Methylimidazole

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Contents 1 Summary 2 News Timeline 3 Related Topics 4 Additional Resources

Summary

The Center for Science in the Public Interest claims that the "caramel coloring" used in colas and other foods is contaminated with two cancer-causing chemicals, 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4-methylimidazole (4-MI).

News Timeline

• D.D. Williamson offers rebuttal to caramel coloring claims, Baking-Management.com, February 23, 2011.
  • Excerpt. "Caramel color has undergone complete food safety testing more than 20 times in the past 35 years, and meets rigorous food safety standards around the world. There has never been a study that showed any health risk from caramel color. The State of California has decided to include 4-MeI – formed naturally in most cooking, broiling, roasting and grilling -- on its Proposition 65 list of possible carcinogens. As a result of this regulatory action, many soft drinks, soups, gravies, sauces and baked goods -- foods produced using caramel color, a common ingredient produced by cooking sugar or corn syrup -- would need to carry a warning label claiming that it is a possible carcinogen. The decision defies common sense and good science. 4-MEI is formed naturally in the process of cooking, roasting, broiling or grilling food of every sort: chicken, beef, vegetables, other meats, and even coffee. It is found in hundreds of home-cooked or store-bought foods that people have been consuming for generations. It is not an additive. California's decision, which was made by a regulatory agency without any public hearing or review of other research, was based on two inconclusive and contradictory studies: one study in rats, after they were fed large amounts of 4-MEI, showed a reduction of tumors and the same study in mice showed an increase in tumors. There has never been a study that showed any connection between 4-MEI and cancer in humans. If you believe what the State of California has recommended, you will no longer grill on the 4th of July, or enjoy a cup of coffee on a peaceful Sunday morning.
• FDA Urged to Prohibit Carcinogenic 'Caramel Coloring', Center for Science in the Public Interest, February 16, 2011.
  • CSPI materials.
    • Regulatory Petition to FDA
    • Letter from Experts
    • CSPI Chemical Cuisine: Caramel Coloring
  • American Beverage Association. American Beverage Association Responds to CSPI Scare Tactics on Caramel Coloring, February 16, 2011.
    • Excerpt. "4-MEI is not a threat to human health. There is no evidence that 4-MEI causes cancer in humans. No health regulatory agency around the globe, including the Food and Drug Administration, has said that 4-MEI is a human carcinogen. This petition is nothing more than another attempt to scare consumers by an advocacy group long-dedicated to attacking the food and beverage industry. 4-MEI is virtually ubiquitous, found in trace amounts in a wide variety of foods and beverages. It forms during the heating, roasting or cooking process. The very National Toxicology Program that CSPI cites actually undermines the group's reckless attack as the NTP does not identify 4-MEI as even "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen." (Source: Report on Carcinogens, Eleventh Edition. http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/index.cfm?objectid=32BA9724-F1F6-975E-7FCE50709CB4C932)
  • National Toxciology Program. NTP Technical Report on the Toxicity Studies of 2- and 4-Methylimidazole (CAS No. 693-98-1 and 822-36-6) Administered in Feed to F344/N Rats and B6C3F1 Mice April 2004
• Debunked. The alleged evidence of carcinogenicity consists of rodent studies, which are notoriously unreliable as evidence of carcinogenicity in humans. Even assuming for the sake of argument that 4-MI caused cancer in the rodent studies and that lab rat carcinogenicity evidenced human carcinogenicity, a human weighing 154 lbs. would have to consume about 154,000 20-ounce bottles (or 256,667 12-ounce cans) of soda every day to get the equivalent dose of 4-MI as the labs rats. Here's the calculation:
  • Rodent carcinogenicity occurred in rats consuming a diet of 5,000 parts per million of 4-MI — a dose rate of about 440 mg/kg-bodyweight/day.
  • For a person who weighs 70kg (154 lbs.), this is a daily dose of 30,800 mg/day (70 x 440).
  • CSPI says a 20-ounce bottle of cola contains about 200 micrograms of 4-MI (i.e., 0.2 mg).
  • So to get 30,800 mg of 4-MI from 20-ounce bottles of cola would take 154,000 bottles, (30,800 mg /0.2 mg/bottle).

Related Topics

• Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

Additional Resources

• Kim E, New findings are not a real source of panic, Daily Trojan, February 23, 2011.