Long term risks and future outlook

This message comes from inssperity. provroiding HR services and technology from payroll, benefits, and HR compliance to talent development. Learn more at inssperity d. com slash HR matters. This is Planet Money from NPR there's one way that Carool Reedady has always thought of herself. It's Exuberant. Exuberant, exuberant. Yes. Even on my tired days, I'm exuberant Some people might call her Annoying word, Girl, they can't handle all this sometimes. But Carol doesn't mind. If it's not for you just walk along, it's fine. Recently though, Carol and her friends have been describing her in a different way, basasically an orchid id. justust like Really Fragile You know, veryy sensitive and very delicate Like in all senses of the word She wasn't always this way. Before that, Sarah. killing it I would go and do my research in Morocco. I was running around doing everything, eating everything, literally Carool is a linguistics professor at Oklahoma State University, originally from Nebraska. And when she moved to Oklahoma about when things changed for her. She had just made this new friend, Lisa, and they decided to do a little trip together. We went to this little Airbnb and onn a pecan farm, she just wanted to hang out with me. That was our first like one on one, you know, like we're friends. Let's do a one on one trip together. And it was so lovely on the Pcan farm. We just literally just sat among the trees and read books. We're not going back there though ever again the trip started out pretty normal. They ate a simple breakfast. Carol made them both this lentil thing and scrambled eggs. They went into town, got ice cream cones and then went back to their Airbnb. I start getting pain first and then she starts getting a little bit. And so what we do is we put our legs up against the wall and we start like watching a movie or something. I can't remember what we were watching to be honest Carol was out of it. and she's like, Lisa. can't actually do this. I can't I can't do it. this pain is too much. And she's like, yeah, I know. I think we should just go home. And I was like, yeah, let's just go home. Lisa wasn't too bad, but Carol was writhing in pain Aonizing. Yeahah, I was sort of like Carol eventually goes to the ER, but they don't know what's going on. They send her home and tell her to just take it easy, avoid certain foods. so she does Four or five days later, the pain finally starts going away and Carol starts intntroducing normal foods again. simimple stuff toast, lentils And then that same feeling that she felt on the Pcan farm comes back. She recognized it immediately And I knew it was going get worse. and I said, okay, I gott to go. this is it. It's happening again. I don't know what's going on. She was back to the R, but this time Capainne was way, way worse. I felt like I was dying. literally felt like I was dying Um, they gave me very strong pain medicine, and even then I could still feel the pain brring her pain down at all for two days, even with fentanyl Of course, everyone asked all the standard stuff, like what Carol ate, they did blood tests, CT scans. They couldn't find anything Something in her liver was off, but they didn't know why Carol didn't know it yet At the same time, people all over the U S were also showing up in emergency rooms with extreme pain like carol. and what looked like acute liver failure Nobody knew what was causing it for days including Carll'sctor. The doctor comes in again with no information and She's like, I don't know what, I don't know. We're not, you know, we're going to keep giving you pain meds. And I said, listen Carol's dad was her high school biology teacher She kept describing her symptoms to him and he was like, I think you need to ask for this gallbladder function test. My dad's not a medical doctor. He's a farmer in Nebraska that, you know, went back to school to be a biolog to teacher But she is so glad she listened to her dad and demanded this test from her doctor 'causeuse he came in and I said, you need to sit down, I need to tell you this. I need you to do this a test here. And he said, O, well, we got to keep you in the hospital another day. And I said, okay, I don't care as long as you're doing this test And I was so relieved. I was like goodness, like he's listening to me. this is like the third or fourth day problem was her gallbladder gallbladders, like store and release bile that help you digest food, but her bile was building up causing pain. He said, okay, well You're going to probably have to get your gallbder removed and That was that. Like he said that. there was no option, there was no medication, there was nothing fixing it I didn't want I didn't want my gallbder removed Sarah. Like I didn't want it because at that point I still didn't know what caused the issue So the surgery could very well have not solved the issue in my mind, right? She scheduled her surgery And then her friend Lisa, who she went to the bcon farm with saw something online So right before the gall blladder surgery, like the day before, my friend Lisa, because she's a master sleuth was on Reddit And she u Ses. They were like, hey, anybody have to have their gld blter removed after they ate this like daily harvest thing? Okay, this daily harvest thing Daily Harvest is the company that made that lentil thing that she and