used to produce other chemicals, including antifreeze. It is also used as a pesticide and sterilizing agent.
The ability of ethylene oxide to damage DNA in addition to making it an effective sterilizing agent suggests its dangerousness. Such gas is in fact classified as mutagenic, carcinogenic and toxic to reproduction.
Exposure to the substance (especially occupational exposure ) is associated with lymphoma, leukemia, stomach and breast cancers. (1)
Imported poisons
The use of ethylene oxide as a pesticide is banned in Europe. In contrast, it is usual in many other non-EU countries, from which we import large quantities of food.
The alert deflagrated in September 2020, when several reports appeared in the European Rapid Alert System (RASFF) of consignments of sesame from India with ethylene oxide contamination more than a thousand times higher than the maximum limit in food allowed in Europe (0.05 mg/kg, according to EC Reg. 396/05).
The tide of ethylene oxide foods.
The tightening of targeted controls on sesame seeds with Indian origin quickly decided by the European Commission has not solved the emergency. (2)
From sesame seeds, the alarm has expanded to various other products (spices, psyllium), to involve the most widely consumed seasonal food, ice cream.
Efficiency and transparency in France
In France, the government has addressed the health emergency with a sweeping inspection that has so far produced more than 7,000 recalls of contaminated food.
With unaccustomed timeliness and transparency in Italy, the website of the French Ministry of the Economy publishes a list of the large number of recalled products. (3)
Ice cream contaminated with ethylene oxide
The blacklist includes cookies, bread, ready meals and ice cream. In the latter, the pesticide is carried by two substances used as thickeners, guar gum (E412) and carob flour (E410).
The two additives are also added in many other industrial food preparations, as shown by the variety of recalled foods, which is set to grow further.
Italy-France, same risk?
Among the brands owning the recalled products in France are several that are also present in the Italian market. So far, the Ministry of Health has released few notes on the emergency, but the suspicion that the same references recalled in France are being sold in Italy is real. (4)
In the French ministerial list, in fact, brands also available on our shelves are returning. A few examples:
6-grain and organic cereal cookies from Auchan
Probios organic cereal cookies
Slices of cereal and sesame toast bread from Carrefour
Carrefour Almond and Raisin Sports Bar
Cereal organic sesame poppy seed shortbread
Auchan organic spelt and sesame cookies
Lindt caramelized sesame bar
Gomasio by Carrefour
Carrefour Mexican recipe mix
‘Italian-style’ preparations made from Metro cheese
And many ice creams, including Nestlé’s Smarties, M&M’s, Bounty, and Twix from Mars, as well as various Auchan, Carrefour, Lidl, Metro, and Bofrost brands. One wonders how it is possible that such giants are incapable of controlling serious food safety risks that have already widely emerged, for which they bear full responsibility.
Marta Strinati
Notes
(1) SEE NIH https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/ethylene-oxide
(2) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1540 of 22.10.20 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 as regards sesame seeds originating in India. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32020R1540&from=EN
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".