My beef is that if I buy these same products on the East Coast, no P65 labeling. The product isn’t different, I believe. So now I just have more anxiety bc of the Prop 65 warning lolsob. I’ve also been alive long enough to see margarine being touted as healthier than butter, shortening (trans fats) was better than lard/tallow, fat-free was worth the extra sugar or digestive upset (snackwells and olestra). Meanwhile, a known Class 1 carcinogen: alcohol, is still showing up on plenty of “wellness” influencers accounts.
I live in the EU and if you see how many really bad stuff is considered to be 'safe', like insecticides and additives*...
Then there's air pollution and soil pollution and water pollution.
Especially in the West, we ingest poison when we breathe, eat and drink.
So I'm really not going to worry if some of the Asian food products I actually love, might add a little bit of poison to that vast mix.
*which are considered safe in isolation but have you ever seen longterm studies of the consequences of consuming endless cocktail combos of these 'safe' additives are? I haven't.
By living, we expose ourselves to toxic elements and our bodies figure out a way to expel them. One way to look at it is how much mass produced food is consumed vs made from scratch.
There is plenty of environmental degradation going on in the East that goes unchecked, unfortunately. As humans, we need to figure out a balanced way to exist healthily and support a planet with a lot of people.
As you say, we have to think about this rationally for our individual situations.
I wasn't trying to suggest everything is better in the East. It obviously is not, but I'm living in the West and I find it hypocritical/racist that our leaders love to point out the East's faults, while our own house is anything but in order.
Is it possible to live on one small planet with so many people, with 'economic growth' as some kind of Unholy Grail? I doubt it.
All I can do is try to live relatively healthy and leave a light ecological footprint (light for someone in the West.)
What helps me is that I hate travelling (the going from A to B, I mean) and love cooking from scratch.
This is good information from the other side of the situation. However I will say I think the warnings are especially important for pregnant women, women looking to become pregnant, and adults cooking for very young children.
Adults' bodies can cope with trace amounts of lead, arsenic, cadmium, etc much more easily than babies and children. Young children absorb 4 to 5 times as much lead as adults after eating the same amount, plus their brains are still developing rapidly in this timeframe.
So while an adult might be okay consuming a contaminated food once a month or maybe even once a week, a child will be more likely to suffer permanent damage from eating the same thing.
It's unfortunate that international manufacturers are disproportionately affected by this system, but they're still important for families looking out for the health of their kids.
Thank you, Nicole, for pointing out why these issues matter to people in different age groups and life situations. We do need more rational discussion about it so we can figure the impact on our own bodies. Greatly appreciate your weighing in!
Thanks Andrea. I really appreciate this article too! This is really helpful information from the manufacturer's perspective, and info that I couldn't have found elsewhere, so thanks so much for sharing it. It definitely helps me make decisions about what to do practically in response to the labels.
One last thought is that not only for children but also for adults with certain medical conditions, these labels are important. Take for example, an adult who recently found out their water line is contaminated with lead. The common sense thing for even an adult to do then is to eliminate all possible sources of lead exposure so their system can start flushing out the lead that's already there. So they might deem anything that mentions lead to be too risky for their current situation. However food with a label for arsenic may be okay for them to consume once a week since lead specifically is the issue for them.
All that to say, as a consumer I'm grateful for these labels since they allow me to make informed choices. Last night I made miso soup with kombu that had the prop 65 label, but because it had the label I was able to do some research and determine whether I thought it was a risk for me right now. I decided it was okay and that I just won't make it too often, but I will enjoy it on occasion.
Anyways I do really appreciate this article! I'm glad you pointed out some of the pitfalls of this system. I didn't know about some of these issues, but knowing them helps me have a more balanced perspective. Thanks for your article!
Great post, Andrea! I have often been curious about the Prop. 65 warning, but if it’s on an ingredient that’s integral to a dish I’m preparing, I generally ignore it. After all, we’re not talking about enormous quantities in most cases; generally 1-2 tablespoons at most,not gallons. I really appreciate your deep dive into this subject by including comments from the food importer, because it adds some perspective to the issue. One thing I do wonder about are food and safety standards practiced in some of the countries where these products originate; that’s actually more concerning to me than the Prop. 65 warning. I agree about Santa Cruz drivers! They do seem to be becoming more numerous and aggressive, don’t they?
