Iconic actress Michelle Pfeiffer has launched a shocking attack on billionaire Bill Gates and suggested he’s going to contaminate America’s food supply.
In an extraordinarily rare move for the low-key actress, Pfeiffer took to Instagram on Thursday to express concern over the FDA‘s approval of Apeel, a Gates-backed food coating meant to extend the shelf life of produce.
‘Apeel (an edible, plant-based coating designed to extend the shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables) was just approved and now “organic” produce is coated in something we cannot see or wash off,’ Pfeiffer wrote. ‘Very concerning.’
The Scarface star, 67, wrote the message as she shared a video that claimed ‘organic produce is no longer safe’ after ‘Bill Gates’ Apeel just approved for USDA-certified organic.’ Apeel has long been mired in controversy over its ingredients and association with Gates. The company was founded in 2012 by entrepreneur James Rogers with the help of a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Gates’ are not currently involved in Apeel, which has received substantial backing from venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz.
Pfeiffer’s comments might come as a shock to her fans, as the Batman Returns icon is famed for living a quiet life and avoiding the type of controversial declarations often made by many of her Hollywood peers.
Apeel responded by saying it was ‘both disappointing and concerning to see a public figure like Michelle Pfeiffer use her platform to spread disinformation about our company, our mission, and the work of our employees.’
They added: ‘To set the record straight: Bill Gates is not now, nor has he ever been, a shareholder in Apeel Sciences.
‘Additionally, our products have been reviewed and allowed on the market in compliance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. National Organic Program requirements for nearly eight years—not recently, as Ms. Pfeiffer’s post suggests,’ Jenny Du, co-founder of Apeel and senior vice president of operations, said in a statement.
Also, the company claimed that their coatings can be washed by rinsing the produce with water and scrubbing it.
‘Apeel uses plant lipids or plant oils naturally found in fruits and vegetables and creates a coating applied to the surface of fresh fruits and vegetables in order to retain moisture and reduce oxidation,’ Du told the Associated Press. ‘Our product is also intended to be edible.’
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Is Bill Gates’ Apeel Really Safe?
Dr. Eric Berg on whether Apeel is a coating to keep food fresh or a fungicide?
In this podcast, we’re going to talk about Bill Gates’ new product, Apeel, which is used to make fresh produce last longer. Of the ingredients in Apeel, 99.34 percent are listed as “other ingredients,” which is a red flag because of the lack of transparency.
We know that Apeel contains monoglycerides and diglycerides—emulsifiers, which help mix things together. Apeel also contains solvents and heavy metals, including palladium, cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic! Manufacturers claim these metals are safe in small amounts, but there is no data about chronic consumption over time. Apeel also contains polyethylene glycol, a compound found in antifreeze.
Apeel could be a partially hydrogenated product. The FDA has banned trans fats, but loopholes still allow manufacturers to use them in their products.
If a product has less than .5 grams of trans fats, the FDA allows them to round it down to zero and not report the trans fats in the product. If a product is classified as an emulsifier, not a lipid or fat, it is exempt from the FDA’s ban on trans fats.
There is some controversy surrounding the function of the Apeel coating on produce. Is it a coating to keep food fresh or a fungicide? The EPA and the OMRI describe Apeel as a fungicide used after harvest, but Apeel is advertised as a protective coating.
There’s no way to remove the Apeel coating from your fresh produce, so it could potentially lock pesticides or pathogens inside. Think twice about buying fruits and vegetables that have this coating on them.
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APEEL Founding
Apeel was founded in 2012 by James Rogers, after receiving a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help reduce post-harvest food waste in developing countries that lacked refrigeration infrastructure.
After the initial grant, backing has been provided by venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz, and ATEL Capital Group. Apeel has raised $110 million in financing to date.
In June 2018, Apeel was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.[14] In August 2018, Apeel announced the appointment of former Whole Foods Market co-CEO Walter Robb to its board of directors.
