@Leo Massey: the paddy lost school of medicine

@Leo Massey: the paddy lost school of medicine

@David Jordan: you’re taking this thing very seriously. Did you type all that in on your phone?

@David Jordan: I wonder are there any studies on the effects of Sodium Metabisulphite E223 in wine?

Sulphite allergy / intolerance appears to be a growing problem but sulphur dioxide / sulphites appear to be the only allergens that EU allow to be hidden from labelling if below 10mg/kg.

Aware of an immune illness that may be driving sulphite allergies and that may have a high prevalence.

So is cider & wine worse than beer because of added sulphites for “freshness”?

@Chemical Brothers: Madan (2007) publish a paper about this:

They found 4% of people (71 out of 1751) were probably allergic to some degree to sodium metabisulfite (SMB), of these 46.5% had clinically relevant allergy to SMB (33 cases or 1.9% overall). Now these were people who attended an allergy clinic, not the general population. It is therefore likely that allergy to SMB is rarer than this.

They also sought to find the cause:

None developed an allergy due to exposure to SMB in wine, most of the allergies were caused by skin contact e.g. Trimovate® cream (which dies not contain any SMB), the rest due to occupation exposure to the pure chemical e.g. bakers.

“Most of the positive reactions in the relevant group were attributed to the use of Trimovate® cream (63%). 5 patients (13%) with positive reactions in the unexplained relevance group were potentially exposed to SMB in local anaesthetic solutions while at work. 3 patients in the unexplained relevance group (7.8%) and 4 (12.1%) in the relevant group had potential for occupational exposure to SMB as bakers or caterers. Overall, occupational exposure was considered as a possible source of sensitization in 10 (26.3%) patients in the unexplained relevance group.”

Ref.:

Madan, V., Walker, S.L. and Beck, M.H., 2007. Sodium metabisulfite allergy is common but is it relevant?. Contact Dermatitis, 57(3), pp.173-176. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1600-0536.2007.01188.x

@Leo Massey: Pea nuts aren’t nuts they’re peas, isn’t that nuts. That’s why I said tree nuts. There’s no proven health benefits from pea nuts.

@David Jordan: Hats off you are great at finding the scientific papers.

I have a suspicion that an immune response to sulphur dioxide & sulphites may be much more prevalent but because sulphites can be legally hidden on food & drink labelling that people don’t realise they are actually consuming and possibly reacting to sulphites.

Anything made from Glucose Syrup / Fructose Syrup / High Fructose Corn Syrup / Cornflour / Maltodextrin / Dextrose / Baking Powder / Gelatine / Maize Starch* contains sulphites as part of the initial manufacturing process from corn. But any products made using above which is the vast majority of confectionary products need contain no sulphite labelling.

*Maize Starch appears to be used as a bulking agent in the majority of medical tablets and again because levels are below 10mg/kg no labelling required.

Some whiskeys and brandies too cheat on colouring using E150a/b/c/d and 2 of these b & d contain sulphites at levels that avoid labelling.

And lastly diesel exhaust contains SOx which we brought into our towns and cities en mass to reduce CO2.

So you can’t be allergic/intolerant if it is not on the label if you get my point :)

@Chemical Brothers: “Glucose Syrup / Fructose Syrup / High Fructose Corn Syrup”

You’re obviously reading American websites. Fructose is commonly added to cheap food and drink in the US because they feed cattle on corn/maize and the plentiful supply of corn starch is used to make High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS); the waste corn kernels are used in animal feed.

Here in Ireland, like most of Europe, we feed our cattle on grass and silage, there’s less corn. Furthermore, EU production of HFCS is subject to a quota, this is due to health concerns. Twelve European countries do not have any HFCS in food.

“HFCS use is highest in the US (24.78 kg/year per capita), whilst Europeans consume on average at least a third less of HFCS (kg/year per capita);

Twelve countries within the EU do not use HFCS at all; and

Of European countries that did consume HFCS, the five countries with the highest use were Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Turkey. This aligns to increased production in these countries since 2005/2006 (EEIG Agrosynergie, 2011).”

https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/nutrition_physical_activity/docs/2019_sciview_b3_sr_en.pdf

@David Jordan: Yep HFCS is in all the soft drinks in USA but in Ireland we appear to have switched wholesale to Glucose Syrup as an alternative to ordinary sugar.

Next time you are in supermarket look at all the cerrsls, biscuits, sweets, cakes, bars, flavoured ham, ice cream etc etc vast majority Glucose Syrup which has E223 or similar but all below labelling limits. Yep most of it is junk food but not all.

In fairness to Aldi & Lidl they will admit sulphites when queried.

@David Jordan: One other point about sulphites is that the USA don’t allow in meats like burgers or sausages where EU allow up to 450mg/kg.

Sometimes in IRL we get on our high horse about how great our food is but there is plenty of cheating going on here on colour, flavour & shelf life.

Biocides for breakfast, lunch & dinner has to having concequences. Cheap food has consequences.

@Peter Mulligan: People living in my town who got lung cancer from smoking are not allowed to be buried in the local graveyard. Well, at least not until they’re dead.

@Peter Mulligan: sure there’s people dying now that never died before.

@Peter Mulligan: some of my best friend are dead or know someone that’s dead.