What are BHA and BHT?

by Shereen Jegtvig

Food manufacturers add things to their products to keep them from going bad before we eat them.  When you look on the package for the ingredients list, you might find BHA and BHT listed there.  Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are preservatives that keep fats from going rancid.

Both BHA and BHT protect fats from oxidation damage caused when the fats in the food product are exposed to oxygen.  Actually, they work in a similar way as vitamin E (although that similar action doesn’t mean BHA and BHT are good for you).  BHA and BHT are often added to potato flakes, dry breakfast cereals, enriched rice, and foods containing animal fats and shortening.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has looked at both BHA and BHT and considers them to be safe, especially the amounts a typical person would consume on a daily basis.  Actually researchers estimate you would have to take in at least 125 times the usual amount of BHA before it would become toxic.  While BHA is not thought to be a problem, that may not be true with BHT.  The FDA also considers BHT to be safe at the usual levels found in food, but large amounts of BHT may have some interactions with hormonal birth control methods or steroid hormones, and may increase levels of liver enzymes.  Currently the FDA allows food manufacturers to use BHT, however they also suggest that additional studies on safety may be necessary.  So, while the amount of BHT you and your family is getting is probably not harmful, you still might wish to avoid it.

When you use our FoodEssentials tool, you can find BHA and BHT when you sort out your foods by the presence of preservatives.  Look at our database of kids cereals, and you see four of them contain BHT and one contains BHA.

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