Which Veggie Burgers Were Made With a Neurotoxin?

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/04/which-veggie-burgers-contain-neurotoxin

Which Veggie Burgers Were Made With a Neurotoxin?
— By Kiera Butler
| Mon Apr. 12, 2010 2:30 AM PDT

This is about the time of year when I start keeping packages of veggie burgers in the freezer, just in case of an impromptu barbecue. In the past, I haven't had much fake meat brand loyalty: I've found that once I smother my hunk of textured vegetable protein in barbeque sauce, all soy patties are pretty much created equal. But after reading a recent investigation by the Cornucopia Institute, I'm going to be a lot more picky: The food and agriculture nonprofit found that most non-organic veggie burgers currently on the market are made with the chemical hexane, an EPA-registered air pollutant and neurotoxin.

In order to meet the demands of health-conscious consumers, manufacturers of soy-based fake meat like to make their products have as little fat as possible. The cheapest way to do this is by submerging soybeans in a bath of hexane to separate the oil from the protein. Says Cornucopia Institute senior researcher Charlotte Vallaeys, "If a non-organic product contains a soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, or texturized vegetable protein, you can be pretty sure it was made using soy beans that were made with hexane."

If you've heard about hexane before, it was likely in the context of gasoline—the air pollutant is also a byproduct of gas refining. But in 2007, grain processors were responsible for two-thirds of our national hexane emissions. Hexane is hazardous in the factory, too: Workers who have been exposed to it have developed both skin and nervous system disorders. Troubling, then, that the FDA does not monitor or regulate hexane residue in foods. More worrisome still: According to the report, "Nearly every major ingredient in conventional soy-based infant formula is hexane extracted."

The Cornucopia Institute found that a number of popular veggie burgers were made with hexane. The list (pdf, page 37, and below) is longer than you might think...

http://www.cornucopia.org/soysurvey/OrganicSoyReport/behindthebean_color_final.pdf

[Warpy]

1. Ack! Boca Burgers!

I ate those for years, although I've been off them for the last decade or so. I might have known that as soon as they got sold to Kraft, they'd go downhill.

There are no surprises on the rest of the list, I always knew those were trash.

I want a burger now, I'll make it myself. I haven't wanted one for years and all the Boca Burgers I had in the freezer are dessicated beyond edibility.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Dumbass food manufacturers!

Ask anyone who purchases soy burgers whether they'd rather have an extra bit of unextracted fat or a neurotoxic solvent in that patty. Would you expect one in 10,000 to say, 'I'll take the neurotoxin!'? There must be some other reason associated with cost savings - perhaps related to texturizers that they're able to skip in the mix once the extra fat is removed - for them to use hexane (which, in itself, can't be really cheap). Besides, I would expect that they'd just fudge the data & claim a lower fat content instead of using hexane.

Then again, maybe they're just trying to kill us all off on behalf of the New World Order.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Commenter over there says that soy is poison? I never knew that. Reading an article on it now over

here: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Soy_Panacea_or_Poison.html

Says that it is used a thyroid-inhibitor to cause cancer in lab animals. Yike! (I have two older ts who both have hyperthyroidism, and I checked their food. Both wet and dry are made with soy.)