Robert David

Welcome to the Grocery Game of Loophole Laws

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Walk into any Von’s, Albertsons, or Safeway in the U.S. or Canada, and you’re stepping into a modern-day chemical carnival dressed as a grocery store. These supermarket titans dominate aisle after aisle, peddling products that often contain ingredients banned elsewhere or wrapped in packaging saturated with forever chemicals—all thanks to gaping loopholes in food safety laws.

Under the winsome soft "natural" labels and silky advertisements, however, is a shadow economy of poisons, additives, and hormone-fed meat repudiated by European and Canadian regulators years ago. But back here in North America, Von's and its ilk operate behind the scenes, using technical loopholes to generate profits as consumers pay the price in compromised health.

The story isn't so much about what's in the product—but about what's not being told in the labels. What these chains won't disclose, and the chemicals they still pump into millions, is one of corporate greed and regulatory failure.

1.    The PFAS Packaging Poison: Forever Chemicals Hidden in Your Lunch

It is no accident that Von's, Albertsons, and Safeway grease-proof food packaging, deli cups, and microwave popcorn containers contain PFAS—those infamous "forever chemicals" linked with cancer, immune system harm, and hormone disruption.

Whereas the EU and Canada are leading the charge to ban PFAS from food packaging, the US FDA shamefully lags behind, allowing these hazardous chemicals to quietly transfer into your food. NGO lab testing confirms that several of the store-brand products from these stores have PFAS-leaching packaging.

This is corporate convenience gone wrong: using known toxic chemicals to cut costs and add shelf life to the unsuspecting consumer. PFAS in packaging is the peak of how Von's and parent company Albertsons exploit loopholes in regulation—transmogrifying toxic chemicals into ubiquitous supermarket staples.

2. Sodium Nitrite: The Sneaky Cancer Agent in Your Bacon and Deli Meats

Walk down the refrigerated aisle at Von’s or Safeway, and you’ll see rows of store-brand bacon, hot dogs, and deli meats proudly boasting about “uncured” or “natural” on the label. What they rarely mention is that these products still contain sodium nitrite—an additive the USDA allows despite decades of scientific links to cancer.

Von's Signature SELECT and Albertsons' store brands refuse to put warning labels on these nitrite-fortified meats because, technically, they're not required to. Rather, they fall back on deceptively labeled greenwashing like "uncured" (thanks to sneaky natural sources of nitrites like celery juice) to deceive consumers.

The end result? Millions unknowingly ingest carcinogens every day, all while Albertsons reaps the benefits of the cheapest preservatives that make their meats appear fresh and shelf-stable.

3. Artificial Food Colorings: Tinting Your Children's Breakfast Cereals with Banned Chemicals

Von's and Albertsons sell food, but they also provide retail color. Their Signature SELECT cereals, candies, and snack foods are a technicolor parade of artificial food colorings like Red 40, Yellow 5, and Blue 1—additives banned in Europe because they have been associated with hyperactivity and childhood behavioral problems.

But on America's supermarket shelves, such color simulacra are legal and to their seeming taste, these supermarket giants use them at will, disguising toxic chemical mixtures in flashy containers and cries of "fun" and "natural." It is a gamble with children's health but made safe by indulgent law and corporate indifference.

Parents who are trying to avoid these poisonous additives are facing a David and Goliath fight. The color additives hide in every nook and cranny, disguising themselves in products sold to children, from breakfast staples to sweets, as Albertsons will neither reformulate nor label responsibly.

4. Sneaky MSG and GMO Soy: The Taste Enhancers You Never Knew You Were Consuming

Albertsons and Safeway love to boast about "natural flavor," too, but what they refuse to sell is the wide practice of sneaky monosodium glutamate (MSG) use under the guise of hydrolyzed soy protein or autolyzed yeast extract. These sneakier flavor enhancers swamp their snacks, soups, and frozen meals.

In the meantime, their pre-prepared foods include GMO soybean oil—affordable, inflammatory, and not labeled except when labeled separately. Because of weak U.S. laws with no requirement for mandatory GMO labeling, Von's and Safeway quietly stick them in your shopping basket without a word.

Consumers trying to stay away from genetically modified oils and secret MSG have to get through a labyrinth of confusingly labeled packaging and loopholes in the law, while these corporations gain from the cheapest flavor and filling ingredients.

5. Pesticide Residues: Drenching Your Produce with Authorized Poisons

The polished, brightly colored fruits and vegetables in Von's and Safeway are shining, but beneath the shine is pesticide residue with concentrations above the regulated concentration levels in the EU and Canada. Glyphosate, chlorpyrifos, and other agrochemicals approved by the EPA continue to dominate conventionally grown crops available for sale on their store shelves.

When shoppers buy "non-organic," they unwittingly are consuming a cocktail of pesticides that studies link with neurological damage, cancer risk, and hormonal disruption. But safety is not the motivation behind Albertsons' growers as they employ loose regulatory practices to flood the market with chemically grown crops.