Prop 65 addresses certain issues that are immediate to consumers but it seems overkill. After all these years, seems like we need to review it?
I have no idea about the food and safety standards in the countries of origin. Importers deal with that to a certain degree. Some items are labeled "for export" or "export quality" which always make me think: "What is left for the domestic market? Trash?"
I agree completely about the food and safety standards in some is these countries. Even here in the states I've become far more careful with what I eat as I've had two primary breast cancers. It was enough to sit up and take notice. I try to eat what I can organic, but it certainly is pricey. I do know that some is these chemicals are not washed out of our systems and become accumalitive in our bodies and do affect our health in ways we don't see, but I don't want to live in fear. We can only walk forward in the wisdom and knowledge that is helpful. I am thankful for this article Andrea, as it has added to that wisdom and knowledge!
Thank you for a very well reasoned analysis of the Prop 65 warning labels. Having grown up in California, I’m very familiar with the numerous citizen driven initiatives and referendums that populate California ballots and those of several other states, but not New Jersey where I live now. In. New Jersey we are still governed by puritan blue laws that migrated over in the 1600s, so go figure. I only occasionally see a Prop 65 label usually on something I’ve bought from Amazon. We are surrounded by chemicals that are hazardous to our health. I’ve made many lifestyle changes to accommodate all of the carcinogenic chemicals I’ve already been exposed to in my lifetime—DDT from crop dusting and spraying, Agent Orange, nanoplastics, second hand smoke, etc. At this point and at my age (79), I don’t think I will deprive myself of something I enjoy cooking with because it has a Prop 65 label. If I were 50 years younger and thinking about having kids, I would probably approach warning labels a little differently, although it was revealing that the labels may be put on items with no carcinogens simply because it is expedient to do so.
Ann -- you are a wise person. You have seen and been in situations that many moderns nowadays would cringe at. Agent Orange! There's a bar in our area that just walking by you can smell the cigarette odor from the 1960s and 70s.
I do know what is prompting the Prop 65 labels on Asian foods and it is a combination of racism and politics. The Democrats want us to have a neverending war with Russia. The Republicans want us to have a neverending war with China. The US has 800 military bases in 70 countries around the world, and most of them ring China
As far as Propaganda 65 labeling, I studied Nutrition as part of my Pre-med major because, at that time, Nutrition wasn't taught in medical school. I saw many fads come and go:
"Don't eat butter - it's an animal fat, eat margarine!" "Oopsie, margarine has trans fats in it! Don't eat margarine!"
"Eggs have cholesterol in them: don't eat eggs!" "Oopsie, eggs are a good source of protein. Please eat eggs!"
"Fats are bad! Here, we'll substitute sugar for the flavor." "Oopsie! Your body can convert sugar into fat! Maybe a small amount of fat is okay."
And so on. I have my own approach to food. I don't eat processed foods. I cook everything from scratch. I read labels. And I don't follow authority's fads on food because I know that in a couple of years, they will back up and change it.
Moreover, I know that fear breeds submission and advertising uses the same mental process as propaganda. They were both invented by Edward Bernays, a nephew of Freud. Most advertisements today bring up some kind of fear. The most successful propaganda assures the other person that the speaker has the cure.
So your kitchen counters are never clean enough. The cure: use our product.
Your clothes will be dingy after you wash them. (Fear: your family and friends will look down on you.) Cure: use our product.
Your teeth aren't white enough. Use our product.
Your breath might smell bad. Use our product.
Americans are bombarded with an incredible amount of actual propaganda every day, and it doesn't help that we have fear-mongering messages in advertisements as well. But we do.
Therefore, I avoid advertising. I don't own a TV. And I don't believe them when I am exposed to them, because I know what's behind them. I don't believe anything our politicians say and very little that government agencies like the CDC and FDA say, after the pandemic.
I assumed that because seaweed naturally has carcinogenic chemicals and is used in so many Asian products, that’s why they have that label. I never thought about it this way- label everything whether or not it has a carcinogen to avoid being sued. Thanks, this new info is helpful to consider.
One would think but I recently bought kombu from a Japanese market that had been imported with no warning. It's a strange puzzle to figure out but we can do it with calm.
