Diacetyl -- It's the New Deadly Threat

I can't find an article that treats this well, so I'll just link to the one with the best title:

Microwaved snack buttery time bomb?

One article even used the "C word."  I'm sure we'll soon have Federal legislation making illegal the snorting of dairy, dairy-like, or smells-like-some-dairy products.  Then we'll have a spate of kids grinding up cheap artificially-flavored butterscotch and mainlining it.  Then someone else will set up an institute to study "diacetyl's beneficial health aspects" or some such rubbish. 

Link: diacetyl on Wikipedia.

Edit: Wow -- an epidemiology blog.  The blog is already being Slashdotted about the popcorn/diacetyl issue; one more link won't hurt, right? 

Comments

[Cathy]

Weaver Popcorn Company has ALREADY eliminated diacetyl from the flavoring in its microwave popcorn brands, Pop Weaver, sold at mass market retailers, discount stores and select grocery stores nationwide; and Trail's End, sold through Boy Scout councils. People concerned about diacetyl have an option available now on store shelves.

[Joe]

At this point, the phood companies taking diacetyl out of their flavoring repertoire is pure marketing, just like putting it in there in the first place was. Folks have always had the option of buying a bag of regular popcorn (I think the last time I bought one, it was less than a dollar, and for a lot more food), and popping it in a hot air popper or on the stove in a pot. And I think I've previously seen microwave popcorn one could buy with no butter or butter flavoring. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there have always been choices.

I'm also pretty sure diacetyl itself has been available in a more direct form through flavorings anyone can buy at the grocery store - stuff like imitation butter flavor and "vanilla, butter, & nut" flavor. My grandma used to use the latter in her cakes all the time. She didn't spend a lot of time sniffing it, AFAIK. :) And of course it's impossible to totally avoid diacetyl, unless one is willing to give up, at a minimum, butter, beer, and wine. The bad thing here is that companies added diacetyl (which can be eaten just fine) to microwave popcorn, and consumers like (or liked) it. In this case, the poor guy with broncheolitis obliterans was eating 2-3 bags of the stuff a day for maybe 10 years, and huffing the hot vapors out of the bag. This is kinda like sniffing magic markers for 10 years, then getting sick. One might argue that magic markers aren't designed to be eaten; I'd respond that empty microwave popcorn bags aren't designed to be huffed. Besides, who knows what else gets aerolsolized by the microwave -- maybe the metallized Mylar they put in the bag so it heats up? Yuck.

I feel bad for this guy, and everyone who's ever gotten sick by exposure to something. But how many people have eaten how many bags of this stuff for the past 25 years? And how many of them have gotten ill? If someone thinks they're sensitive to diacetyl and wants to avoid it, great. But some of those people are probably sensitive to something else. I had someone tell me once he was allergic to carbon dioxide. He probably was sensitive to something, but I seriously doubt it was carbon dioxide; his thinking that probably kept him finding out what was really bothering him. Thinking about it now, I bet the guy had some sort of problem with yeast.

[Ajlouny]

If the public knew that this ingredient was bad for them, then I believe it would be less likely that they would purchase it and go with the plane air popped popcorn. It's just that there isn't that information out there and more and more people are exposed to foods and product that can ultimately kill them.