Petroleum Products: Preservatives

Ever wonder why your perishables take so long to perish? Well, that’s an easy one: It’s because of the preservatives. The difficult part of the question is addressing what preservatives are made of, and there are plenty of them to choose from.

Different types of foods are injected with different types of preservatives to make them last longer. Some of those preservatives, such as Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) are derived from petrochemicals.

BHA is quite the common preservative, and is used to keep fats from spoiling. It is commonly found in products such as lard, ice cream, baked goods, cereals, meats, beer and cosmetics, to name a few, and works through oxidization. It’s also used as a yeast de-foamer.

Like most ingestible petrochemical concoctions, there’s plenty of controversy behind the use of BHA in food supplies, the biggest argument being that it may be a carcinogen and that some people cannot metabolize it, leading to behavioral changes. Other arguments support its use as an antimicrobial and antiviral, and research is being done to test using BHA in the treatment of herpes and AIDS.