I haven't seen these labels in Canada. Partly because I don't cook even though I have 2 of your books. And I wouldn't know what P65 meant thank you for the explanation. So crazy
It's a California special gift to the 50 states and U.S. territories. You've been spared!
Shirley -- thank you for having my books in your library. I slide lots of cultural information along with the techniques because people read cookbooks for many reasons.
The world is crazy so we create pockets for conversation like this one so we may sanely exist!
Thanks for doing the research on this, Andrea. My brother and I just ordered some black garlic chile crisp and he was puzzled by the warning. I was able to enlighten him. He doesn’t live in CA, so not used to this.
I’m late to the discussion due to having the flu for a week. Starting to come back to life now… The Prop 65 labels aren’t a concern for me but I can imagine they might be alarming if never seen before. I had just assumed they’re on so many products because CA is so populous that it’s easier for vendors to apply a label broadly than pick and choose labeling for different states. It was interesting to read that many apply the label “just in case.” We have Prop 65 shelf signs up at work, and nobody has commented on them to me in years.
They’re not new at all. They’ve been there for so long I can’t remember when they first went up. Even though we’re both in CA, it’s possible that since we’re in different “regions” there are different signage protocols. Check by the balsamic vinegar, and maybe the coffee? LMK what you find.
I love seaweed snacks. And after seeing so many prop 65 warnings on them I researched which waters were more contaminated and just don’t buy seaweed from there. But other than that I mostly ignore the warnings. Having such a limited diet anyway, I’m not willing to cut out anything else.
Thank you John for asking about this and Andrea for researching and writing about this. I found such a warning on the plastic rice paper water dipper I bought after watching you use one. I live in Washington state, not California, so your explanation re. labeling makes a lot of sense.
My beef is that if I buy these same products on the East Coast, no P65 labeling. The product isn’t different, I believe. So now I just have more anxiety bc of the Prop 65 warning lolsob. I’ve also been alive long enough to see margarine being touted as healthier than butter, shortening (trans fats) was better than lard/tallow, fat-free was worth the extra sugar or digestive upset (snackwells and olestra). Meanwhile, a known Class 1 carcinogen: alcohol, is still showing up on plenty of “wellness” influencers accounts.
Exactly, Elizabeth! And now alcohol over consumption is a huge topic in health circles!
Crudely put, but with *: I do not give a d*mn.
I live in the EU and if you see how many really bad stuff is considered to be 'safe', like insecticides and additives*...
Then there's air pollution and soil pollution and water pollution.
Especially in the West, we ingest poison when we breathe, eat and drink.
So I'm really not going to worry if some of the Asian food products I actually love, might add a little bit of poison to that vast mix.
*which are considered safe in isolation but have you ever seen longterm studies of the consequences of consuming endless cocktail combos of these 'safe' additives are? I haven't.
By living, we expose ourselves to toxic elements and our bodies figure out a way to expel them. One way to look at it is how much mass produced food is consumed vs made from scratch.
There is plenty of environmental degradation going on in the East that goes unchecked, unfortunately. As humans, we need to figure out a balanced way to exist healthily and support a planet with a lot of people.
As you say, we have to think about this rationally for our individual situations.
I wasn't trying to suggest everything is better in the East. It obviously is not, but I'm living in the West and I find it hypocritical/racist that our leaders love to point out the East's faults, while our own house is anything but in order.
Is it possible to live on one small planet with so many people, with 'economic growth' as some kind of Unholy Grail? I doubt it.
All I can do is try to live relatively healthy and leave a light ecological footprint (light for someone in the West.)
What helps me is that I hate travelling (the going from A to B, I mean) and love cooking from scratch.
Absolute, Jan. Travel by cooking if you don't enjoy traveling. It can be really rough these days with all the coming and going.
So fair and comprehensive in your explanation! 🙏 thank you!
My pleasure but it took some time to get here!
This is good information from the other side of the situation. However I will say I think the warnings are especially important for pregnant women, women looking to become pregnant, and adults cooking for very young children.
Adults' bodies can cope with trace amounts of lead, arsenic, cadmium, etc much more easily than babies and children. Young children absorb 4 to 5 times as much lead as adults after eating the same amount, plus their brains are still developing rapidly in this timeframe.
