Soy what?

Auntie Ruth has made no secret of her love for hiking in the Sierras. There’s nothing quite like hauling yourself up a steep incline, then stopping to rest to enjoy the panoramic view and bite into a wholesome, natural Clif Bar. Or at least Auntie thought the famous energy snack was wholesome and natural. According to the Cornucopia Institute, it turns out the soybeans used in Clif Bars, which the Berkeley-based company claims are organic, are in fact treated with the chemical solvent hexane. “The use of chemical solvents such as hexane is strictly prohibited in organic food processing, yet its use is widespread in the ‘natural’ soy industry, including in some products labeled as ‘made with organic soybeans,’ such as Clif Bars,” the institute reports in “Behind the Bean: The Heroes and Charlatans of the Natural and Organic Soy Foods Industry.” The report is available at www.cornucopia.org.

Hexane is really nasty stuff, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which classifies the solvent as a neurotoxin and hazardous air pollutant. Indeed, grain processors, including soy growers, account for two-thirds of all hexane emissions in the United States. However, the Food and Drug Administration has not done any significant testing on its use in food products, a circumstance the Cornucopia Institute hopes to change. Clif Bar is by no means the only company using the substance. For example, those natural, organic soy burgers you’ve been stuffing down your craw aren’t necessarily natural or organic. According the institute, companies that use hexane include Amy’s Kitchen, Gardenburger and Trader Joe’s.

Is there any good news? Of course there is! If you still have to get your natural organic burger on, the institute notes that Helen’s Kitchen, Tofurky and Wildwood all make soy burgers without hexane. Eden Foods, a national and international purveyor of organic soy products, earned the coveted “Five Bean” award for its commitment to obtaining soy only from certified organic sources and its willingness to provide complete information to the institute. On the other hand, natural and organic soy milk drinkers beware! Vitasoy USA, WestSoy, Soy Dream and Silk all declined to participate in the survey, earning the not-so-coveted “Zero Bean” award.