Bill Gates & Apeel : You’ll Never Guess What He’s Up To Now
If you needed another reason to skip the supermarket and head to the farmers market, here it is…
Apeel is a new plant-based invisible coating that is sprayed over fruit and vegetables to extend their shelf life by slowing down water loss, preventing oxidation and protecting against environmental stressors. It’s designed to not be washed off but eaten with food. So even when it’s used on fruit like avocado, you’ll end up getting it all over your fingers when peeling. And as we know, the skin is our biggest organ and absorbs what it comes into contact with. So far it’s also been used on apples, grapes, strawberries and limes. However, the plan is to roll this out to be used on all fruit and vegetables.
It’s already been approved to be used in a whole host of countries including; USA, Canada, Japan, South Africa and the UK (it’s in Asda) and has received over $179 million in funding from some of the most notoriously corrupt organisations out there, including; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum and The Rockefeller Foundation.
According to the ingredients section of their website; ‘Apeel’s Edipeel is composed entirely of a mixture of food grade glycerolipids derived from edible plant oils, specifically the food additive mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, which conform to the specifications set forth by the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), and the European Union.’
When a product’s ingredient list isn’t just a few whole foods you recognise, that’s a bad sign. When it’s a technical sentence that includes the words ‘plant oils’ and a disclaimer explaining why it’s safe, then you should really be worried. When a food is ‘generally recognised as safe’ by the FDA, this actually means nothing. The FDA are another organisation that’s got a long history of corruption. Following their initial approval, this product has also been marked as organic in some countries, which on the surface adds to its credibility. However, the Soil Association (the UK’s gold standard organic certification) has shot it down, stating “The active ingredients in the coating Apeel are mono- and di-glycerides, which are not included in the Soil Association permitted additives. For this reason, they would not be accepted in a Soil Association certified product.”
Anyway, let me translate that ingredient list for you…
The two main ingredients are; monoglycerides and diglycerides. These are plant oils that are ultra-processed and which contain trans fats. This type of oil and trans fats are highly inflammatory and have been associated with basically all the chronic diseases were seeing a huge rise in today; type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, fertility issues and obesity to name a few.
Although trans fats are banned by the FDA, the above two ingredients are officially classified as emulsifiers and therefore can be approved via this loophole. The FDA states that the amount of trans fats within them are so small they aren’t harmful. However, if you’re consuming a small amount on every piece of fruit and veg that you eat, this will add up.
To summarise, this is a new ‘food’ that’s highly processed, contains ingredients that are known to damage health and there’s been no long term research to prove it’s safety. Why would you put yourself forward to be a guinea pig for this when there’s perfectly healthy natural foods at your local farmers market? Apeel wouldn’t be needed is we weren’t transporting food all over the world and everyone was shopping local.
If these organisations really cared about people’s health and the environment, they’d be pouring money into supporting small scale farmers to thrive so that people can buy food locally and from regenerative farming practises that increase soil health, have the highest standards for animal welfare, produce the most nutritious food and increase wildlife biodiversity. However, instead they’re out here working out how to ultra-process natural foods.
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New Facts: Apeel Fruit/Veggie Protective Coating NOT Appealing
I have always operated by the old saying—if there are too many ingredients on the product label (or unpronounceable ones), be suspicious of it.
If you missed my first post on Apeel, go here. Today, I have new research findings, and I am even more disgusted than I was! Remember, B. Gates and Katy Perry are powerful names that have stakes in the ESG-compliant company.
In the same FDA document that gives Apeel it’s ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’ (GRAS) status, it also clearly lists the unwholesome chemical solvents and heavy metals that are used in Apeel’s manufacture. And, if I’m reading this correctly, it declares it’s “IN THE FINISHED PRODUCT”.