So while an adult might be okay consuming a contaminated food once a month or maybe even once a week, a child will be more likely to suffer permanent damage from eating the same thing.
It's unfortunate that international manufacturers are disproportionately affected by this system, but they're still important for families looking out for the health of their kids.
Thank you, Nicole, for pointing out why these issues matter to people in different age groups and life situations. We do need more rational discussion about it so we can figure the impact on our own bodies. Greatly appreciate your weighing in!
Thanks Andrea. I really appreciate this article too! This is really helpful information from the manufacturer's perspective, and info that I couldn't have found elsewhere, so thanks so much for sharing it. It definitely helps me make decisions about what to do practically in response to the labels.
One last thought is that not only for children but also for adults with certain medical conditions, these labels are important. Take for example, an adult who recently found out their water line is contaminated with lead. The common sense thing for even an adult to do then is to eliminate all possible sources of lead exposure so their system can start flushing out the lead that's already there. So they might deem anything that mentions lead to be too risky for their current situation. However food with a label for arsenic may be okay for them to consume once a week since lead specifically is the issue for them.
All that to say, as a consumer I'm grateful for these labels since they allow me to make informed choices. Last night I made miso soup with kombu that had the prop 65 label, but because it had the label I was able to do some research and determine whether I thought it was a risk for me right now. I decided it was okay and that I just won't make it too often, but I will enjoy it on occasion.
Anyways I do really appreciate this article! I'm glad you pointed out some of the pitfalls of this system. I didn't know about some of these issues, but knowing them helps me have a more balanced perspective. Thanks for your article!
Thank you SO MUCH for this article, it is very levelheaded and good common sense.
The Prop 65 warnings seem to be everywhere!
Great post, Andrea! I have often been curious about the Prop. 65 warning, but if it’s on an ingredient that’s integral to a dish I’m preparing, I generally ignore it. After all, we’re not talking about enormous quantities in most cases; generally 1-2 tablespoons at most,not gallons. I really appreciate your deep dive into this subject by including comments from the food importer, because it adds some perspective to the issue. One thing I do wonder about are food and safety standards practiced in some of the countries where these products originate; that’s actually more concerning to me than the Prop. 65 warning. I agree about Santa Cruz drivers! They do seem to be becoming more numerous and aggressive, don’t they?
Prop 65 addresses certain issues that are immediate to consumers but it seems overkill. After all these years, seems like we need to review it?
I have no idea about the food and safety standards in the countries of origin. Importers deal with that to a certain degree. Some items are labeled "for export" or "export quality" which always make me think: "What is left for the domestic market? Trash?"
I agree completely about the food and safety standards in some is these countries. Even here in the states I've become far more careful with what I eat as I've had two primary breast cancers. It was enough to sit up and take notice. I try to eat what I can organic, but it certainly is pricey. I do know that some is these chemicals are not washed out of our systems and become accumalitive in our bodies and do affect our health in ways we don't see, but I don't want to live in fear. We can only walk forward in the wisdom and knowledge that is helpful. I am thankful for this article Andrea, as it has added to that wisdom and knowledge!
Thank you for a very well reasoned analysis of the Prop 65 warning labels. Having grown up in California, I’m very familiar with the numerous citizen driven initiatives and referendums that populate California ballots and those of several other states, but not New Jersey where I live now. In. New Jersey we are still governed by puritan blue laws that migrated over in the 1600s, so go figure. I only occasionally see a Prop 65 label usually on something I’ve bought from Amazon. We are surrounded by chemicals that are hazardous to our health. I’ve made many lifestyle changes to accommodate all of the carcinogenic chemicals I’ve already been exposed to in my lifetime—DDT from crop dusting and spraying, Agent Orange, nanoplastics, second hand smoke, etc. At this point and at my age (79), I don’t think I will deprive myself of something I enjoy cooking with because it has a Prop 65 label. If I were 50 years younger and thinking about having kids, I would probably approach warning labels a little differently, although it was revealing that the labels may be put on items with no carcinogens simply because it is expedient to do so.
Ann -- you are a wise person. You have seen and been in situations that many moderns nowadays would cringe at. Agent Orange! There's a bar in our area that just walking by you can smell the cigarette odor from the 1960s and 70s.
Thank you!
