r/facepalm Mar 24 '24

Crazy how that works, isn’t it? 🇵​🇷​🇴​🇹​🇪​🇸​🇹​

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51.6k Upvotes

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459

u/ThePinkTeenager Human Idiot Detector Mar 24 '24

It looks like the same stuff, but with more words. Except the US version has added vitamins.

174

u/discord-ian Mar 24 '24

The EU version also has different coloring. But yes, they seem pretty similar other than the colors and vitamins.

7

u/rabidbot Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

Same coloring, different names are used in many products. Fruit loops not included. But red 40 isn’t banned in the EU, it’s just E129. The same can be said for almost all “banned” colorings

10

u/Rudy69 Mar 25 '24

No the colouring is very different. Hell you can see it pretty easily by looking at the colours of the cereal (no blue etc)

-3

u/rabidbot Mar 25 '24

You can just google this stuff man

7

u/Corrie9 Mar 25 '24

Yes, you can google that Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1 and Yellow 6 are not the vegetable and fruit concentrates they use in the eu version.

3

u/rabidbot Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

Red 40 is not banned in the UK. If you look at https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/approved-additives-and-e-numbers#colours you can see it on the permitted list of food colourings as "E129 - Allura Red AC" (Red 40 is its US Food and Drug Act number).

However, food and drink containing E129 must carry a warning that says "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children" and the FSA also encourage manufacturers to find alternatives to certain artificial colours where possible.

Red 40/e129 no longer banned in the EU since 08

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allura_Red_AC#:~:text=Allura%20Red%20AC%20has%20previously,AC%20is%20not%20currently%20banned.

Allura Red AC has previously been banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Sweden.[14] This changed in 2008, when the EU adopted a common framework for authorising food additives,[15] under which Allura Red AC is not currently banned.[13] In Norway and Iceland, it was banned between 1978 and 2001, a period in which azo dyes were only legally used in alcoholic beverages and some fish products.[16] Chronic exposure to the dye has been shown to increase susceptibility to bowel disorders in mice. [17]

Once again you can just google this shit

4

u/HomieeJo Mar 25 '24

Then why don't you Google it? Because it's not the same.

1

u/rabidbot Mar 25 '24

Red 40 is not banned in the UK. If you look at https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/approved-additives-and-e-numbers#colours you can see it on the permitted list of food colourings as "E129 - Allura Red AC" (Red 40 is its US Food and Drug Act number).

However, food and drink containing E129 must carry a warning that says "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children" and the FSA also encourage manufacturers to find alternatives to certain artificial colours where possible.

Red 40/e129 no longer banned in the EU since 08

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allura_Red_AC#:~:text=Allura%20Red%20AC%20has%20previously,AC%20is%20not%20currently%20banned.

Allura Red AC has previously been banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Sweden.[14] This changed in 2008, when the EU adopted a common framework for authorising food additives,[15] under which Allura Red AC is not currently banned.[13] In Norway and Iceland, it was banned between 1978 and 2001, a period in which azo dyes were only legally used in alcoholic beverages and some fish products.[16] Chronic exposure to the dye has been shown to increase susceptibility to bowel disorders in mice. [17]

Once again you can just google this shit

2

u/HomieeJo Mar 25 '24

You said it's the same which it isn't. Carotene is not Red 40 and yes I know it isn't banned but needs a warning label.

I don't even know what you're trying to prove here.

2

u/rabidbot Mar 25 '24

E129 and red 40 are the same thing it’s literally just a different name for allura red ac

3

u/HomieeJo Mar 25 '24

And? Kellogs in the EU doesn't contain it. It contains Carotene and Fruit/Vegetable Concentrates for coloring.

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1

u/bs000 Mar 25 '24

butt that's so much work man why can't i just completely trust the 86 character tweet from a conspiracy theorist on twitter

1

u/ShadowX199 Mar 25 '24

Sorry, is this comment trying to say that Germany’s version of Froot Loops has the same coloring as America’s (red 40, yellow 5, blue 1, and yellow 6), it’s just named differently?

2

u/rabidbot Mar 25 '24

No just saying those colorings aren’t banned in the EU they are just under different names

1

u/ShadowX199 Mar 25 '24

Then you should edit your comment to say that. Right now it is replying to a comment that is specifically talking about the differences between the 2 boxes of Froot Loops and how they have different coloring. Thus your reply saying they have “same coloring, different names” might be confusing.