Lisa both ate at the pecan farm, and that Carol ate again a few days later. It was supposed to mimic like ground beef or tofu, but it was lentils. It was a lentil and leek crumble. And apparently, a bunch of people who had eaten this lentil and leeak thing were landing in hospitals. super sick And Lisa's like texting me frantically, calling me, like Carol, oh my gosh, is is what happens to you. Carol calls up her primary care doctor to let her know what they've discovered. And she's like, unfortunately, I don't think that changes anything This like did enough damage that The only solution would have been taking out the gd butter. L it's permanently damaged. Oh that was permanently damaged from the lentil and leek. Yes crumble. Yes, Wow. As far as they knew it was That's crazy that like one food product permanently damaged An organ. Youre telling me. and This was not a case of like a bad batch of lentils or anything like that There was something sprinkled into the lentils, a brand new food additive or chemical that had never before been used in food in the U.S. It was being marketed as a brand new super food, super high in protein from a plant. It was called Tera flower made from the seed of a terah tree It's just It was never properly tested for safety The U.S Wooden Drug Administration didn't even know this new additive had made its way into the U. S. food supply. It was only after hundreds of people got sick, liver dysfunction, liver failure, gastrointestinal injuries that the FDA even became aware of this new secret food ingredient forty two people had to go under the knife have their gallbaders removed And this mass poisoning, it bankrupted the company and all the other companies involved Just kidd That did not happen Everything that happened here was the system working exactly as it's been designed Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Sarah Gonzalez. In the US, we typically put new ingredients, new chemicals on store shelves first and then take them off if people get sick or die. It's kind of the opposite of what is known as the precautionary principle where the government verifies everything is tested for safety before it's sold to humans to eat. Today on the show, the secret door that food and chemical makers in the US get to sneak their ingredients through how the FDA has weakened its own food safety regulations and probably the best example of a perverse incentive to keep chemicals secret This message comes from insspperity, provroiding HR services and technology from payroll, benefits and HR compliance to talent development. Learn more at insspperity d. com slash HR matters This message comes from Whole Foods Market Save on seasonal favorites at Whole Foods Market. Start in the vibrant produce department, stocked with organic fruits and veggies, then head to prepared foods for easy grab and go lunches and dinners. There are so many ways to save. Those yellow salle signs are just about everywhere Plus, Prime members can find extra in store deals every Tuesday and Friday, and the low priced three hundred and sixty five by Whole Foods Market brand never sacrifices on quality Save today and everyday at Whole Foods Market This message comes from Dell Iell PC's with Intel inside are built for the moments that matter, like a big project that can't be interrupted by an update. With a long lasting battery life, you can stay focused on what matters, buuilt for you Dell d. com slash deell PCs. This message comes from American Home Shield It's not a matter of if an appliance or system, like your HVac will break, but when? Without a home warranty, these repairs or replacements can cost thousands. But with an AHS home warranty, they will fix covered breakdowns, helping protect your wallet twenty percent off all plans at ahs dot com slash npR and see promo details. See ahs dot com slash contracts for coverage details, including service fees, limitations and exclusions So this lentil and leak crumble mass poisoning, again, was not a case of a contaminated batch of lentils or something like that. It was that a brand new substance never before used in the U S was added to the lentils. And that additive turned out to be Not okay for some humans Now a food additive is a pretty broad term. It includes like preservatives, emulsifiers, dough softeners, leavening agents, flavoring agents, all of that, but also food packaging ingredients too. L like the coating on the inside of a disposable coffee cup that may migrate into the food. That's an additive. In its broadest sense, it can be common things Sugar Flower What doesn't have additives like whole fruits and vegetables? I think the whole food itself would be considered an additive What do you mean? Like a banana is an additive If it's being added to another food, yeah. Oh, but if it's just a whole it's just in its whole form, then I think it's just a banana. This is Melanie Benish. She's an attorney at the Environmental Working Group who focuses on the regulations around food and all of the additives and chemicals in our food that the FDA is likely unaware of. So additive isn't necessarily a bad word or a bad thing. Like we have good additives. Yeah. So how do we know which ones are the bad ones Well Yeah, won'llt get there. Okay understand how we even got to this place where a brand new ingredient, brand new substance, including one of