This application was designed to personalize your food safety. Organizations such as the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) are tasked with the protection of hundreds of millions of people. The quality of that protection is constantly debated. Our intention is not to disparage these organizations, (point of fact they are a source of much of the information in the database). Your standards and requirements just might be higher than those of these organizations. Your mission if you chose to accept it is to protect you and your family from unsafe or questionable food additives using your standards.
The following statement is the most important and obvious information on this page. ERR IN YOUR FAVOR. If you do not feel comfortable with the science backing the safety of an additive, avoid it especially if there are alternative sources.
One of the biggest obstacles to food safety is the labeling on food itself. For those who can read and write in this eastern urban elite Martian dialect, feel free to skip this page. What good is labeling if you can not understand it? Many of the ingredients on the labeling tell us nothing. Don't Eat That serves as a translator providing the user with some useful information about the ingredient. This information can be anything from nominal to quite extensive.
Most governmental food safety organization use similar standards, but they often come to different conclusions on different additives. Thus not all food additives are permitted in all countries. The reasons for this vary. Often an ingredient is initially considered safe or unsafe by these organizations only to be reversed later by further more detailed studies. In some cases a study might have enough substance to convince you that an additive might be save or unsafe but the study might not carry enough weight to convince a governmental organization. In any event, if a food additive is not permitted in a country or there are some studies that might have relevant information we feel you should know about it.