Near the end of the 6th paragraph, what I’ve color highlighted below, is what consumers should know:
It states, “Apeel Sciences describes the manufacturing process for monoglycerides, beginning with conversion (protection) of the two primary alcohol groups on the glycerol backbone to non-reactive moieties…. Apeel Sciences provides specifications for monoglyceride (≥ 91%) and diglyceride (≤ 7%) levels as well as limits for ethyl acetate (≤ 100 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg)), acetonitrile (≤ 5 mg/kg), toluene (≤ 5 mg/kg), hexane (≤ 25 mg/kg), and individual heavy metals (including LEAD (≤ 1 mg/kg), PALLADIUM (≤ 3 mg/kg) and ARSENIC (≤ 0.2 mg/kg)), in the finished product.” (source – see the 6th paragraph)
Yikes.. With daily consumption, what could go wrong?
The “Technically-Unavoidable Presence Of Residues Left” Behind in the Apeel Product:
Measurable residues of solvents like aforementioned toluene and hexane are undoubtedly found IN & ON the final products, which is ironic because the product is called ‘Edipeel” (edible peel!) It is described as the “unintentional, but technically-unavoidable, presence of residues in the foodstuff or food ingredient”. (source)
Toluene is a highly toxic chemical that can bring about a wide range of detrimental health effects when inhaled, swallowed, or when it comes into contact with the skin and eyes. According to OSHA, the symptoms of chronic, low toluene exposure can include:
• Ataxia (lack of coordination)
• Cerebral atrophy
• Drowsiness
• Impaired speech, hearing, and vision
• Neurobehavioral changes
• Nystagmus (erratic movements of the eyes)
• Tremors
As for Hexane, it’s reported:
Hexane is a solvent used extensively in the food industry for the extraction of various products such as vegetable oils, fats, “flavors“, fragrances, color additives, etc.. Classified as a “processing aid”, it DOES NOT have to be declared on the label under current legislation. Although traces of hexane may be routinely found in final products, especially in processed products, consumers have no way of knowing. (source)
“Easily absorbed through the mucosa and skin, hexane has been recognized for more than 40 years to cause long-lasting and even permanent nerve damage in feet, legs, hands, and arms (peripheral neuropathy).” (source)
The MDSD sheet on Acetonitrile: One synonym for acetonitrile is methyl CYANIDE, so does this mean there is cyanide used in the manufacture (and leaving behind contaminants), too?
The MSDS sheet on Ethyl acetate: It advises not using it in “Food”. (Note: The CDC warns that “Ethyl acetate can affect the body if it is inhaled, comes in contact with the eyes and skin or is swallowed.”
To take a deep dive into what mono- and diglycerides do to us, you can go here.
Heavy Metals Comin’ at Ya!: How Bad Does This Get?
Also, noted in Apeel Sciences notice of submission to the FDA for their GRAS notification, HEAVY METALS were found to be LEFT BEHIND in the sprayed on product. (see Table 2-2 on Page 10 of 36) (source):
• Palladium: (from Pd/C catalyst): Not more than 10 mg/kg (“All palladium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic and as carcinogenic.”)
• Arsenic: Not more than 3 mg/kg (“Arsenic can be harmful to the eyes, skin, liver, kidneys, lungs, and lymphatic system. Exposure to arsenic can also cause cancer.”)
• Lead: Not more than 2 mg/kg (“Lead is a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children… There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects.”)
• Cadmium: Not more than 1 mg/kg. (“Exposure to low levels of cadmium in air, food, water, and particularly in tobacco smoke over time may build up cadmium in the kidneys and cause kidney disease and fragile bones. Cadmium is considered a cancer-causing agent.”)
• Mercury: Not more than 1 mg/kg of this known neurotoxin.
However, Apeel Technology clearly states, “residue levels have been set to no more than 10% of the most conservative recommended exposure limit from the literature for each solvent.” (Source: page 15 or 36) How much is too much, and do you want ANY of these toxins in your body?
The Apeel coating is intended to be applied to apples in a ratio of 108 g/100 kg fruit. Grapes and strawberries would be applied at a ratio of 118 g/100 kg fruit. The coating is “not expected” to travel into the fruit beyond the peel. I prefer to eat the high nutrient-containing peels of organic apples and cucumbers, so now we need to peel them to avoid the spray application?
