Have you ever walked down a foreign grocery store, looking for one comfort food that you know, only to realize it is nowhere to be seen? It is a peculiar sensation, and one that often ends in one question: why are some of our American staples not available on foreign store shelves? The reason takes us far into a dense world of culinary palate, food safety regulations, and alternate scientific decisions of what is safe to consume.
Whereas the FDA is able to accept a product in the United States, overseas regulators view matters quite differently. Sometimes it is because of additives, sometimes because of how it was made, and in most cases it is because of food attitudes that come with culture. An entirely acceptable ingredient in one of America’s snack foods could be simply prohibited in Europe, Asia, or Oceania, causing surprise gaps in availability across the globe.
So let’s take a look at some of the most common American food and drink you just can’t get overseas, and find out why they’re on the blacklist. Some of them are due to health concerns, some due to how they’re farmed, and a couple will just leave you baffled.
1. Mountain Dew
This neon-green soda, famous for its citrus kick and its “Do the Dew” slogan, is an icon of American pop culture. But if you’re in Europe or Japan, don’t bother looking for it it’s banned.
The scandal is an additive known as brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which keeps flavor from becoming unevenly concentrated. Overseas, BVO has been associated with health issues such as memory loss, skin irritation, and nerve damage. Despite PepsiCo’s vow in 2014 to phase it out, the legacy of this ingredient has left Mountain Dew off the majority of global shelves.
2. Farmed Salmon
Domesticated salmon is inexpensive, ubiquitous, and a U.S. household favorite. But not in Australia, New Zealand, and most of Europe.
Why? The farming practices. These salmon live in packed pens, are treated with antibiotics, and are fed chemical colorants to make them pink. Critics fear that this leads to chemical buildup in the fish and in the environment. Most nations prefer to retain wild-caught salmon.
3. Little Debbie Swiss Rolls
For kids who were around in the ’90s, these chocolate-and-cream treats were a lunchbox favorite. But Austria and Norway are two places where you won’t be able to find them.
The culprit is their artificial coloring Yellow 5 and Red 40, which have been associated with hyperactivity and other kids’ disease. Toss in palm oil and high-fructose corn syrup, both used with caution in Europe, and these retro treats are a risky entry on the list of items to ban or limit.
4. Ractopamine-Fed Pork
In America, pig producers feed pigs ractopamine regularly to lower the fat level. But over 160 nations the whole European Union, China, and Russia prohibit it.
Ractopamine lingers on pork even after processing and foreign health regulators fear that it can be harmful to humans. With almost half of America’s swine being fed the additive, American pork has thin chances of selling in more restrictive countries.
5. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes
“Grrrrreat!” but not in Europe or Japan. Sweet cereal owes its long shelf life to an ingredient called BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), a preservative.
While BHT is prevalent in the U.S., it’s also found in cosmetics and rubber, which is suspicious elsewhere. It has been associated with potential cancer risks and thus the U.K. and EU prohibited its use in food. American companies have begun phasing out BHT, but Frosted Flakes hasn’t completely caught up yet.
6. American Bread (Potassium Bromate & Azodicarbonamide)
A toasted loaf of sandwich bread can appear innocent, but to most of the globe, American bread is lethal. The EU, UK, Canada, Australia, and China all prohibit two U.S.-popular dough conditioners: potassium bromate and azodicarbonamide.
Potassium bromate has been linked with cancer and kidney disease, and azodicarbonamide (also found in the material used for yoga mats) can exacerbate asthma. Despite warning signs, these additives still show up in the overwhelming majority of U.S. breads, wraps, and even frozen foods.
7. Gatorade
This classic American sport drink has some formulations on the no-go list in Norway and Austria.
The perpetrators are artificial colorants Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, which in the European Union have to be labeled as having possible behavioral impacts on children. Old formulas for Gatorade included BVO, another black eye for it in countries such as Japan.
8. Skittles
“Taste the rainbow” isn’t true everywhere. Skittles are prohibited in Norway, Sweden, and Austria.
Their vibrant colors are courtesy of the same contentious dyes Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 which have been an issue of world-wide concern. Some types include titanium dioxide, which is also potentially toxic. These compounds render the candy taboo in nations with more stringent food security legislation.
9. American Dairy with rBGH
Milk, cheese, and yogurt dairy saturates American cooking. But Canadian and EU, Japanese, and other governments banned non-organic dairy from recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST) because
The synthetic hormone increases milk output at the expense of animal comfort and human health. It’s associated with greater cancer risk and more antibiotic use in cows. Abroad, regulators determined risks outweighed benefits.
10. Pop-Tarts
Toasted or straight out of the box, Pop-Tarts are a childhood treat. But in the EU, their artificial coloring and high-fructose corn syrup provide an easy target.
Artificial coloring is shelled with hyperactivity issues, and corn syrup with obesity and diabetes. Enough so, in fact, that Kellogg’s formulates Pop-Tarts in Europe, which are less sweet and less colorfully dyed than American varieties.
11. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese
No other foodstuff is as iconic as Kraft Mac & Cheese, yet its neon orange hue has excluded it from Austria and Norway.
That’s Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, the same dyes banned or limited in the majority of Europe. Kraft markets a reformulated product elsewhere that has no artificial coloring so it’s white and tastes slightly differently.
12. Coffee-Mate
To others, coffee just isn’t done without the addition of Coffee-Mate creamer. In other regions of Europe, like Norway, Austria, and Denmark, it’s banned.
The problem is trans fats of partially hydrogenated oils, which was once a standard ingredient in a lot of processed food. They increase bad cholesterol and heart disease risk. While America banned trans fats in 2018, other nations had done so years before.
13. U.S. Processed Chicken
Chicken is America’s go-to protein, but American processed chicken is prohibited throughout the whole EU.
The biggest issue is chlorine washing, in which carcasses are sprayed with chlorine to kill bacteria. European authorities complain that it covers up dirty farming and want better standards throughout. American chicken foods have also been in the headlines for occasionally containing arsenic-based ingredients.
14. GMO Papaya, Corn, and Soy
GM crops are common across the U.S., but prohibited in most nations such as Russia and the EU.
GMOs such as herbicide-resistant soy or virus-resistant papaya have been found in some research to be harmful to health in terms of tumors and organ damage, although science is by no means concluded. Overseas, regulators adopt the precautionary principle and place greater trust in tradition and caution than biotech technology.
A Worldwide Divide in Food Philosophy
As this list indicates, Americans consume freely with things that elsewhere are known to produce shockwaves. From sweets and milk to chicken and bread, other nations stop at points that are diametrically different. These prohibitions are not whimsical they are prescribed by culture, environment, and the manner in which each culture squares science and caution.
Next time you grab a hold of that comfort food, take this in mind: somewhere in the world, the same snack may not just appear different it may not even be available.