the bad ones, can be added to food without rigorous safety checks We got to go back to the origins of the FDA in nineteen oh six. There was growing concern about specifically meat being processed in filthy plants. and for the first time, the US put some real rules on food and drugs. Granted, in the beginning, the government was It's pretty easy on companies. If you are introducing a food or drug that has like heroin, cocaine, alcohol in it, you have to disclose those things. Why did you sell heroin right now? Because there was no regulation. so people were just putting whatever in foods. This applied to food and drugs, but I mean, Coca Cola, famously ink okay. What was I thinking? Yeah And listen the FDA did not bann these crazy ingredients in nineteen oh six, they just said, disclose them. That was their big thing. Over time, the FDA's big thing became making sure that consumers were not. robbed of their hard earned cash by companies who were adulterating food, you know, like adding sodas to flour to make the flour stretch The government didn't start taking chemicals and additives really seriously until World War two. You have a lot of men going off to war, women going into the workforce, having less time to cook things from scratch. And the market identifies this need for shelf stable convenience foods This is when we see a ton of innovation in the food chemical space. And Melanie says, It's not really a problem for anyone. Until nineteen fifty Halloween I feel like we have this mythology around, you Halloween candy being bad or poisoned and it's very much an urban legend. Except in nineteen fifty it really happened. A couple of candy manufacturers that year decided that they were going make these candies really, really, really orange They used a lot of this orange dye Number one. This orange dye was already being used in cakes and cookies and meat Products like hot dogs, we're just gonna move right past that gross description. This orange dye was a byproduct of coal of processing coal. These dyes turned out to be really toxic. Who would have thought. And the FDA just hadn't really looked at it. It was a mass poisoning event. A bunch of kids got severe diarrhea, developed welts and rashes, and the FDA and Congress realized They have no idea what chemicals are in our food or whether they're safe. They decide to study this orange dye on rats and A few rs die N not like Died, died, like die and this is not good if Rrat die during a food safety study that is like a huge red flag. In nineteen fifty eight, Congress passes the Food additives ammendment and that created One door One path for getting a new additive on store shelves Now, chemical manufacturers and food companies have to do studies to prove that their chemical or additive is safe before they are used in food. This is the current law of the land, okay? This is a great law. It is a good system It is a very high safety standard. But there was a problem. The law is written in such a way that approving a food additive is comparable to writing a new regulation. which is a lot of work for the agency It was taking the FDA a long time to approve every brand new ingredient. Was it like months, a year Oh years. Oh years. Yeah, that's that's red tape. that feels annoying The long review process was likely hindering innovation. There was so much bureaucracy, and new foods just weren't making it on store shelves fast enough Comanies start getting frustrated by how long it's taking So companies started thinking, is there another way Melanie is stroking her imaginary beard when she says this, okay? Because this is when companies realize there is something written into the law. that can maybe help them built into this Great law with only one door is a loophole. a second door, if you will, for things that are generally recognized as safe, GRAS or grass, as it has come to be known Grass exemption says you can actually bypass the whole long FDA review process and the safety testing verification stuff if your ingredient was commonly used in food prior to nineteen fifty eight or is generally recognized as safe The idea was that the FDA shouldn't get bogged down reviewing things like, you know, sugar, flour, a whole banana. This is exactly why the Gass exemption was created in the first place because Why would the FDA spend a lot of time reviewing the safety of a banana before saying you can make a banana muffin and sell it to consumers But Melanie says, compompanies started really using or maybe even exploiting this grass exemption because The rule is just that your new ingredient or new chemical needs to be generally recognized as safe through scientific procedure which is like tricky language. It has been interpreted prettyty loosely, okay? The FDA, more and more companies, they took it to mean that your own in house scientists at your own chemical plant can self certify that your brand new never before used chemical or additive is safe. And then you're just like Notify the FDA. The FDA can look at that and say, how much of this are you using? This chemical looks kind of similar to this other chemical that we know is a carcinogen. Is your chemical also a carcinogen? Does this chemical reduce sperm counts? You don't have any of that information, And you as a company then can go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa That's a lot of questions. Come