In some individuals carrageenan may cause intestinal discomfort or worse. The fear is the a baby's gut may be unable to handle the large carrageenan molecules. The FDA has approved carrageenan as safe, basing its decision on industry funded studies.Įuropean agencies and the World Health Organization have also deemed carrageenan safe, with the exception of infant formula. In some animal studies, carrageenan was shown to cause intestinal lacerations and tumors.Ī 2001 meta-study of 45 peer-reviewed studies concluded that carrageenan consumption may result in gastrointestinal malignancy and inflammatory bowel. Interestingly, the Philippines account for the vast majority of the world supply of carrageenan. The processing steps after harvesting the seaweed include drying, grounding, filtration, treatment with potassium hydroxide, removal of cellulose by centrifuge, concentration by evaporation, drying, and grounding. It has been used for hundreds of years in Ireland and China, but only made headway into modern food processing in the last 50 years. It is a vegetarian and vegan alternative to gelatin. It is used as a thickener in products such as ice cream, jelly, chocolate milk, infant formula, cottage cheese.
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