Jolly Ranchers and Mountain Dew are advertised on TikTok and Instagram but contain products banned in the UK.

  • girlfreddy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Jolly Ranchers hard candy has mineral oil in them.

    Most often, mineral oil is a liquid obtained from refining crude oil to make gasoline and other petroleum products … like a liquid version of petroleum jelly. Source

    And America allows companies to sell this shit.

    • s1ndr0m3@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      AFAIK mineral oil and petroleum jelly are considered food safe. In the food industry they are used as lubricant on machinery that comes into contact with food (like meat slicers or even soda machines). Petroleum jelly is also found in a lot of skin care products, like Vasoline, vapo-rub, makeup -removing cream, and is also used in lip balm.

      That being said, oil & gas extraction has and is wreaking havoc on our environment and health. So, while these products may be safe for human contact, they have a cost.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The UK doesn’t deem them safe for human consumption tho, because they err on the side of caution instead of allowing big oil and/or corps to do what they want.

        • Spuddlesv2@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          instead of allowing big oil and/or corps to do what they want.

          Yes only the peers are allowed to do that.

        • deft@ttrpg.network
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          11 months ago

          i actually can’t find this being true anywhere.

          the uk afaik calls it liquid parrafin and sell it at drug stores

    • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      In the U.S. it is commonly found in phamacies and sold as a laxative. It is excellent for cutting boards and wooden spoons since it does not go rancid. It is usually the only approved oil/grease to use on food processing equipment. Commercial and home espresso machines use it to lubricate seals and gaskets.

      Unrelated: it is great for rejuvenating Bakelite

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 months ago

      If everything around us and inside us isn’t somehow related to the oil industry, we Americans would wither and die immediately. Don’t you know?

      Serious answer though: The FDA is slow, inefficient, and likely paid off from banning chemicals, but every once in a blue they do. States like California take a more proactive role in banning chemicals, and since California has an economy larger than some nations, they tend to have a lot of pull, so all is not lost. America is more like the EU these days than a cohesive nation. Some states are cool, some are ok, some are Texas…but…yeah, we really suck as a whole.

      • ██████████@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Santa Cruz California is built around a old Mercury mine with literal Mercury red rocks just being normal rocks all around the city

        Nature is cancerous for the uneducated

        • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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          11 months ago

          Not sure about all that as mercury is a liquid at room temperature and I’m unfamiliar with the history of Santa Cruz, but I wasn’t necessarily trying to say California was a guardian of the future. Just that, in this example, they’re large enough in economies of scale that occasionally their decisions have enough weight to help others elsewhere, and that US states sometimes are able to effect improvement via this scale that the US Federal government is incapable of due to it’s Star Warsian ineptitude. Much like how the EU is forcing the Apples of the world to embrace standards like USB-C. Also most of Silicon Valley is basically a giant superfund site, so they got a lot of 'splainin to do.

    • deft@ttrpg.network
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      11 months ago

      you absolutely consume mineral oil. it is a lubricant often used for food related equipment

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Deregulation, baby! 🇺🇸🦅

      That reddish-black stuff you’re coughing up is liquid freedom!

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      We classify mineral oil as food safe. It’s a powerful laxative and you really wouldn’t want to get a lot of it in your food but I use it on my cutting boards to keep them from drying out and cracking.

      • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        homebrew Jolly Ranchers

        sugar, corn syrup and water will make hard candy. after that, it’s just a matter of dialing in the amounts of flavorings and citric acid for some tartness

          • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I wonder if there’s a way to make them with natural sweeteners and not sugar.

            get out of your own arsehole, do you know what sugar is made of? Sugarcane. Do you know what Sugarcane is? It’s a fucking natural plant.

          • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            not really, at least not that I know of. the formation of hard candy kinda depends on how sugar acts once you get it above certain temperature points. there’s probably a materials engineer somewhere that can offer you a sol’n that mostly does what you want but in the traditional world of candymaking sugar does a lot more than just sweeten.

      • kyle@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        I love how you used the term “homebrew” and not “homemade” lol.