Ingredients I am scared to find in my food:

New mini-feature on my blog--ingredients I'm scared to find in my food.


This was one of the ingredients in the brightly-colored Fruity Cheerios we bought: Trisodium Phosphate.


Why is this scary?


The first line from the article in Wikipedia on it: "Trisodium phosphate (TSP) is a cleaning agent, food additive, stain remover and degreaser." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisodium_phosphate)


Many of my cleaning books recommend TSP for removing wallpaper, scrubbing oil stains off garage floors, and cleaning really difficult spots.


Also from Wikipedia: "Trisodium phosphate was at one time extensively used in formulations for a wide variety of consumer grade soaps and detergents, but ecological problems have largely ended that practice, at least in the western world."


If it causes ecological problems, why are we consuming it?


Then there's this: "Although it is still the active ingredient in some toilet bowl cleaning tablets, TSP is generally not good for cleaning bathrooms, because it can corrode metal and can damage grout."


And this: "TSP has gained a following as a nutritional supplement that can improve certain parameters of exercise performance....However, it is generally considered to be a bad idea to ingest compounds that are sufficiently caustic to dissolve cell membranes"


You think?


And then there's this info: http://www.inchem.org/documents/icsc/icsc/eics1178.htm.  SCARY.


So if the ICSC says, "Avoid all contact", and it's mostly illegal in cleaning supplies now because TSP is bad for the environment, WHAT IS IT DOING IN KIDS' CHEERIOS?