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Health Watchdog To Bring Legal Action Against Soylent Over Lead, Cadmium Levels
An anonymous reader writes: We've previously discussed Soylent, the self-proclaimed "meal replacement." The product has not been without controversy, and now it's likely to see some more: As You Sow, a non-profit foundation dedicated to corporate responsibility, plans to bring legal action against Soylent for failing to provide sufficient warning about the amount of lead and cadmium in it. They allege that a serving of Soylent contains 12 to 25 times the concentration of lead at which point consumers in the state of California must be warned. The concentration of cadmium, they say, is four times the current maximum. Soylent has acknowledged the results of heavy metal tests but says the levels present in Soylent are not toxic. As You Sow maintains that Soylent's marketing focus on replacing food suggests chronic exposure, which is more of an issue than an occasional indulgence.
| "Nobody expects heavy metals in their meals," said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow.
As a chemist, I can tell you that heavy metals are everywhere. If you don't expect that in your food, you are not good at chemistry. It is the concentration that matters. Even table salt at too high concentration is toxic. I don't care much about the California's safety standard. As long as the heavy metal concentrations are lower than our local standard, I am fine with it.
There was an article about the founder's cockamamie personal habits, such as ordering new clothes from China constantly (and never washing anything) as well as other eccentric behavior.
Lead poisoning might explain it.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Soylent Green is made of heavy metals, not people. Though admittedly the latter made for a better movie.
Why not eat dog kibble? I mean that is what this stuff is, "human" dog kibble.
Good luck on your bringing your date over to your flat for dinner as well. Especially when she asks you what is for dinner and you bust out your soylent. That is when your date laughs at you, goes across the road to the bar and finds a man that you know, can actually cook a meal.
There is no reason to eat this garbage, learn how to prepare a meal for yourself. I know your mother never let you near the stove until you were 25 or something, but now is the time to learn how to use a kitchen knife as well as vi and stop over processed poisons.
but they set exposure limits for a reason.
These are based on "exposure limits" set by the state of California. California requires warnings about metal concentrations on virutally ALL FOOD, making these warnings stupid and useless. Read the related links and you will learn something.
Only because those people ate soylent. Which was made from other people who ate soylent. Yup, it's soylent all the way down.
It seems to be a lot from the spreadsheet so I wonder how it gets in. What ingredient has all that cadmium?
People?
Silence is a state of mime.
California requires warnings about metal concentrations on virutally ALL FOOD
Good. I don't see why that makes the warning useless; the effects are cumulative and people need constant reminders that they are being exposed. It keeps manufacturers and third party groups on the ball for monitoring levels to catch cases where exposure is unreasonably high.
=Smidge=
People do not respond to constant reminders - they blank them out as irrelevant background noise. As such they are then more useless than appropriate warnings. As an example: there are no foods in the UK that are not labeled "may contain traces of nuts".
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No, it doesn't. There are two requirements for labeling. Individual food items that require labels have to have them, and anyone shopping can see that only a tiny fraction of the items are labeled. There's also a requirement that the entrance to the store have a label if any food item requires one. Since most food stores carry at least one item that requires a warning, almost all stores require one. That might make you think that all food requires labeling, but that impression is incorrect.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
I never knew people were made of lead and cadmium.
People are really high on the food chain. Similar to swordfish and sharks, humans tend to accumulate high concentrations of heavy metals.
The FDA recommends that pregnant women avoid eating people at all, and most others should limit themselves to one or two servings per week.
People are really high on the food chain. Similar to swordfish and sharks, humans tend to accumulate high concentrations of heavy metals.
No wonder people are so dense most of the time.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
"Soy Milk" is just milk saying its name in Spanish.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
True, we are apex predators, and thus apex toxin accumulators.
But heavy metals and other accumulative toxins are not the reason that pregnant women -- or anyone, for that matter -- should not eat people. I haven't run the numbers, but I'm pretty sure that you won't ingest that much cadmium and whatever, even if human flesh is your primary food source.
The real peril is Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy -- "Mad Human Disease" -- which begins with a single strand of broken protein.
Also, social-evolutionary pressures tend to work against cannibalism, in the long run. Maybe. I hope.
-kgj