The lovely and dangerous Sondra K has asked me to explain the dangers of organic peanut butter. When Sondra asks, I am obliged to obey.
There is a common family of molds known as aspergillus. These molds are everywhere. You'll find them in your carpet, for example, as well as in a lot of foods. Now, in a nice clean environment, you won't have lots of this stuff around, but believe me, it's there. A particular variety of aspergillus is known as Aspergillus Vlavus, which is coincidentally also the name of the 14th Emperor of the Roman Empire.
Okay, just kidding about the Emperor bit. However, aspergillus flavus is a mold found in small amounts in wheat, most legumes, and most tree-based nuts. However, it is found in particularly large quantities in two sources: corn and (you guessed it) peanuts. Furthermore, aspergillus flavus is one of the types of mold which produces a carcinogen known as aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is considered a cancer-causing substance in humans and animals by both the FDA and world health authorities.
What's particularly insidious about aspergillus flavus is that it is found in especially heavy quantities in peanuts and corn and, except in very extreme cases, isn't even visible to the naked eye. Furthermore, no practical way exists to get it out of the foods it's found in. While you can sometimes kill the aspergillus by cooking it, the aflatoxin it created will be left behind.
The most common way most people get aflatoxin in their diets is through peanut butter. Peanuts have an especially high naturally-occurring concentration of aspergillus flavus mold. Furthermore, while most peanuts are roasted, the roasting process rarely kills all the mold. The longer peanuts sit around in the store or in your house, the more of the mold will grow back--and again, it generally won't be visible to the naked eye. The longer the mold grows, the more aflatoxin builds up.
Here's the most interesting thing about all this: usually your "organic" or "natural" peanut butters will have the highest aflatoxin concentration. The highest concentration of all, though, will typically be the stuff you buy in the store where they take peanuts and grind them into peanut butter for you while you wait. Because while the USDA and FDA has rules for how much aflatoxin is allowed in food before it's shipped to stores, there's no measure of it after it reaches the stores. Those peanuts could have been sitting on the shelves at the story for weeks or months at room temperature, building up mold. It's even worse if the air is mildly moist. Furthermore, if you fresh-grind those nuts into peanut butter, the mold keeps growing in the peanut butter.
Once again, it rarely grows to the point where you can see it with the naked eye.
This means that your safest source of peanut butter is generally your cheap, garden variety Jif or Skippy. The companies that make those generally get the peanuts fresh, roast and grind them immediately, put them through an effective cooking and homogenization process, then seal them in airtight jars. The mold buildup on those will be much lower than your typical "fresh" or "natural" peanut butters.
By the way, the aflatoxin threat is taken seriously enough that OSHA actually requires workers dealing with large quantities of peanuts to wear facial masks so they don't breath in too much of the mold.
Also by the way, as a general rule, no matter what kind of peanut butter you buy, it's safest if, after you open the airtight seal, you refrigerate it. This slows down the mold buildup and reduces the amount of aflatoxin produced over time. Of course, it's not as easy to spread onto your bread that way. But it does reduce the cancer risk.
Statistically, just as a rule of thumb, two tablespoons of peanut butter a day produce a higher risk of death than living next to a nuclear power plant. A lot higher, if you eat peanut butter made from peanuts that sit around on the shelves for weeks at a time, or from opened jars of peanut butter that sit around unrefrigerated for weeks at a time.
This is just one of many areas where the words "natural" and "organic" do not necessarily translate to "fewer toxins" or "more healthy." Of course, put it in perspective: there are other things we do every day that are a lot more dangerous than eating a peanut butter sandwich. But to understand that, you have to get serious-minded, and start taking statistical analysis of risk factors seriously. Alas, most people refuse to do that sort of thing.
Yea but those sweet peanut butters taste like crap. It’s like eating peanut flavored Crisco (which may be better than butter flavored Crisco, but its still Crisco) I'd much rather have real peanut butter. :-P Not only that, but there is pretty good testing on peanut stocks, and when aflatoxin is detected such stocks either become animal feed (for low concentrations) or are destroyed.
