Ingredient Glossary - B
Beef Extract: The "extract" is the concentrated and or dried residues from some beef cooking process. It could have used almost any parts of the animal that had flavor. Ordinarily that would not include cartilage, ligaments, and or tendon tissue because these components contain very little fat. Any residual muscle tissue containing at least a trace of fat would do because the flavor of meat is largely borne in the fat.
It’s mostly rendered fat, boiled blood and disintegrated connective tissue.
Beta carotene (color): One of the orange dyes found in most green leaves, and in carrots. Beta carotene is used in foods to provide color (margarine would look as white as shortening without it). Beta carotene is sometimes added to products for its anti-oxidant effects, to keep fats from going rancid. The body turns it into Vitamin A, and beta carotene is sometimes added to foods or vitamin supplements as a nutrient. They can mop up oxygen free radicals and dissipate their energy.
BHA Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA): Antioxidant for Cereals, chewing gum, potato chips, vegetable oil. BHA retards rancidity in fats, oils, and oil-containing foods. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers BHA to be “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” Nevertheless, the Food and Drug Administration still permits BHA to be used in foods. This synthetic chemical can be replaced by safer chemicals (e.g., vitamin E), safer processes (e.g., packing foods under nitrogen instead of air), or can simply be left out (many brands of oily foods, such as potato chips, don’t use any antioxidant).
BHT Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT): Retards rancidity in oils. Residues of BHT occur in human fat. Used commonly in cereals, chewing gum, vegetable oil and potato chips (and also in some food packaging to preserve freshness), these additives have been found by some studies to cause cancer. BHT is unnecessary or is easily replaced by safe substitutes.
brominated vegetable oil: BVO is vegetable oil that has had atoms of the element bromine bonded to it. Brominated vegetable oil is used as an emulsifier in citrus-flavored soft drinks such as Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Powerade, Mello Yello, Pineapple and Orange Fanta, Sun Drop, Squirt and Fresca to help natural fat-soluble citrus flavors stay suspended in the drink and to produce a cloudy appearance. The addition of bromine increases the density of the oil, and the amount of bromine is carefully controlled to achieve a density that is the same as the water in the drink. As a result, the BVO remains suspended in the water instead of forming separate layers. Long after consumption of BVO in test animals, traces remain in the body fat. Bromine is a halogen and displaces iodine, which may depress thyroid function. In test animals, BVO consumption has caused damage to the heart and kidneys in addition to increasing fat deposits in these organs. In extreme cases BVO has caused testicular damage, stunted growth and produced lethargy and fatigue.