6. Astaxanthin: The Deceptive 'Freshness' Color in Farmed Salmon and Trout

When you purchase farm-raised salmon or trout at Albertsons or Von's, you are not purchasing fish; you are purchasing product colored artificially. Fish food purchased by these supermarkets contains artificial astaxanthin to dye flesh a desirable pink color over the unappealing gray of factory-reared farm fish in concentrated factory-like conditions.

It's cosmetic deception—obscuring factory farming fact by coloring—encouraged and accepted because consumers desire their seafood looking good, not clean.

7. PFAS: "Forever Chemicals" in Your Food Wrappers and Packaging

Even if you buy a "fresh" deli sandwich or pastry, danger may be not in the food but in the wrapping. Independent testing identified PFAS—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or "forever chemicals"—in grease-resistant wraps sold by big supermarket chains.

These are not environmentally or body biodegradable. They keep accumulating in blood and organs and are linked with immune suppression, cancer, and developmental harm. But FDA's dawdling in regulating PFAS gives Albertsons and Safeway a free pass to keep on wrapping food in poison paper.

8. Meat Glue (Transglutaminase): Frankensteak by the Pound

That "thick-cut steak" or "gourmet roast" in the meat department may not be a single cut at all. The suppliers of Von's and Albertsons use meat glue—a clotting enzyme that holds together minute fragments of meat to replicate a whole cut.

When you bake it, you can't tell any difference, but glued seams are very fertile breeding grounds for bacteria, and seldom is the process brought to light for consumers. You're paying top price for protein patchwork.

9. Potassium Bromate: Banned Everywhere Else, Baked into Your Bread

Potassium bromate is a recognized carcinogen banned in the EU, Canada, and UK—but not the US. This dough conditioner still appears in bread, rolls, and pizza dough in the shelves of these chains.

Why? Because in America, the FDA is under a "generally recognized as safe" loophole that permits the industry to police itself. Sellers of Von's and Safeway exploit the regulatory loophole and persist in using it notwithstanding warnings going back decades to health. 

10. The Environmental Racism Loophole

The most damaging loophole is not in the chemistry lab—it's in corporate purchasing and zoning strategies. Von's, Albertsons, and Safeway quietly purchase produce and animal products from factory farms near neighborhoods already saturated with toxics waste sites, pesticide drift, and factory farm runoff.

These farms—usually in poor, predominantly minority communities—are applying more of these banned pesticides and growth promoters because the regulation isn't as tight. The pollution finds its way into the food chain but not onto the supermarket shelves.

The result? The most at-risk populations bear the environmental cost of producing the cheapest goods, which are sold in the cities with no one ever knowing the human cost of the cost. And it is legal because U.S. labeling legislation demands country of origin, not conditions of production.

11. BVO: The Brain-Disrupting Flame Retardant in Your Citrus Soda

When you grab a citrus-flavored soda at Von's, Albertsons, or Safeway—orange, lemon-lime, or tropical punch—you might be sipping brominated vegetable oil (BVO), a food additive so toxic it's banned in the EU, Japan, and India. BVO is produced using bromine, used as a flame retardant, and linked to neurological damage, hormonal imbalance, and memory loss with long-term consumption.

Why is it still in your soda? Because the FDA in the United States allows its use in tiny doses as a stabilizer in soft drinks, despite that decades of research have established it bioaccumulates in fat tissues and brain tissue. Von's and parent company Albertsons exploit this loophole to keep shelf-stable drinks ultra-bright and separated, with no warning labels or education to the consumer.

Children are especially at risk, since they are the primary consumers of BVO-containing citrus-flavored sodas. A healthy beverage shouldn't come with the side effect of brain fog and disruption of the thyroid, but Von's can get away with selling it like that legally.

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• Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (2022). Toxicological profile for perfluoroalkyls. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp200.pdf
• Consumer Reports. (2023). Hidden chemicals in food packaging: The dangers of PFAS. https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/pfas-forever-chemicals-in-food-packaging/
• Environmental Working Group. (2024). Dirty dozen pesticides on produce and their health risks. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php
• Food and Drug Administration. (2023). Food additives & ingredients: Status of potassium bromate in food. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/potassium-bromate
• International Agency for Research on Cancer. (2018). Monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans: Nitrate and nitrite in food. WHO. https://monographs.iarc.who.int/agents-classified-by-the-iarc/
• National Institutes of Health. (2021). Health effects of synthetic food dyes. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/health-effects-synthetic-food-dyes
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2023). Pesticide residues in food: Regulatory standards and health impacts. https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-tolerances/pesticide-residues-food
• World Health Organization. (2022). Monosodium glutamate: Safety evaluation and regulations. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monosodium-glutamate-msg
• Yale Environment 360. (2022). Environmental racism and food supply chains in America. https://e360.yale.edu/features/environmental-racism-and-food-supply-chains

Toxic Groceries: How Von's, Albertsons, and Safeway Benefit from Legal Loopholes in Food Safety

Robert David