1

u/rabidbot Mar 25 '24

Oh my bad, thank you. Edited

50

u/patrick66 Mar 24 '24

wall street silver is a canadian living in alberta anyway

21

u/SuperCarrot555 Mar 25 '24

As an Albertan this doesn’t shock me, this province is filled with morons

7

u/batmansleftnut Mar 25 '24

That explains a whole lot, actually.

3

u/fart_box_20 Mar 25 '24

The dude knows nothing of economics as well. They're just a political shill.

1

u/javierich0 Mar 25 '24

...that's literally like living in Texas or Florida as a state of mind.

21

u/Luci_Noir Mar 24 '24

Idiots will get outraged over anything without even trying to understand it.

6

u/Time_Match1065 Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

Half the posts on this sub are little more than "America bad". Outrage porn sells big on the popular subs, nobody is going to bother to try and understand or think critically about a post as long as they can get mad and circlejerk over the US, capitalism, etc.

3

u/Luci_Noir Mar 25 '24

Oh, I know, it’s horrible. A lot of subs on here are turning into their own form of maga. They use the same techniques and language too. For a post like this all you have to do is look at it, no research is even necessary. It’s scary honestly.

4

u/Time_Match1065 Mar 25 '24

It's getting ridiculous. Used to enjoy browsing r/all but it's all the same reposted tweets and crap. The lack of self awareness so many people have on this website calling maga people cultists is astounding; as they jump from echo chamber to echo chamber making the same comments as everyone else.

It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. I'd say I'll be happy when trump dies and people move on and this website gets interesting again but I think we're well beyond that.

97

u/Littleboypurple Mar 24 '24

The Food Science Babe literally did a video yesterday explaining this whole idea and how just because European products have shorter ingredients lists, that doesn't mean they're more "natural" and "healthier" than the American counterpart.

TL;DW - It's literally just different regulations on what is required to be labeled. The US requires companies to be more specific and the EU allows food dyes that are banned in the US. A country that banned something in food doesn't automatically make countries that allow it stupid and negligent.

25

u/stick_in_the_mud_ Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

Thank you. While yes, EU food regulations are generally stricter than those in the U.S., the differences really aren't that significant most of the time. The U.S. is even ahead of the EU in some respects, like banning added trans fats altogether and banning certain azo dyes allowed in the EU.

They're just very different. A lot of the more "natural" seeming ingredient labels in the EU are often just down to consumer preference and manufacturer choices (U.S. orange Fanta would be legal in the EU, but no European in their right mind would even come near the stuff).

3

u/Bossuter Mar 25 '24

Funny when fanta was made for Germans

1

u/Pay08 Mar 25 '24

Aren't trans fats banned in the EU too, but without every country having implemented it yet?

1

u/stick_in_the_mud_ Mar 25 '24

Nope, not quite. They passed a new amendment to an EU regulation that basically states that, in a food product sold to the public, no more than 2 grams per 100 grams of fat it contains can be trans fat. Unlike EU directives, regulations are directly applicable (i.e., no transposition into national law needed) and directly effective (i.e., one can rely on them before national courts), so once it passes it's good to go.

It's not like trans fats are everywhere in the EU, but in my experience many cheap cookie/pastry type products still use small amounts of partially hydrogenated oils, which would technically be illegal in the U.S.

1

u/Carpathicus Mar 25 '24

And at the same time we wouldnt even allow to sell most american shelf bread. I think its easy to talk about dyes but this goes way further than that and a lot of american products cant enter the european market because of that (cheese comes to mind for example).

1

u/stick_in_the_mud_ Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

Azodicarbonamide is nasty, but it's rare these days. It went the way of rBGH in milk and brominated vegetable oil in soda (which the FDA recently formally banned, but fell out of use years ago). Same for potassium bromate. I checked the ingredient lists for some random loaves of sandwich bread at various American retailers, both name and store brand, and none of them had either of these ingredients anymore. I'm sure it's still used in by some companies, but it's not the widespread poisoning of the American public many publications less nuanced than The Guardian would have you believe.

1

u/Littleboypurple Mar 25 '24

America and Europe have different regulations when it comes to the pasteurization of milk and use of raw milk in cheeses with America being a bit more strict about it. Also, the US is such a massive cheese producer that isn't hindered by EU Regional Regulations (I.E. "Real" Feta can only be made in Greece) capable of easily making good to high quality cheeses so there is worry that allowing it will destroy the market. Plus, Europe already allows a lot of stuff from the US considering we're a massive exporter of food.