Who’s Running The Show?
Apeel Technology was founded by James Rogers, PhD, out of U.C. Santa Barbara. He was named a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader in 2020. (source) So far, Apeel has received $719 million in funding from multiple sources, including Anne Wojcicki (23andMe), Katy Perry, Oprah Winfrey, GIC (the sovereign wealth fund of the government of Singapore), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, as well as a number of other investment firms and venture capitalists.
Apeel already has partnerships with the following suppliers:
• Nature’s Pride (large importer of European avocados)
• Del Monte, Eco Farms, Del Rey, Horton Fruit, and RV Aguacates (avocados)
• Sage Fruit Co. (Washington State organic apple producer)
• Alpine Fresh, Farm Direct Supply, Farm Direct Supply, La Venta and Beta (asparagus)
• SiCar Farms (limes)
• Many other fruits and vegetables including tomatoes, leafy greens, cucumbers, raspberries, as well as citrus use the Edipeel coating, with more produce being added in the future.
Apeel is (or will be soon) available at the following grocers:
• Costco
• Trader Joe’s
• Fairway Market
• Ralphs
• Sprouts
• Vons
• Walmart
• Whole Foods
• Kroger
• Harps Foods
• Price Right
• Target
If you or your children were to consume higher than average amounts of fruits and vegetables or if you are vegetarian or vegan, might that expose you to unsafe or unwanted levels of any of the “Apeel” ingredients?
There is no healthful purpose to this. It appears purely to boost profits for the companies who supply produce. Remember, if enough of us stop buying it, they will stop making it.
Ultimately, the reality of Apeel in the marketplace can serve to remind us of the many reasons to eat local, traditional, truly organic, biodynamic and chemical-free foods. And, if there was ever a time to garden, now is it!
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Hexane: The Chemical Solvent Seeping Into Your Food Without You Knowing
EDITOR’S SUMMARY: The more knowledge you have, the more choices you’ll become aware of. And while you can “pick your battles,” you can also “meet your opportunities.” So what is there to do about the minuscule amounts of hexane lurking in your food that you cannot see? The FDA deems it a food additive “permitted for human consumption.” Yet there are multiple studies denoting its health risks. It’s a chemical made from crude oil, after all. Should it really have a place in the production of foods sold at your local grocer, fed to your children, and served at your favorite restaurant?
Today’s industrialized society delivers mass food production, and it comes at a cost. Not all toxins in products are listed on ingredient labels, as they’re considered “processing aids,” (a.k.a. “additives”) in food manufacturing. These hidden substances are not technically “ingredients,” but they’re not insignificant. One of the most widely-used processing aids in the food supply is hexane, which is made from petroleum. Yes, it’s the same stuff that goes into your car’s gas tank, and it’s highly probable you have ingested it.
The food industry uses hexane primarily for the extraction of oils from plants, seeds, and vegetables such as soybeans (also considered a legume). It is derived from a process used by oil refineries when making gasoline. As a refinery breaks down petroleum to manufacture automotive fuel, the procedure generates byproducts, including hexane. It is then used as a synthetic solvent throughout a wide range of industries, from car repair, to glue for shoemaking, and rubber and textile manufacturing. In the food industry, many cooking oils are prepared using hexane, including peanut, soy, canola, corn, grapeseed, cottonseed, rice bran, safflower, and sunflower. You may be surprised to learn that olive oil can contain hexane too — unless your bottle says “extra virgin,” since the term “virgin” denotes oil that is squeezed from the olive, rather than extracted by a solvent. Hexane is also part of the process used in making beer, to separate out the hops. Additionally, the solvent is applied in the manufacturing of nutraceuticals, including essential oil extracts and nutritional supplements. From ScienceDirect:
“Nutraceutical is a term derived from the words “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical,” and could be defined as “any substance that is a food or a part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of diseases.”
