Why Is This In My Food: Calcium Propionate

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?

The Countdown

Well Folks,

   I am one month to the day away from embarking on this adventure, and while I am excited and maybe a little bit nervous, I am also impatient.

  When I get an idea into my head I want to jump in with both feet curled up under me and cannon ball myself into whatever might lie ahead. It’s not my fault really.. I’m an Aries.

  One month to go means 31 days to slowly purge my pantry, freezer, fridge and candy stash of everything containing ingredients which I cannot name. This means the Kraft Dinner I have stowed away for those white-trash moments, crackers, miscellaneous sauces, and the frozen pre-prepared chicken kiev that I have stashed away in the freezer.

   Here is where I meet my dilemma. I don’t want to waste these foods. I also don’t want to eat KD for 30 days straight, get myself hooked on things like “tartazine” (I just looked at the KD box and it isn’t actually all that bad.. not like my soy sauce which is “blended from soya based hydrolyzed plant protein”) and then have to jump cold turkey into my “be able to name it all” diet.  I propose a compromise. I will eat some of these foods, as part of a more balanced meal, and not all that often, for the next month. If I concentrate on the frozen/open and refrigerated stuff, I can then give the other dried and preserved stuff to the food bank. In other words, chicken kiev for me and KD, Taco seasoning, unopened butter chicken sauce, and crackers for the food bank. Hazaa!

   I am also already scheming on my “cheats”. There are a few things, that even though I cannot name the ingredients in, I refuse to give away. So far this includes mostly baking supplies (meringue powder, food colourings, baking soda and powder, and cream of tartar – which doesn’t have an ingredients list).  This is because I love to bake, because these things (the meringue powder and the Wilton gel food colourings especially) were pricey, and because I’m sure that my great grandma knew what baking powder was and that it wouldn’t kill her or mutate her great grandchildren.

   Some of you that know me may be thinking “Ha! What about the cigarettes you hypocrite”.  Now those of you that don’t know me, or at least didn’t know I smoke are standing up behind those other people and saying “Yeah!! WTF, You can’t name all the stuff in your smokes. Smoking will kill you.”

 To you people I say “All in good time people, all in good time”, and to those two other smokers sitting sheepishly in the far back corner muttering to themselves that “technically cigarettes are not food and you don’t actually eat them” I say thank you for your support, but the giant mob has it right.

   I do need to quit (and you should too… when you’re ready), but am not adding that to the January first start line. Why? Because usually my New Years resolutions don’t last very long, and when I quit I want it to stick. That sounds petty, even to me, but it’s true. Plus with this whole eating shift, I’m going to have enough new stuff on my plate (pun intended – thank you).

 I have started to slow it all down, and will continue to do so until I am ready. I have decided that to be included in the “Eat” part of my adventure, I need to stop by March 31st. There you go, you have a date, now go back inside and let me smoke in peace.

 So I guess that’s where it’s at. Happy pantry raiding to any of those who are on the same journey.