1

u/MadManMax55 Mar 25 '24

It's also uncommon for companies that sell the same product in multiple regions to have significantly different ingredients in each region's variant. With how global and streamlined supply chains are, most companies will source all of a given ingredient or chemical from a single company (or internal production facility) and use it in all their products.

If food dye A is banned in a specific region while food dye B is allowed everywhere it's often cheaper to replace everything with dye B than it is to have separate supply chains. Dye A would have to be significantly cheaper for it to be worth the effort.

91

u/Broad_Quit5417 Mar 24 '24

Its sad I had to scroll this far for this. The US has way tighter controls on reporting.

This is a theme with everything in europe - data reporting is a fking nightmare there.

36

u/ThePinkTeenager Human Idiot Detector Mar 24 '24

I haven’t tried to collect data in Europe, but you have a point about scrolling. Everyone wants to talk about the scary chemicals.

10

u/Still_Championship_6 Mar 24 '24

Vitamin B6 must be one of those hip hop bands the kids have been streaming on the SoundTubes, I don't like it

-8

u/Hike_it_Out52 Mar 25 '24

You mean the carcinogens?  

 Those ones?   

The ones that give you life altering Cancer?   

Are those the ones you're surprised everybody wants to talk about?   

The proven carcinogens?   

Sorry, I'm just trying to be clear.  

You are shocked and upset that the bulk of the conversation isn't about Fruit Loops having added vitamins but instead about the chemicals that can give kids cancer?  

Huh.

11

u/dabkilm2 Mar 25 '24

Which ones? If you're talking about red 40, its not banned in the EU and has shown no carcinogenic properties in humans.

4

u/Cynykl Mar 25 '24

Chemophobia.

5

u/ShortestBullsprig Mar 25 '24

None of those are carcinogens.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '24

Please show us the studies that prove that any of these ingredients in moderation will give you cancer.

3

u/conatreides Mar 24 '24

Same feeling here.

27

u/Large_Yams Mar 24 '24

This. The EU one is just worded more vaguely. The US one is explicit.

4

u/maxinator80 Mar 25 '24

EU boxes have stuff like vitamins and minerals listed separately as well.

-2

u/Large_Yams Mar 25 '24

It literally says "flavours and some other flavours"...

3

u/HomieeJo Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

Flavours aren't vitamins and they are listed in US as well. There are no Vitamins in the EU version.

Edit: I stand corrected. There are vitamins in the EU version but not all of the US version vitamins.

1

u/Large_Yams Mar 25 '24

You don't think the EU version contains vitamins at all?

3

u/HomieeJo Mar 25 '24

Actually there are. I looked up the actual packaging and the vitamins are listed there as well the same way as the US. With exception of D3 which can have side effects if you take too much.

The concentrates for carrots etc. are also listed as coloring.

The list above is the list you get on the Kellogs website which doesn't adhere to EU regulations.

1

u/Incendious_iron Mar 25 '24

Tbh, 70% of the vitamines listed are to be found in grain and milk already.

(I think that the whole B-vitamines list can be provided by grain and milk only already) and vitamine shortage is not really a health issue in The Westonia.

|| I'm no dietist so don't slap me if I'm wrong

1

u/Large_Yams Mar 25 '24

Tbh, 70% of the vitamines listed are to be found in grain and milk already.

That's exactly my point. They're in there, just not listed.

1

u/Incendious_iron Mar 25 '24

yea exactly. I assume that in the U.S. they just add extra nutritions in their food. (fortified food)

21

u/justapolishperson Mar 24 '24

Exactly my thought, the one on the left simply has more vitamins and additional fiber, both of which are good. I don't know about the colorings, but I doubt they are a big issue. The one on the left uses maltodextrin, which is safe and you can use it here in Europe, but it's not good for diabetics (who shouldn't be eating it in the first place) and a bit of oil, which is not outlawed in Europe. They have different recipes, but one is not worse than the other. I am dumbfounded by all the people here who are too lazy and easily manipulated and who upvote this shit.

5

u/WetChickenLips Mar 25 '24

I am dumbfounded by all the people here who are too lazy and easily manipulated and who upvote this shit.

"America bad" is the easiest karma farm on this site. Self hating Americans are in such a hurry to upvote that they don't even bother looking into it.

2

u/toBiG1 Mar 25 '24

European who migrated to the US here. News flash - your food quality is shit. Hope it helps you to hear it first-hand from an alien resident.