on, FD. I am going to ask you To stop your review, please And I call this the take backack seas provision. You, the food maker goes, neverever mind just pretend like we didn't show you anything Yeah. you know, please stop. please stop I no longer want you to review this notice You are going to stop thinking about my chemical. And then I can go back and redo it and resubmit it or or I can do nothing and then just use it in food anyway I just use it in food anyway and just use it in food anyway. So companies can ignore the FDA's concerns and just self certified that their additives are safe This is the grass loophole So it's not the great greatest flaw. No, this is a flaw. This is a flaw Okay ninety nine percent of chemicals in our food right now were're added this way through the grass loophole. rather than the whole long review process. These chemicals are used in cookies, chocolate, smoked fish, sausages, teaabags, marinades, protein drinks, coffee, popcorn, seeds. Melanie's team has looked at new ingredients added to our food over twenty four years. There' been around nine hundred new chemicals added, okay Only ten went to the FDA for approval It really shows how the law has been flipped on its head and what was meant to be a narrowly applied loophole has completely swallowed the law such that the loophole is now the law. The loophole swallowed the law Um, I mean This all sounds not the safest for consumers But I'm thirty eight years old I've been eating food my whole life Nothing's ever happened to me. that I know of, u grass like kind of okay because people are not like getting sick left right and center. People are getting sick left, right and center. Okay. I mean, the good news is is that most of the ingredients being used in our foods probably are safe But I think someone should be checking. I think at the end of the day, someone should be looking under the hood of these companies and someone should be looking at the science. Yeah, but the FDA doesn't have the capacity to look under everyone's hoods. The FDA essentially admitted this back in the nineties when they basically like formally okayed the loophole In the process drew attention to a loophole to the loophole. We'll call this secret door number three or secret grass So Secret Gass is when you as a company Determine that your ingredient is safe And then you just use it in food and you skip telling the FDA altogether So you don't have to tell the FDA. it's a voluntary notification. So in door number two, you technically notify the FDA, even if you end up ignoring their concerns. For secret door number three, you don't have the FDA anything ever. They don't have a chance to voice any concerns. You just introduce your brand new chemical and secretly without even notifying the FDA added to food companyany might choose the secret grass route over the out in the open grass route to protect their trade secrets, maybe rememember that Carif flour sprinkled onto the lentil crumbles, the one that forty two people lost their gallbladders over That's how it entered the food supply through the secret grass door So the bakers of Terraflower, never went through door number one. They never filed a food additive petition They never went through door number two. They never notified the FDA that their ingredient was grass. They just made their own determination in secret, never told anyone and started marketing it, and then it got used in food and presumably made a lot of people sick. And it can be really hard to bring a case against a food company even when there is a mass poisoning and a bunch of people, like Carol, lose their gallbladers Daily Harvest said that we cooked it wrong blamed us Also comped like comped the cost of whatever it was, which was like, I don't know, twelve bucks or whatever. No, I think it was they gave us credit. They gave us daily harvest. Credit for more for more daily harvest products Daily harvest products were like these premade frozen meals that you get delivered to your home, like a home delivery meal thing. And the people who signed up for this service signed a terms of service agreement that basically said, you could not sue the company in court. You'd have to arbitrate, which is much friendlier for corporations evenven though, you know, like people got super, super sick includluding babies, including babies who were breastfeeding. Oh, from the breast milk? Yeah Nursing moms who ate the lentils, their babies got sick. And oh, yeah, you know who didn't sign those terms of services? those nursing babies. pretty sure that's how the lawu was able to go forward because the babies couldn't sign the arbitrary clause No way. Yes way. No way. Yes way. Oh, what a loophole. That's a good one like also depressing, but like It wasn't just the babies. There was like a sixteen year old who ate the lentil crumbles. Some people had guests over and served it to their guests, like Lisa, Carol's friend Lisa. Lisa didn't sign those terms of service Being able to take the food company to court open the whole case Gave the lawyer power that not even the FDA has That's after the break. This message comes from Insperity, provroiding HR services and technology from payroll, benefits, and HR compliance to talent development. Learn more at inssperity d. com slash HR matters. This message comes from Whole Foods Market Save on seasonal