“Many food-grade additives share names with industrial products, but concentration makes all the difference,” said Jessica Steier, a public health expert, podcaster and CEO of the science communication organization Unbiased Science. “The food-grade versions are highly purified, used in tiny amounts, and serve specific functions like pH regulation or preservation.”

…

Here’s [an] example: sodium bicarbonate. It can be used to clean ovens, unclog drains and extinguish fires. When consumed in large amounts, it can be poisonous. 

Sounds like it might be bad to ingest, right? Well, sodium bicarbonate goes by another name: baking soda. Perfectly safe in chocolate chip cookies! 

But with so many ingredients to parse through, online influencers often point to scary warning labels that apply to chemicals in high doses. And they don’t mention that those warnings don’t apply to the way they usually appear in food: in very small quantities.

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