Dear Peter:
Thank you so much for your detailed account.
You are correct about the many assumptions people in our business have to
make about risk. One of the reasons I have asked these questions is that to
date I have seen no FDA test data that would prove to me that YPS is safe at
any level. I have seen data from the USDA that would lead a chemist like
myself to "assume" that the "assumptions" that have been made about YPS may
have been short sighted and even flawed.
Aside from a growing understanding of the chemistry of YPS I am in the
process of launching studies on tissue retention of YPS in salted fish, red
meat, and pork. I am more concerned about small amounts of YPS and the
compounds they form rather than oral dose LD 50's. Paul can sit on the beach
all he wants and woof down quarter pounders but my clients charge me with
providing them with accurate data and to date I see no reason after the USDA
tests to assume that YPS is a safe additive. There simply are no definitive
studies available and this is what bothers me. I am not a crusader but I
don't want my clients to come back to me in say five years and say to me that
there are people blaming them for food related problems when it could have
been prevented by a few simple tests and a cheap modification of an industry
wide additive.
My business is to provide my clients with the very best information chemistry
can provide with food science. YPS additives to salt seems to be a growing
red flag and to answer your questions we are now conducting studies on
various cyanide compounds that can be facilitated by YPS in smoked fish. Like
you two months ago I didn't feel this to be needed but the more I probe into
the topic the less casual I become about using these salts.
Last week I suggested to my clients to look actively for substitutes for the
currant salts they use containing YPS. On Friday I received two calls saying
that the salts they were trying were no where as good as salts containing
YPS. Untreated salts containing no YPS were very inefficient and produced a
very inferior product. You can see this easily under a microscope.
One week ago I suggested that Dendritic salt be used as a substitute because
of its high purity and the following day I received a reference from a list
subscriber here describing the process and to my utter amazement I discovered
that this salt is re crystallized around an addition of sodium Ferro cyanide
at that magic number of 13 PPM. This discovery totally baffled me. In this
case YPS is being plainly used as a catalyst and not as an anti caking
additive. Perhaps someone here could tell me why and how this was approved by
FDA and what studies have been done on tissues of fish or in other industries
to ensure its safety.
I am going to keep on digging and asking more questions for a lot of food
chemistry seems to be based on "assumptions" rather than solid facts and
studies. Just for a personal reason I would indeed like to see the FDA
studies performed to have these Dendritic salts approved!
Last week I sent my clients a suggestion that UVB warning be placed on their
salted products if they continued to use YPS salt. I do not make policy in
these matters for I am only paid to alert my clients to "valid" concerns.
Several weeks ago I mentioned that it was a good thing that we were presented
with HACCP. We all are fully aware of what our industry was like only ten
years ago and it will be difficult for many of us to change. I for one don't
want to return to "the good old days". In today's food market no one can any
longer go on simple assumptions without studies. Im afraid that in the case
of YPS most of our understandings come from the mining industries and not
from food scientists.
I am deeply appreciative for the standard "assumed safe" comments here but
what I am looking for are studies! To date I have very few on a cyanide
compound that may present problems in the future.
Sincerely,
Marion Dewitty
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon May 08 2000 - 06:16:02 PDT