favorites at Whole Foods Market Start in the vibrant produce department, stocked with organic fruits and veggies, then head to prepared foods for easy grab and go lunches and dinners. There are so many ways to save. Those yellow salle signs are just about everywhere Plus, prrime members can find extra in store deals every Tuesday and Friday, and the low priced three hundred and sixty five by Whole Foods Market brand never sacrifices on quality Save today and everyday at Whole Foods Market This message comes from Dell technologies. Interruptions will always come up at work, but with the Dell Pro laptop powered by Intel Core Ultra with VPro, built with optimized battery and built in intelligence, your tech won't slow you down Dell. com slash deell dash pro This message comes from American Home Shield It's not a matter of if an appliance or system like your H vac will break, but when. Without a home warranty, these repairs or replacements can cost thousands, but with an AHS home warranty, they will fix covered breakdowns, helping protect your wallet twenty percent off all plans at ahs dot com slash npR and see promo details. See ahs dot com slash contracts for coverage details, including service fees, limitations, and exclusions One attorney, one attorney who is basically beloved in the food safety world represented four hundred or so people who did sign the lental delivery terms of service agreements and like seventy five others who didn't sign it The attorney Bill Marthther Bill is Fabulous. Yeah, he's good. He also emails like a text message. Y. Like he'll be like, hey, send Do you so want to talk Send? I'm free at three, Snd. Yeah. I love it. Well, that's, you know, because, you know, I can't help I can't help but I you know, we there's a lot to do. That's Bill Bill never stops working, or at least it certainly seems that way. He made his name working on a big jack in the box E coli case in the nineties. The New Yorker once wrote about Bill and this thing he was doing around contaminated chicken. And it was called bug in the system and I guess I was the bug. anyyway. Oh you're the bug, okay Bills the bug in the system the way I put it is more that basically does what many of us probably think the FDA does When Bill started seeing people getting sick from the lentil crumbles, like Carol, he found that other people in another place, Canada, were also getting their gallbladders removed after eating this smoothie from another food company Bill sent both of those products to a lab to get tested He's looking for anything these two products have in common And they find one. There's one thing and it's terra flower Dara Flower Like you're doing this. Like it's like you, the lawyer finds the link, not the FDA That happens. Sometimes I know things before they know things. But I have an epidemiologist on I have two epidemiologists on staff Um The FDA has more power up front. to get companies provide them information so they can trace back a problem. We have to have a lawsuit and then once we have a lawsuit, We have subpoena power We can put people under oath, we can drag them into a courtroom and make them tell the truth That's a little bit more power than frankly what the FDA can do Taking the food companies to court meant Bill could Heear behind the secret door, deposition the companies under oath, require them to produce documents under penalty of perjury, ask them questions about where this terra fllower came from. So I'm now going, okay Where didd you get the terra flower? And they're like, Ohh, well, we got it from. And then then I sued them. And then I brought them into the lawsuit. and then I went to them and said Where did you get the terraflower And eventually it went back to one company in Peru called Molinos, Um, and I sued them too. This company in Peru has for a long time made this thing called Terra gum, which is used in like ice cream and other things. And they started manufacturing this thing called Terra Flower totally different product. and they were like, pitching it around So they basically sent out coold call emails all over the world to importers in US, Europe, everywhere. Like, hey, we found a Hey we thisool stuff, the flour, it's high in protein And it's from a tree, right? It's from a terr. It from a tree, all natural. and this food importer in the U.S Smirs Smirchks turned around and pitched it to daily harvest. who interestingly was right in the middle of you know making these crumbles and really looking for a protein additive and everybody in the chain of distribution Just assume that it would all work out and that it would all be safe. Bill says there was this one safety study done in Peru on rats to see if the Terraflower killed rats and it didn't kill rats, but it didn't go into a lot of depth into whether or not it had cause liver issues or other issues And so You know, it looked good on paper. But he says No one, not daily harvests, not smirks, not molinos, asked the big questions Has this stuff ever been used in food before And if so, when Where the studies? Where's anything Is it what's called generally regarded as safe? and The answer to those questions were all, no, no, no, no, no But they have the rat study. Molinos had the rat study. Is that not is that not a scientist? No, it's not why. No No. It's not because it's like One tiny study from one university you