4 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
I'm puzzled. Ireland is part of the EU. Has not carrageenan been a staple of Irish cuisine for millennia? Perhaps before some Peruvian peasant invented the potato. Googling a bit I found no reports that carrageenan, E407, is banned in the EU.
I keep carrageenan on hand in the bedroom for my Modernist gelato. Whether carrageenan belongs in chicken wings is another question. One must ask why. Does carrageenan make the meaty bits taste Eire?
Sorry, my wording was imprecise. The usage of carrageenan in several commercial applications is banned or restricted, amongst them formula, unprocessed meats, several dairy applications. Thresholds have been defined (75 mg/kg bw/d) and are temporary, until more conclusive data has been generated. Major concern is the difference of the toxicological essay of the high molecular weight carrageenan a, which are deemed unproblematic, and the lower MW aggregates, that have proven toxicity. The latter are a degradation product, thus a delayed toxicity cannot be ruled out.
Food-grade carrageenan is available, and you can use it at your own discretion. You may compare the situation to sodium nitrite: around for hundreds of years, used in traditional products, you can purchase it freely, it can be used under conditions in some commercial applications while it is banned for many others. YMMV.
