Calcium Propionate lurks mostly in breads. In fact, mostly in most breads. Try and find a cheap grocery store bread without it. I dare you. Also try finding tortillas without it. I couldn’t, that’s why I made my own.
What exactly is it though, and why is it in our food?
Calcium Propionate is used to prevent mold in foods, such as breads. It can also be used as a fungicide, and even as a feed supplement in cattle rearing.
But mold prevention is good right? Well, maybe if people were buying fresh baked bread instead of the generic stuff that keeps for three weeks, or eating meat that had been fed fresh grass instead of grain that had been sitting around for months or even years it wouldn’t be needed at all.
The wiki article that I got most of this from contains one paragraph that, to be honest, freaks me out a little:
“When propanoic acid is infused directly into rodents’ brains, it produces reversible behavior (e.g. hyperactivity, dystonia, social impairment, perseveration) and brain (e.g. innate neuroinflammation, glutathione depletion) changes that may be used as a model of human autism in rats.“
Human autism eh? Hrmmmm….
Could stuff like this in our foods have a link to the current number of people with ADHD, autism and the like? I have no idea. I’m not a scientist. If it could mess with rats though, what’s to say even the little trace amounts we get in our food aren’t messing with us?
Eat Write Play 