You are sitting in your home in the United States. You just ripped open a fresh bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. The zesty, powdery remnants coat your fingers as you mindlessly eat the bag away. But do you know the ingredients you are actually inhaling? Because most people do not understand the preservatives, chemicals, and dyes packed into just one bag of Doritos. 

Food in the U.S. is loaded with unnecessary chemicals, often hidden in the fine print of snacks. But why is this the case? There is a clear difference when comparing a bag of chips in America and a bag of similar chips in a European country. The American chips have a long list of wordy chemicals, whereas the European bag lists its ingredients, which are familiar foods, just compounded together to make the chip. If European countries successfully produce the “same” chips with healthier ingredients, why doesn’t the U.S. join them in promoting a healthier country?

The obvious answer is the regulatory policies in the United States compared to those of the European Union. 

The United States has a law for food items generally recognized as safe, which is used as a loophole. “When Congress wrote the food chemical law, they included an exception for things that are generally recognized as safe, or GRAS,” Melanie Benesh said in an interview with Vox. “This was intended to be a narrow loophole, an exception for things that truly have general recognition of safety: things like spices or vinegar or flour or table salt. Rather than the FDA expending the time and the resources to do a full risk assessment of those chemicals before allowing them to be used in food, they could just say these are generally recognized as safe. What has happened over time is that loophole has really swallowed the entire process. [EWG] (The Environmental Working Group) did an analysis in 2022, where we found that 99 percent of new food chemicals were exploiting this GRAS loophole.”

Perhaps because of this loophole, about 60% of food bought by people in the U.S. contains some sort of preservative, sweetener, or color/flavor agent, according to the George Institute for Global Health. Unfortunately, the percentage of foods containing such components increases as years pass.

Moreover, as reported by Sentient Media, chemicals are replaced with common terms to mislead people into consuming them. According to GoodRx, titanium dioxide is among American foods’ most frequently added ingredients. It can be found in candy, chewing gum, and cake icing. Labeled as “artificial color” or “added color,” this chemical has been linked to causing oxidative stress. 

A study conducted for Radiology and Oncology, a scholarly journal, included an experiment with rats exposed to titanium dioxide orally for five days. At the end of these five days, this exposure caused oxidative DNA damage and inflammation of alveolar cells (tiny air sacs within the lungs) in the mice. In conclusion, it was proved that titanium dioxide particles can cause problems with oxidation. 

Though studies have presented varied findings  on whether titanium dioxide in food is linked to health problems in humans, the European Union has banned its use in food as a safety measure, according to the European Commission. Other countries understand the ingredient’s risk and have noted its unreliability but refuse to ban it. As for the U.S., there have been no bans on it and no warnings, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Titanium dioxide isn’t the only chemical used in foods; there are many more. So, how does the United States hide all the substances from the blind eye of a chip eater? Federal regulations. According to cspinet.org, these regulations allow producers to hide flaws or problematic ingredients behind standard terms such as “natural flavor” or “spices.” 

For example, with the immense amount of salt included in American potato chips compared to European ones, it has been shown that those produced in America are more likely to cause heart disease and strokes. According to the Daily Mail, “Even though the US has a smaller recommended serving size of Doritos and uses almost 50 percent more salt in their product, the calories between the European and American nacho chips are the same. However, there is 210 mg of salt in the American version, compared to 144 mg of salt in the European version. Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure, which can contribute to a host of health conditions like heart disease and stroke.”

So, next time you feast on a pack of crunchy Doritos, be mindful of what you consume. Though tasty, these processed snacks are infused with harsh chemicals and unknown preservatives, potentially leading to future health issues. Instead of eating these appealing chips, consider eating organic brands or those made without trans fats or—the healthier choice—even staying away from chips altogether.