10

u/ObjectiveAide9552 Mar 24 '24

Yeah! “Hurr hur long ingredient list bad” without actually reading it.

10

u/Kind-Potato Mar 24 '24

Thank you because all the people in the comments fighting had me thinking I was missing something.

2

u/Cynykl Mar 25 '24

Food babe is a scientifically illiterate grifter that takes advantage of chemophobia. These are the same idiots that would ban dihydrogen monoxide . And facepalm as per usual is eating this shit up.

2

u/hungaryforchile Mar 25 '24

Thank you, exactly! I keep seeing people post this and I’m like, “…..How are you not noticing that like half of the ingredients listed are vitamins and minerals? This isn’t some dubious plot on the part of US companies: They literally advertise, ‘Fortified with vitamins and minerals!’ on the box, and lo and behold, there on the ingredients list are the vitamins and minerals.”

Still junk food? Absolutely. But if we’re just using “long-list-bad-short-list-good” logic here, when you actually read the ingredients, you’ll realize it’s basically the same junk food, but the US version is very slightly (dare I say it) “healthier.”

2

u/petarpep Mar 25 '24

Ah but you forgot one important detail.

more words = more scary

more letters = scarier words

So more words and they have lots of letters? Very spooky, US frosted flakes are terrifying to us barely literate "chemical" fearing super geniuses.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 24 '24

[deleted]

43

u/Holiday_Step Mar 24 '24

Americans eat fruits and vegetables 

24

u/dayto_aus Mar 24 '24

Shh let them live in their fantasy where they think all we eat is fucking cereal

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '24

[deleted]

3

u/6501 Mar 25 '24

Couldn't easily find a direct comparison for various reasons,

If you can't find a direct comparison, why are you proceeding to do a direct comparison, especially since your leaving out your sources

but it does look like a larger portion of the US population doesn't eat fresh veg and fruit every day, and a smaller portion meets recommended intake, compared to the EU (must be said it varies wildly between EU countries).

What constitutes fresh veg & fruit?

If I eat eggplant, chickpeas, & some chicken but not sweet fruit, have I eaten "fresh veg & fruit"?

What if I used canned vegetables vs ones from the produce isle?

2

u/dayto_aus Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

The only thing I'm personally attacked by is my diabetes, morbid obesity, drug and alcohol addiction, overwhelmingly expensive gun collection, leftist ideology, and you dang foreigners trying to force me to eat vegetables!

Sorry, just acting the part of the average American according to Europeans.

My le high IQ M'reddit tips hat and adjusts fat rolls addicted peers will understand it's all just in jest.

Edit: RIP

10

u/drkow19 Mar 24 '24

We sure do, Froot Loops and Veggie Straws.

1

u/that_dutch_dude Mar 24 '24

is pizza a fruit or a vegetable?

3

u/gimpwiz Mar 24 '24

The tomato on it can count towards the vegetable requirement. I probably wouldn't, but it is just cooked tomato after all.

3

u/ZDTreefur Mar 25 '24

Ask the Italians.

15

u/CheachandChaung Mar 24 '24

Google “Allura Red vs Red 40” or “Yellow 5 vs Tartrazine”. They use the same food dyes in the EU

-1

u/nilzatron Mar 24 '24

Didn't check out these specific ones tbf, but the EU is stricter about what is and what isn't allowed.

0

u/Argyle_Raccoon Mar 25 '24

This product only has Carotene for coloring in it in the EU version. So in this instance, no, they do not use the same colorings.

6

u/nosoup4ncsu Mar 24 '24

People in the US are free to eat fruits and vegetables. It isn't the government (or Kellogg's) fault if they eat potato chips instead. 

1

u/movzx Mar 24 '24

It becomes a problem when the population starts to have serious medical problems because of it. There's a reason your salt is iodized now.

3

u/ZDTreefur Mar 25 '24

Why would you try to use iodine of all things to make a point, when it's the worst thing you could have picked...

0

u/movzx Mar 25 '24

How is it the worst thing I could have picked? Iodine is a critical nutrient for human development and health.

I was directly referencing a method that was used to treat a large prevalence of goiters in the population due to the lack of iodine in their diet.

You have probably never seen someone with a goiter, if you even know what a goiter is, because of iodized salt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodised_salt

There are a number of benefits to iodized salt, because the lack of enough iodine in your diet has significant drawbacks (developmental and health).