Soybean production: Hexane is used to separate out soybean oil, or soy protein, for use in a variety of products, such as chips and “nutrition” bars. The soybeans are first cleaned and dehulled, then cooked, and turned into flakes to make it easier for the hexane to permeate the soybeans’ cells; this helps to extract more oil. The flaked soybeans are then soaked in a bath of hexane, which dissolves the oil from the solid plant material. This creates two byproducts: a mixture of hexane and oil called miscella, and a meal from the plant material. Both undergo heating to release the hexane, which is captured to be recycled for future use. At this point, with the hexane evaporated, you’re left with just the oil and meal. Residual amounts of hexane remain in each.
Hexane extraction is carried out on a large scale in palm oil production, the most widely-used edible oil on the planet. It’s implemented due to its ability to draw out larger quantities of oil from the plant material than any other technique, including mechanical pressing. In addition, hexane is cheap, and can be recycled for reuse. It must be noted that pushing the palm oil industry to the point of deforestation has significant consequences for land, humans, and animals. From Rainforest Action Network, “Frequently Asked Questions About Palm Oil”:
“Palm oil has become one of the world’s leading causes of rainforest destruction. Unchecked expansion has pushed palm oil plantations into the heart of some of the world’s most culturally and biologically diverse ecosystems and palm oil is among the biggest threats driving iconic wildlife species like the Critically Endangered Sumatran orangutan and the Endangered Borneo orangutan to the brink of extinction in Indonesia and Borneo Malaysia.
This large-scale destruction of rainforests and carbon-rich peatland landscapes is releasing globally significant quantities of carbon pollution into the atmosphere, making palm oil a major global driver of human induced climate change.
The production of palm oil is also responsible for widespread human rights violations as palm oil companies often forcefully remove Indigenous Peoples and rural communities from their lands. Child labor and modern day slavery are known to occur on palm oil plantations in both Indonesia and Malaysia.”
Despite its toxic nature, and the availability of natural alternatives such as methyloxolane, hexane use is expected to grow well into 2027, as demand for edible oils, such as palm oil, continues to increase.
Hexane’s Effect on Your Health
Because the amount of hexane residue from food processing is low, and the hexane that hits your body exits through your urine, it’s assumed to be harmless. And yet, no study has determined a safe daily intake level, let alone the impact of cumulative hexane exposure over years of consumption. What is known about the dangers of hexane is the fact that it is a neurotoxin. As such, it can cause damage to your central nervous and reproductive systems. That’s why California includes hexane in its Proposition 65 list of chemicals causing cancer or reproductive harm. It’s been documented that exposure to hexane starting at 500 milligrams per liter caused nerve damage to workers in factories during the 1960s and ’70s. Hexane causes other harmful health outcomes too, such as damage to your DNA when it metabolizes into the toxic substance 2,5-hexanedione in your body. From “Toxicological Profile for n-Hexane”:
“The neurotoxicity of n-hexane was first observed in the shoe industries of Japan and Italy in the 1960s and early 1970s. A number of epidemiological studies were initiated in response to outbreaks of apparent peripheral neuropathy in shoe workers. While the clinical course of the disease was well described, elucidation of a dose-duration response relationship has been difficult.”
A significant concern with hexane is its role in creating reproductive damage. Studies show that hexane entering the body of a pregnant woman can pass through the placental barrier to injure the central nervous system of the unborn baby. From “Toxicological Profile for n-Hexane Draft for Public Comment May 2024”:
“The available information suggests that adverse neurological, respiratory, developmental, and reproductive effects are the most important health concerns related to exposure to n-hexane (Figures 1–1 and 1–2). Muscle atrophy and decreased body weight are also common findings after exposure to n-hexane in experimental animals, but they are possibly secondary to the neurotoxicity that results in muscle denervation and decreased ability to move.”