know, funded by the company that wanted to sell the product That's not the way this is supposed to work. Okay. so except though, Bill fromom everything I know about grass That is exactly how It works Y the company can say hi, I self certify that this is generally regarded as safe And then you're good to go That is that is the way It is done the assumption is is that peopleople making that assertion they're going to have something That's actually real backing it up. Bill says companies should be doing like actual comprehensive safety studies, right? But This is the problem with the grass and secret grass loopholes, right? When you have an honor system, maybe the incentives aren't there to do real rigorous research If no one has to submit their safety studies to anyone been I mean Do you really even have to do them Does this happen? probablyably all the time. That's what the problem with grass has always been. In the case of terraflour, it wasn't necessarily the company who made the terraflour in Peru that had to prove its safety. It was the U S. food importer, smirks. Bill says, they blew it. They didn't do what they needed to do to make sure this new secret ingredient was safe and There was not a lot of accountability here. What happened to daily harvest Are they still around? selling food They u they were ultimately purchased by Chibani The yogurt people Okay And what about Sarks Merx is still around, but did they get fined by the FDA? didid they have a consequence? Noope, The only consequence was me. You know, I sued them and got money. from them that are in their insurance company Ultimately, there was no public fine, there was nothing So the FDA doesn't like surely they say something like from here on out, do some better tests. Nothing. right nothing Nhing Nothing Well, the FDA did ban. terraiflower, which was a big deal, even though they never outright announced that the terralower itself caused the gallbladder and liver issues Daily Harvest has said that the problem was the terra fllower and their insurance ended up paying up, same with Sirks and Melinos, according to Bill We did reach out to all of the company Sirks, Molino's, Tivani, which owns daily harvest. No one provided a comment Some people think that the US needs a more aggressive food regulator, like the FDA should require that companies prove their new substances are safe before they make it onto store shelves. Sure that might slow down how quickly we get new food products, but That's how A lot of Europe does it. and New Zealand, it's a pre market review system, which is known as the precautionary principle Some say the U S. should, at the very least consumers what the food might do to you. and then we can decide for ourselves if we're willing to risk getting cancer or losing a gallbladder over it Bill Bill thinks the free market can kind of handle this problem too. He says, you know, food companies don't want to poison people. That's not good for business, although I guess it's not terrible for business since all the terralower companies are still around, But Phill says generally, companies try to have safe food products and not make people sick You know, I honestly think that the the free market Makes sense that, you know, people taking risks and, you know, and rewards and making money and doing that, it all kind of works itself out. But I think we're We fail is is that we don't really hold people do it incorrectly ountable They're not fed. They're not embarrassed. Bill thinks if there was a f that That would force companies to be more cautious New Zealand, for example, if you got sick from the food in New Zealand, Bill says the government would pay you and then the government would find the company In New Zealand, Bill says His job doesn't exist, the government would take care of all of that In the US, the FDA would do an investigation, but then private attorneys like Bill come in to represent the people who got hurt And I'm not trying to downgrade what I do. But I'm one small law firm. who's been doing this for thirty three years against a lot of giant companies But it's just a nick in their armor you know, it's really It's just a nick in their armor. Years after everyone got sick, Bill says he got a total of thirty two million dollars in settlements for the four hundred and fifty victims who got poisoned. The forty two who lost their gallbladders will get more than the other people. And this Para flower case, it is one of the clearest examples of the grass loophole failing consumers. There's also a four Loco example, like the drink four looo where a bunch of young people started acting erratic after drinking it and some even died These examples are tragic Bill Marler and Melanie Benish say that in some ways These are the straightforward cases. People consume a thing and get sick immediately, that's easy to track down and pull off the market. For melanie, it's the additives that don't cause an immediate health effect that are the most concerning. In some ways, I worry more about the chemicals that we're using where we don't understand the risk yet and those risks aren't going to show up for a long time The current system has let in additives that took the FDA years to ban. Six flavoring ingredients were allowed that turned out to be carcinogenic. l acrolate, a synthetic flavoring used to mimic the aroma of pineapples and kiwis.