Since aflatoxins tend to rely on a high(er) moisture content peanut, and a ballpark temp of between 80 and 100F to grow easily, longer transport times would tend to encourage such growth, especially something coming over on a ‘slow boat from china’ Most peanuts used to make ‘generic cheap peanut butter’ (gcpb) come from china, tend to have had a (somewhat) long storage time, have gone through possible temperature changes, and humidity changes galore. Peanuts for oil and butter are generally shipped bulk, not necessarily vacuum sealed, ESPECIALLY from china, where packing standards are more lax, and will generally be packed less stringently than peanuts of U.S or European origin. See Here for a typical peanut shipment temperature variation coming from china.
Most organic peanuts would probably be somewhat locally grown, and as a result, should have a shorter storage time, in a less fluctuating temperature span than the peanut that is being used to make GCPB. I’m not an organic nut, myself. I would really wonder if the ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ type peanut butters are made from any different peanuts than the GCPB’s are. Somehow, I doubt it. Organics MIGHT, because stuff that says organic, generally has to meet some kind of standard. As such, the peanut might be somewhat locally grown, or at least of US origin.
Now, I know certain consumer studies have found higher concentrations in fresh ground peanut butter. But I honestly think you have to weigh the balance of issues here. GCPB’s are full of, sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oils, artificial flavorings, chemical preservatives and synthetic coal tar dyes to give it a healthy color. Fresh ground will not contain these products. Chemically altered hydrogenated oils are probably one of the roots of the obesity/heart disease problems in the U.S. today. If you are truly a peanut butter aficionado, grind your own peanut butter from canned or fresh roasted peanuts. I tend to buy the ‘smuckers natural’ which should probably have the best of both worlds. It’s a premium peanut butter, which probably uses peanuts of U.S. origin, and has no trans-fats. Best of both worlds, somewhat.
There is definantly more than one side of this coin. We as consumers NEED to demand more clarity in the origin of the foods we eat in general.
...and when aflatoxain is detected such stocks either become animal feed (for low concentrations) or are destroyed.
Uh, stop right there. This is incorrect.
Aflatoxin is always present in peanuts. There is no time in which aflatoxin is not present in them.
The only thing the USDA can do is limit how much is allowed. It's very much like arsenic, only worse, because we know that at least in some quantities arsenic is a nutrient, whereas with aflatoxin there is simply no known use for the stuff except to cause cancer. No safe minimum dosage exists, and it is always present in any peanut product.
Thus, using fairly standard risk calculation methods, they have decided what constitutes a safe and practical limit, knowing full well that the risk still exists. But it's always there.
I've read that corn is the major source of aflatoxins because people consume more corn than peanuts. Not that it matters.
Regarding unhealthy forms of the words "natural" and "organic", note that aflatoxin is a 100% natural substance! Also "organic chemistry" is the branch of chemistry where they make almost all those nasty "chemicals" you hear about.
I've hunted around a bit and couldn't find the studies that show the level of aflatoxin that is demonstrated to be carcinogenic. Then it occurred to me that you might know where to find them?
"Aflatoxin is always present in peanuts. There is no time in which aflatoxin is not present in them."
I Didn't mean to imply that there was any time that aflatoxins aren't in peanuts, just generally, for human consumption, they are pretty well monitored.
Secondarily, you are more likely to have higher concentrations of the toxins on peanut shipments that have taken 2 months to drive by boat from china through numerous temperature fluxtuations in a high humidity area (at sea) due to that being how aflatoxins grow, in humidity > 50% and in temps between 80F and 100F. Those shipping cartons generally sit right in that range for a while.
Peanuts sitting on a shelf in an air conditioned store are not likely to grow any significant amounts of aflatoxin unless they sit there a long time. Frankly, I don't buy peanuts from health food stores to make PB. Plenty of locals to buy em from round south GA/north FL
Just because some consumer reports found high levels of aflotoxin in health food stores vs premium brands of PB doesn't really paint all 'organic' or 'natural' PB as high in toxins. It just suggests that in one study it was found to be so.