Research examining female workers exposed to hexane revealed the chemical to be an endocrine disruptor — chemicals that interfere with the endocrine system — a network of glands that produce all the hormones in your body. Studies showed the solvent caused ovarian damage through cell death, as well as disrupting the release of ovarian estrogen. In men, hexane was identified as causing testicular injury, impairing fertility. Moreover, your body breaks down hexane into 2,5-hexanedione, which stays put for days, and is slowly excreted through your urine. If you ingest food with hexane on a regular basis, whatever 2,5-hexanedione that’s excreted, is replaced by more hexane-containing foods you eat. And 2,5-hexanedione damages the dopaminergic neurons in the brain, which are the neurons producing dopamine in your body. This injury may contribute to developing Parkinson’s disease, a progressive, degenerative brain disorder.
Environment: Some amounts of hexane are released into the atmosphere during the food manufacturing process. This reacts with other pollutants in the air to form ozone, a component in smog, which is harmful to the environment and your health. Industries switched to using hexane as a solvent when benzene, a known carcinogen, was theoretically banned nearly 50 years ago. However, hexane in food is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) except in a few isolated cases, such as in the extraction of hops and spice oleoresins. Meanwhile, Europe’s version of the FDA, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), approved a plant-based hexane substitute called methyloxolane in 2022. The EFSA determined methyloxolane was safe to use as a solvent. This was the first step for methyloxolane to be applied to food production as a natural alternative to petroleum-based hexane. Laurence Jacques, managing director of the Minafin Group, a European business pushing for the use of methyloxolane as a replacement for hexane, explained:
“Hexane is banned from organic food (in the U.S. and Europe) and cosmetics (in Europe). It has been substituted in pharmaceutical production for 20 years (in Europe). And you won’t find any toxicological assessments of hexane. Hexane entered the food chain around World War II and never applied for an approval. The reason it is still in our food chain is that it is critical for food security. Every year, about 1.1. million tonnes of hexane are used by the food industry and this will continue unchallenged as long as there is no better alternative.”
Hexane has become important to food security because of its widespread use in food production. Its role as a solvent enables mass-scale industrial manufacturing of foodstuff, which includes a large variety of products. For example: The soy oil extracted with hexane is mixed with water to separate out soy lecithin, which is contained in infant formula (in addition, baby gets GMOs and herbicides), as well as breads, ice cream, supplements, and more. Soy bathed in hexane is used to create foods deemed healthy by some consumers, such as veggie burgers and soymilk. Jacques continued:
“As long as nobody shows that a clean dossier is possible, it is easy for all the other solvents to claim an alternative isn’t possible, the studies are too expensive. We want to show that it is possible for a solvent and it should be done. We did studies (for methyloxolane) on rats, baby rats, pregnant rats. For hexane, we are the rats.”
It’s probable you’ve been exposed to hexane on a regular basis because of its extensive use. In one study this was validated by examining a population of Italians who were not exposed to hexane through their work environment. It showed the general population had varying concentrations of hexane in their bodies, ranging from 0.3 to 0.8 milligrams per liter. And as the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) states, “Since gasoline contains n-hexane, almost everyone is exposed to small amounts of n-hexane in the air.” N-hexane is the technical term for the type of hexane used in the industrial processes discussed in this article.
What does less than a milligram per liter of hexane in your body mean for your health? According to the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), a nonprofit scientific organization focused on occupational and environmental health, a safe exposure limit for hexane in the workplace is at concentrations below five milligrams per liter. No standards outside of a work environment have been set, but ACGIH’s recommendation suggests the hexane levels that may be in your body are well below safety limits. Interestingly, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set a safety limit ten times higher than ACGIH, although it stated:
“OSHA recognizes that many of its permissible exposure limits (PELs) are outdated and inadequate for ensuring protection of worker health. Most of OSHA’s PELs were issued shortly after adoption of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act in 1970, and have not been updated since that time.”
