All the images below are part of an ongoing series entitled “Reading the Back,” where I photograph items found in the grocery store that contain ingredients that are restricted (or at least require warning labels) in countries across Europe due to health concerns.
I obscure the names of the food brands by painting a black and white negative (a homage to cliché verre) and layering it with the C-41 photograph I had taken. As a third layer, I incorporate another black and white negative that I have ink stamped with text that references the ingredient of concern I had found in the food product by reading the ingredients listed on its back.
This project is inspired by a concept from my childhood; whenever my family visited with our family in Germany, my mother would bring along a large, empty suitcase that she filled with chocolate from Germany to bring back to the U.S. When I asked why, she said that even the German chocolates that were the same brand sold in the U.S. had different ingredients because Germany has higher standards for regulating ingredients put in food. As a young adult, I have returned to this concept with questions about what my health would look like if I, too, grew up in Germany and grocery shopped there. On a larger scale, I question the health standards for food sold in the U.S.
Below is the artist statement for the piece "tBHQ":
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A 2022 article from the journal Life states that the researchers “provide evidence that chronic, 20 day-long exposure to the food additive tBHQ changes gene activities related to immune response, apoptosis, endocytosis, and secretion (Németh et al. Chronic Exposure to...)
Similarly, a study published in the Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal in 2020 states that “The food additive tBHQ inhibits induction of CD25, CD69 and CD22 at low concentrations in LPS-stimulated B cells” and “the concentrations of tBHQ used in the current study are likely within the range of human exposure,” (Bursley and Rockwell, Nrf2-dependent and...).
Notably, as seen on tests conducted on mice, CD22 assists with the function of keeping humoral immunity in check, CD69 helps with anti-tumor immunity, and CD25 has “a major role in modulating the activity of self-reactive cells” (Ereño-Orbea Molecular basis of...; Mita et al. Crucial role of...; Valencia and Lipsky CD4+CD25+FoxP3+...).
In short, studies indicate that increased exposure to the food additive tBHQ is linked to weakened immunity in both body fluids and fighting tumors, as well as an increased risk of autoimmune/inflammatory responses.
The European Food Safety Authority states on its website that “TBHQ (E 319) is authorised as a food additive in the EU with an acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 0.7 mg/kg body weight (bw)” (EFSA ANS Panel Statement on the...) In contrast, the FDA does not have recommended acceptable daily intake.
Unfortunately, TBHQ is allowed as a food additive in both the U.S. and the European Union. Pictured is a bag of a popular spicy corn chip snack that contains the additive tBHQ in my local U.S. grocery store.
Works Cited
Bursley, Jenna K., and Cheryl E. Rockwell. “Nrf2-dependent and - independent effects of TBHQ in activated murine B cells.” Food and Chemical Toxicology, vol. 145, 2020, p. 111595, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2020.111595.
vol. 14, no. 1, 12 Jan. 2016, https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4363.
Ereño-Orbea, June, et al. “Molecular basis of human CD22 function and therapeutic targeting.” Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 1, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00836-6.
Mita, Yukiyoshi, et al. “Crucial role of CD69 in anti-tumor immunity through regulating the exhaustion of tumor-infiltrating T cells.” International Immunology, vol. 30, no. 12, 2018, pp. 559–567, https://doi.org/10.1093/intimm/dxy050.
Németh, Krisztina, et al. “Chronic exposure to the food additive TBHQ modulates expression of genes related to SARS-COV-2 and influenza viruses.” Life, vol. 12, no. 5, 2022, p. 642, https://doi.org/10.3390/life12050642.
Valencia, Xavier, and Peter E Lipsky. “CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in autoimmune diseases.” Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology, vol. 3, no. 11, Nov. 2007, pp. 619–626, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncprheum0624.
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