CONSIDER THE FACTS
ON CARRAGEENAN FOR A CHANGE

Q.           What
is Carrageenan??

A.            Carrageenan is a naturally-occurring seaweed extract. It
is widely used in foods and non-foods to improve texture and stability. Common
uses include meat and poultry, dairy products, canned pet food, cosmetics and
toothpaste.

Q.           Why the controversy?

A.            Self-appointed
consumer watchdogs have produced numerous web pages filled with words
condemning carrageenan as an unsafe food additive for human consumption.   However, in 70+ years of carrageenan being
used in processed foods, not a single
substantiated claim of an acute or chronic disease has been reported as arising
from carrageenan consumption.  On a more
science-based footing, food regulatory agencies in the US, the EU, and in the
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) repeatedly
review and continue to approve carrageenan as a safe food additive. 

Q.           What
has led up to this misrepresentation of the safety of an important food
stabilizer, gelling agent and thickener?

A.            It
clearly has to be attributed to the research of Dr. Joanne Tobacman, an
Associate Prof at the University of Illinois in Chicago.  She and a group of molecular biologists have accused
carrageenan of being a potential inflammatory agent as a conclusion from
laboratory experiments with cells of the digestive tract.  It requires a lot of unproven assumptions to
even suggest that consumption of carrageenan in the human diet causes
inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract. 
The objectivity of the Chicago research is also flawed by the fact that
Dr Tobacman has tried to have carrageenan declared an unsafe food additive on
weak technical arguments that she broadcast widely a decade before the
University of Chicago research began. 

Q.           What brings poligeenan into a
discussion of carrageenan?

A.            Poligeenan
(“degraded carrageenan” in pre-1988 scientific and regulatory publications) is
a possible carcinogen to humans;
carrageenan is not.  The only
relationship between carrageenan and poligeenan is that the former is the
starting material to make the latter.  Poligeenan is not a component of
carrageenan and cannot be produced in the digestive tract from
carrageenan-containing foods.

Q.           What are the differences between poligeenan
and carrageenan?

A.            The
production process for poligeenan requires treating carrageenan with strong
acid at high temp (about that of boiling water) for 6 hours or more.  These severe processing conditions convert
the long chains of carrageenan to much shorter ones: ten to one hundred times
shorter.  In scientific terms the
molecular weight of poligeenan is 10,000 to 20,000; whereas that of carrageenan
is 200,000 to 800,000.  Concern has been
raised about the amount of material in carrageenan with molecular weight less
than 50,000.  The actual amount (well
under 1%) cannot even be detected accurately with current technology. Certainly
it presents no threat to human health.   

Q.           What is the importance of these
molecular weight differences?

A.            Poligeenan
contains a fraction of material low enough in molecular weight that it can
penetrate the walls of the digestive tract and enter the blood stream.  The molecular weight of carrageenan is high
enough that this penetration is impossible. 
Animal feeding studies starting in the 1960s have demonstrated that once
the low molecular weight fraction of poligeenan enters the blood stream in
large enough amounts, pre-cancerous lesions begin to form.  These
lesions are not observed in animals fed with a food containing carrageenan.

Q.           Does carrageenan get absorbed in the
digestive track?

A.            Carrageenan
passes through the digestive system intact, much like food fiber. In fact,
carrageenan is a combination of soluble and insoluble nutritional fiber, though
its use level in foods is so low as not to be a significant source of fiber in
the diet.

Summary

                 Carrageenan
has been proven completely safe for consumption. Poligeenan is not a component
of carrageenan.

Closing Remarks

                The consumer watchdogs with their
blogs and websites would do far more service to consumers by researching their
sources and present only what can be substantiated by good science.  Unfortunately we are in an era of media
frenzy that rewards controversy.    

Additional
information available:

            On
June 11th, 2008, Dr. Joanne Tobacman petitioned the FDA to revoke
the current regulations permitting use of carrageenan as a food additive.

On June 11th, 2012 the
FDA denied her petition, categorically addressing and ultimately dismissing all
of her claims; their rebuttal supported by the results of several in-depth,
scientific studies.

If you would like to
read the full petition and FDA response, they can be accessed at http://www.regulations.gov/#!searchResults;rpp=25;po=0;s=FDA-2008-P-0347