Decrease Your Susceptibility to the Dangers of Hexane
Your greatest vulnerability to hexane exposure comes from car fumes, as vehicle exhaust contains substantially more hexane than the trace amounts found in food oils and their associated products. Moreover, as you breathe in the chemical, it bypasses your liver, a key organ in your body’s detoxification process. The emissions from cars in Los Angeles, CA were found to contain 135 milligrams of hexane per liter, which is 27 times higher than the level ACGIH considers safe. Granted, L.A. is a large, urban, car-centric city; others will have varying results. In comparison, a variety of vegetable oils, including canola and sunflower, contained 42.6 micrograms per liter. 1 milligram equals 1,000 micrograms, so you can see vehicle exhaust is far more likely to cause damage to your body than hexane from food.
Knowing this, you may be extra observant and cautious about spending time near idling cars, or keeping your car’s windows open while pushing through heavy traffic. Perhaps this will influence where you take your kids to play (closer to nature; further from nearby automotive movement), or even have a role in helping you choose where to live. While it’s true that some things are hard to change, or seemingly out of your control, it’s also true that there are almost always steps you can take to improve any situation. While the fumes from car exhaust prove to be most unsafe, and loom over the environment, that only makes it more important to minimize hexane intake in every other area possible. One way you can do this is to pay close attention to what you eat and drink. Choose organic whenever possible, as organic products are legally prohibited from containing hexane. And while you’ve heard it said many times … read the ingredients in packaged foods.
Watch out for products claiming to be “natural,” “whole,” or “earth-friendly.” These items may contain hexane and other additives, as manufacturers can put such labels on any item they deem fit, with little FDA oversight. Remember, you won’t see “hexane” on the label — look for the oils and fillers! One example is soy protein isolate, a highly-processed plant extract that uses hexane to separate out the protein content from soybeans. This additive is contained in snack foods, including protein powders and shakes. So if you blindly eat processed and packaged foods, ingesting hexane may be virtually unavoidable. It can be found in brands of ice cream, ready made pizzas, and varieties of instant noodles, etc., which contain palm oil, extracted with hexane.
Sticking with organic-only cuisine can be challenging, especially when eating at restaurants and grocery store hot bars. Simple tips to help reduce exposure include staying away from fried foods, since these are typically cooked in hexane-manufactured oils. Avoid cuisine made with or containing soy, which means steering clear of meat alternatives, such as soy burgers and sausages, and conventional tofu. If you want to gain more traction in upgrading your health, and you love to eat in restaurants, it calls for speaking up, which at times can feel uncomfortable. Here’s an example of a conversation you might have with your server:
“Hi there, do you know what type of oil is used in the salmon dish?” (Of course this is after determining whether the salmon is farm-raised or wild). “Oh, olive oil, really? That’s great. Do you happen to know if it’s extra virgin olive oil or a blend?” “You need to go ask the chef … okay no problem.” Server returns and gives you the information. And you reply, “Ah, I see, it’s actually a blend; good to know, thanks. I’ve heard of that “90/10,” — 90% canola, 10% olive oil. I’m going to pass on that dish.” In addition to learning if the oil a blend, there is another step. If it’s not a blend — just plain ol’ olive oil, but not extra virgin, you will be consuming “olive pomace oil” — the bottom of the barrel (quite literally), lowest quality, extracted with hexane from the pulp that’s left over after the initial squeeze. You could call ahead and ask instead of at the table, though sometimes it’s harder to get accurate information. Alternatively, you could not inquire at restaurants, eat what tastes good and brings you joy, and be most mindful in your own kitchen. The choice is yours, and to each their own. If you don’t feel like having a “Portlandia” moment, it’s completely understandable.
When purchasing oil to add to meals (for cooking or drizzling), look for labels with terms such as “expeller-pressed,” “cold-pressed,” or “unrefined.” Cold-pressed oils are best because they are minimally processed, without the application of heat. Extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil use the cold-pressed method. Since cold and expeller-pressed procedures are less efficient than extracting with hexane, be aware of the higher price tags. In contrast, if the product does not specifically state pressed or extra virgin, you can assume a solvent such as hexane was used. A tool you might find of interest is the Organic Soy Report and Scorecard issued by the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit consumer watchdog group dedicated to food and agricultural topics. The report includes insights to help you find healthy, hexane-free food.
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