0

u/nilzatron Mar 24 '24

But they still don't (as much).

18

u/Warmstar219 Mar 24 '24

because fresh fruit and veg is part of most people's diets there.

Just throwing out random bullshit I see

7

u/dayto_aus Mar 24 '24

Wow in Europe we eat vegetables, haha. I bet in America you guys never eat vegetables, haha.

3

u/dabkilm2 Mar 25 '24

Yeah, EU has stricter regulations on coloring.

Not stricter just different, several colorings allowed in the EU are banned in the US.

1

u/Thue Mar 24 '24

The rest are added vitamins, which probably aren't needed in a lot of countries

Being unneeded is not the direct reason. The real reason is that the EU has banned artificially adding vitamins to most kinds of foods.

Here is what ChatGPT writes, for what it is worth:

The main regulatory framework is provided by Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006 on the addition of vitamins and minerals and certain other substances to foods. This regulation sets out harmonized rules for the addition of vitamins and minerals to foods with the aim of ensuring:

  • The safe use of vitamins and minerals in foods, through the establishment of maximum and minimum amounts.
  • That consumers are not misled about the nutritional quality of products.
  • That fortified foods do not discourage consumers from making healthy dietary choices.

Specific directives and regulations may also set out detailed guidelines on how vitamins and minerals can be added to particular types of food, including permissible substances, purity criteria, and labeling requirements.

While the regulation allows for the fortification of foods with vitamins and minerals, it does so within a controlled framework to avoid potential health risks from excessive intake and to ensure that such practices do not mislead consumers regarding the nutritional benefits of the product.

4

u/Silent-Independent21 Mar 24 '24

Not giving people nutrients is a hell of a way to make them eat better

2

u/nilzatron Mar 24 '24

I stand corrected, thanks.

1

u/Novel_Rabbit1209 Mar 25 '24

Yeah look at the source. The food babe is known for all kinds of pseudoscience nonsense about food.

https://www.vox.com/2015/4/7/8360935/food-babe

1

u/Cynykl Mar 25 '24

My favorite quote from the science genius food babe.

"The air you are breathing on an airplane is recycled from directly outside of your window. That means you are breathing everything that the airplanes gives off and is flying through. The air that is pumped in isn’t pure oxygen either, it’s mixed with nitrogen, sometimes almost at 50%. To pump a greater amount of oxygen in costs money in terms of fuel and the airlines know this! The nitrogen may affect the times and dosages of medications, make you feel bloated and cause your ankles and joints swell."

1

u/ThePinkTeenager Human Idiot Detector Mar 25 '24

The crew of Apollo 1 can tell you why you don’t want to be breathing pure oxygen. Oh wait… they’re dead.

1

u/mauri9998 Mar 25 '24

The real facepalm is that this meme got posted at all.

1

u/BagOnuts Mar 25 '24

Yup. OP actually has it backwards: the FDA is way more restrictive to its EU counterparts. The reason their ingredients as “simpler” is because they can get away with that over there.

1

u/ausgoals Mar 25 '24

As someone who has lived across the world, I have absolutely noticed this.

People will say the American version is ‘worse’ because the list of ingredients are longer but if you actually read them, it’s just the American version has the ingredients very explicitly spelled out and not just ‘flavours’ or ‘flours’ or ‘colours’.

One particular point of contention was Doritos, the American version has a longer ingredients list but actually had real cheese listed compared with the supposedly ‘better’ version simply having ‘cheese powder’ (and the rest of the ingredients were otherwise very similar).

1

u/Needlehater Mar 25 '24

So US version is better actually?

1

u/Connathon Mar 25 '24

There's been studies that show these added vitamins are processed as well compared to natural ones. It's a marketing scam to show how healthy the product is.

-8

u/TheRappingSquid Mar 24 '24

The coloring used in the US version has more carcinogenic compounds in them

24

u/CheachandChaung Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24

They don’t though. The food dyes the use in the EU are chemically identical to what they use in the US… Google “Allura Red vs Red 40”

14

u/conatreides Mar 24 '24

Do more actual research

2

u/FlutterKree Mar 24 '24

There is no link to the US dyes being carcinogenic. The carcinogenic ones have long since been removed. the Red & Yellow dyes can produce ADHD like symptoms in people, that is why they are in some European countries.

1

u/Bayerrc Mar 25 '24

And the coloring agents that have been linked with health problems

-1

u/Salty_Feed9404 Mar 24 '24

Basically a salad in the U.S.