Partially Hydrogenated Fats and Trans Fats

Natural oils chemically altered to change their physical properties and stability.

Highly Refined Vegetable and Seed Oils

Oils separated from the original seed or fruit matrix, often through crushing, solvent extraction, degumming, neutralization, bleaching, deodorization, and other refining steps.

Repeatedly Heated or Degraded Cooking Oils

Oils whose original fatty-acid mixture has undergone oxidation, polymerization, and the formation of degradation products through repeated high-temperature use.

Isolated Sugars and Concentrated Sweeteners

Sugar removed from the fiber, water, micronutrients, and physical structure of the plant in which it originally occurred.

Refined Starches

Starch isolated from grain, corn, potato, tapioca, or other plants while much of the original protein, fiber, oils, and micronutrient matrix is removed.

Protein Isolates and Concentrates

Plant or animal material fractionated until protein exists at concentrations and ratios very different from the original food.

Artificial Colors

Added primarily to create an appearance that the underlying food would not otherwise possess.

Artificial and Highly Concentrated Flavor Systems

Selected aroma and flavor compounds used at ratios unlike those occurring in the source food.

Emulsifiers, Stabilizers, Thickeners, and Texture Modifiers

Substances used to create physical properties that the original ingredients would not naturally maintain.

Highly Formulated Ultra-Processed Foods

Products assembled largely from isolated fats, starches, proteins, sugars, flavors, colors, emulsifiers, and other fractions rather than intact biological ingredients.

Microplastics and Plastic Fragments

Synthetic polymers fragmented into microscopic particles that can occur in air, water, food, and beverages and become an unintended human exposure.

Chemicals Migrating From Food Packaging and Containers

Plasticizers, stabilizers, monomers, coatings, inks, adhesives, and other food-contact chemicals may migrate from manufactured materials into food.

Degradation Products From Heated or Aged Plastics

Polymer materials altered further by heat, ultraviolet light, abrasion, oxidation, or repeated use.

Synthetic Fragrances and Fragrance Mixtures

Concentrated mixtures of volatile compounds intentionally released into indoor air primarily for scent.

Volatile Compounds From Cleaners and Household Products

Cleaning products and household materials can release volatile and semi-volatile compounds into indoor air.

Aerosolized Cleaners, Sprays, and Surface Treatments

Liquids intentionally converted into fine droplets or particles, creating an inhalation route that does not exist while the material remains in bulk liquid form.

Fine Synthetic and Mineral Dusts

Materials that become more biologically accessible when cutting, grinding, sanding, manufacturing, or wear converts them into respirable particles.

Combustion and Thermal-Decomposition Products

New chemical mixtures formed when plastics, oils, coatings, fuels, or other manufactured materials are burned or overheated.

Refined and Concentrated Metals

Metals purified from dilute ores into highly concentrated forms and subsequently converted into powders, fumes, oxides, filings, or machining dust.

Metal Oxides and Ultrafine Metallic Particles

Forms created through welding, grinding, combustion, manufacturing, or deliberate production that may behave differently from the same element dispersed through rock and soil.

Concentrated Mineral Powders

Silica, talc, pigments, fillers, and similar minerals reduced to particle sizes capable of becoming airborne.

Industrial Nanoparticles and Ultrafine Particles

Materials manufactured at dimensions where surface area and chemical behavior can differ substantially from the bulk substance.

Highly Concentrated Synthetic Nutrient Inputs

Individual plant nutrients supplied at concentrations and ratios substantially different from their diffuse occurrence in soils and decomposing biological matter.

Persistent Contaminants Introduced Through Fertilizers, Manure, or Biosolids

Heavy metals, pharmaceutical residues, antibiotic residues, and other compounds can enter agricultural soils as unintended components of otherwise useful soil amendments.

Animal Feeds Substantially Removed From the Species’ Typical Diet

Highly formulated feed systems may alter the relative fatty-acid and nutrient composition of resulting animal products.