Biscuits are silent assassins in your plate and they aren’t as innocent as they look

This is an eye opener that in processed food like biscuits apart from ingredients, how it is processed also matters. Find out why?

Heaped biscuits: Colorful, odorful but may not be healthy

We all love biscuits irrespective of age, gender and race. They come in variety of size and shapes and are crispy when chewed and becomes melting and softens when they enter into our mouth, satisfying our hunger pangs and also rendering those flavors which makes them wanting again and again . But recently it has been found by a consumer watchdog in Hongkong that most of the famous biscuit brands out there contains genotoxic carcinogens in them.

Genotoxic carcinogens, are capable of damaging DNA and causing cancer. Couple of the genotoxic carcinogens identified say for example were glycidol and acrylamide. In research studies these substances were found to detrimental to human health and well being in the form of serious health implications like cancer. Unfortunately, worldwide until now there are no standards or maximum limits for these carcinogenic substances and there is no necessity to put their concentration in the ingredients label. Also, there is only suggestion from various agencies that that one’s intake should be “as low as reasonably practicable or safe to consume in moderation”. So, the ball is in individuals court to take appropriate actions.

Why biscuits containing carcinogens in Hongkong are a threat to biscuit consumers everywhere?

1. The brands are same
2. The ingredients are same
3. The processing methods are same

Lets look into these one by one as explained below:

1. The brands are same

This implies that in the times of globalization, the popular biscuit brands are everywhere. They are so common. Take for example the brand named “Oreo” which is a common household cream filled cookie. In which ever country you are, the biscuits in your plate are manufactured in some other country due to the availability of cheap resource and labor or even when they are manufactured locally the ingredients are sourced globally, for eg., nuts and grains and are then after packaging are distributed widely to almost all countries.