It doesn't address the other possible risks of hydrogenated oils and artificial chemicals that are in GCPB either (nor their PB premium counterparts)
Like I said, I'm not an organic food nut, in fact I think most of that stuff is BS to get your money, but I am a 'locally grown, natural food nut' who likes to know where the stuff he eats came from. Which is why I tend to like natural (read: home grown) pb, fresh veggies, etc, and when I can, I buy 'old strain' veggies. They just plain taste better than all that hybridized, processed crap.
-b
Claire: To the best of my knowledge, no minimum safe dosage has been established for aflatoxin.
What's that mean? Well it means every time you put it in your mouth, you're taking a risk. The question really is "how much risk?" By most responsible estimates, a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter gives you a risk of one in a few billion of developing cancer. You just have to decide whether that's a risk you find acceptable.
But it's like that with tons of things. With ever meal, you ingest carcinogens. You cannot go a single day without eating or breathing in some carcinogens. The question is really how much risk you find acceptable, for zero-risk is not an option unless you're already dead.
I agreee totally with the last comment. Doesnt everyone realize that you can't get out of this world alive? None of us will. We all have to die of something. That being said, I believe that it is wise and prudent to avoid things such as smoking and over consumption of alchohol but if you listened to every study supposedly saying there is carcinogenic risks in certain things we would all have to live in a bubble. It's called life folks. I for one dont care about all this hoopla about peanut butter. I love it and will continue to eat it and if I happen to die a year earlier than I otherwise would have oh well. Such is life. The value of a good life lived is not the number of years but the quality of those years. I dont worry about all these trifling litte studies some scientist comes out with. It's ridiculous. Plus tomorrow they'll probably come out and say peanut butter is good for you like they used to say. Actually it all depends on what studies and what scientists you listen to. They all have their own preconceived ideas and the studies only serve to reinforce their already held beliefs. Just look at the Atkins hoopla. Depending on the source you listen to the atkins diet is either the best thing in the world or the worst danger of all to mankind. My philosophy? It just doesnt matter. We will all die anyway. There is no getting around this. Science will never make us immortal. Never! And why would we want to be. without death life is meaningless. It is in the dichotomy that anything has meaning. without the hot there is no cold. without the up there is no down. without death there is no life. Thats just how it is. some will die sooner than others. thats just the way it is as well. get over it and get on with your lives and enjoy it while you can.
Interesting. But I think I'll continue to eat my warm organic peanut butter. And corn and mushrooms and grilled meat. When we all drop dead of cancer and a decimated population subsists entirely on tofu and distilled water, well, then I'm sure I'll regret my cavalier attitude.
I worked on A. flavus in food corn as a part of my MS in plant pathology. A. flavus can grow just about anywhere but it more of a problem in warm, humid climates. It can grow in the field but it's more important as a stored grain fungus. The presence of the fungus does not mean you will get aflatoxin production every time. It depends on moisture, heat, the strain of fungus, and the substrate it's grown on. It likes something with a high oil content like peanuts or cottonseed stored in a poorly contructed grain bin or silo. For this reason, its a huge problem in developing nations.
The assertion that organic peanut better is worse than regular peanut butter is a little overstated. It depends on the conditions that the nuts were stored under and their quality. There isn't anything to say that they're worse but nothing to say that they're better either.
I remember in my undergrad plant pathology lab the instructor told us to bring in pasta from home. We surface sterilized it with alcohol to kill off anything living on the outside, put it in a sterile petri dish with a little water in it, then popped it into a nice warm incubator for a few days. We were all horrified to see the telltale olive spores of A. flavus all over the place. This critter is everywhere and luckily most of the time it won't kill you (there wasn't aflatoxin in the pasta), but it can be pretty scary.
Dean,
Theoretically, there should be a safe dosage for everything. However, it might be too low to measure.
this is really why I like the net. I also love peanut butter. Instead of the usual daily news crap, "dangerous toxin found in peanut butter" with no knowledge behind it I get people who have dealt with the mold, one persons perspective on how this fits into " a life well lived" and some good opinions. Thanks.