I do know what is prompting the Prop 65 labels on Asian foods and it is a combination of racism and politics. The Democrats want us to have a neverending war with Russia. The Republicans want us to have a neverending war with China. The US has 800 military bases in 70 countries around the world, and most of them ring China
As far as Propaganda 65 labeling, I studied Nutrition as part of my Pre-med major because, at that time, Nutrition wasn't taught in medical school. I saw many fads come and go:
"Don't eat butter - it's an animal fat, eat margarine!" "Oopsie, margarine has trans fats in it! Don't eat margarine!"
"Eggs have cholesterol in them: don't eat eggs!" "Oopsie, eggs are a good source of protein. Please eat eggs!"
"Fats are bad! Here, we'll substitute sugar for the flavor." "Oopsie! Your body can convert sugar into fat! Maybe a small amount of fat is okay."
And so on. I have my own approach to food. I don't eat processed foods. I cook everything from scratch. I read labels. And I don't follow authority's fads on food because I know that in a couple of years, they will back up and change it.
Moreover, I know that fear breeds submission and advertising uses the same mental process as propaganda. They were both invented by Edward Bernays, a nephew of Freud. Most advertisements today bring up some kind of fear. The most successful propaganda assures the other person that the speaker has the cure.
So your kitchen counters are never clean enough. The cure: use our product.
Your clothes will be dingy after you wash them. (Fear: your family and friends will look down on you.) Cure: use our product.
Your teeth aren't white enough. Use our product.
Your breath might smell bad. Use our product.
Americans are bombarded with an incredible amount of actual propaganda every day, and it doesn't help that we have fear-mongering messages in advertisements as well. But we do.
Therefore, I avoid advertising. I don't own a TV. And I don't believe them when I am exposed to them, because I know what's behind them. I don't believe anything our politicians say and very little that government agencies like the CDC and FDA say, after the pandemic.
Thank you for weighing in, Susan.
I assumed that because seaweed naturally has carcinogenic chemicals and is used in so many Asian products, that’s why they have that label. I never thought about it this way- label everything whether or not it has a carcinogen to avoid being sued. Thanks, this new info is helpful to consider.
One would think but I recently bought kombu from a Japanese market that had been imported with no warning. It's a strange puzzle to figure out but we can do it with calm.
I haven't seen these labels in Canada. Partly because I don't cook even though I have 2 of your books. And I wouldn't know what P65 meant thank you for the explanation. So crazy
It's a California special gift to the 50 states and U.S. territories. You've been spared!
Shirley -- thank you for having my books in your library. I slide lots of cultural information along with the techniques because people read cookbooks for many reasons.
The world is crazy so we create pockets for conversation like this one so we may sanely exist!
Thanks for doing the research on this, Andrea. My brother and I just ordered some black garlic chile crisp and he was puzzled by the warning. I was able to enlighten him. He doesn’t live in CA, so not used to this.
I’m late to the discussion due to having the flu for a week. Starting to come back to life now… The Prop 65 labels aren’t a concern for me but I can imagine they might be alarming if never seen before. I had just assumed they’re on so many products because CA is so populous that it’s easier for vendors to apply a label broadly than pick and choose labeling for different states. It was interesting to read that many apply the label “just in case.” We have Prop 65 shelf signs up at work, and nobody has commented on them to me in years.
Trader Joe’s has Prop 65 signs on shelves??? I have never noticed them! I’ll look at my local store.
Are the signs a new thing?
They’re not new at all. They’ve been there for so long I can’t remember when they first went up. Even though we’re both in CA, it’s possible that since we’re in different “regions” there are different signage protocols. Check by the balsamic vinegar, and maybe the coffee? LMK what you find.
I love seaweed snacks. And after seeing so many prop 65 warnings on them I researched which waters were more contaminated and just don’t buy seaweed from there. But other than that I mostly ignore the warnings. Having such a limited diet anyway, I’m not willing to cut out anything else.
Smart thinking to investigate and take matters into your own hands, Gillie! Sorry to know that your diet is limited!
Thank you John for asking about this and Andrea for researching and writing about this. I found such a warning on the plastic rice paper water dipper I bought after watching you use one. I live in Washington state, not California, so your explanation re. labeling makes a lot of sense.
On that rice paper dipper bowl? Oh my goodness. That wasn't necessary! I hope you enjoy it. It's such a space saver.