TSP in breakfast cereals

Hi,
I don’t know. I just can’t figure out why Trisodium Phosphate is put in kids cereals (Lucky charms, cocoa puffs, ect…).
I’ve known about this since eighth grade, and whenever I show people the ingredients list, they say something to the likes of “Holy Sh*t!”.
Maybe someone else has noticed this and know what’s going on…

Thanks,
	Pascal

what’s the big deal?

http://www.solutia.com/Products/TrisodiumPhosphateC.html

TSP is put in kids’ cereal to keep their little pipes cleaned out.

Gee, I didn’t like Lucky Charms® even before I knew they put soogee in it.

Hey, thanks for the replies and the link. I checked it out, but it didn’t really go into WHY it’s put there in the first place…

TSP is short for teaspoon. You use it to eat the stuff. :rolleyes:

Hi Agubwa and welcome to the boards! Here is a bit from the above link that you may have missed:

My guess is that if the cereals cook quicker, then the plant uses less energy to make the same product. On the scale that these plants operate at that probably adds up to quite a lot of cabbage.

As the site seems to make the stuff sound pretty innocuous, what was it you heard in eight grade that has you running in fear?

Again, welcome to the boards!

Rhythmdvl

Heh… Rhythmdvl… good one…
Hmmm… I saw that quote, but I assumed they were talking about instant oatmeal and stuff like that, not breakfast cereals (but on second thought, you don’t think of lucky charms as being cooked…)
TSP does not seem too innocuous to me. Of course the site makes it seem innocuous, it’s a company that makes it (or so it seems).
In eighth grade, I had a job doing painting at my school. We were painting huge areas each day, so I was pretty versed in the ways. TSP is used as a surface cleaner before you apply primer, to get it nice and clean. It comes in boxes of pure white powder (I’m sure someone will have SOME comment about that), and you have to dilute it TREMENDOUSLY. Probably about a tablespoon per gallon or something like that. So maybe tcburnet was onto something…
Maybe YOU use a teaspoon to eat your cereal, Cornflakes, but that must take a long time to finish, no? You could fit maybe one cornflake in a teaspoon, I’d think…

Peace,
	Pascal

Sodium phosphate, tribasic
trisodium orthophosphate
trisodium phosphate
tertiary sodium phosphate
TSP
Oakite
Na[sub]3[/sub]PO[sub]4[/sub]·12H[sub]2[/sub]O

They’re all the same thing. None of my chemistry and toxicology references list it as particularly dangerous or toxic. It is an emulsifier. If that is its purpose in the cereal, I suppose the same results could be had by using lecithin. Then again, it may be used for its alkalinity, the way lime is used to turn corn to grits.

Gee I’ve given up on reading cereal boxes but TSP is a pretty powerful cleaner. Used full strength it cleans oil and grease from concrete.

Ack. Here’s the MSDS for Sodium Phosphate, Tribasic, 12-Hydrate aka Trisodium Phosphate, 12-Hydrate; Phosphoric Acid, Trisodium Salt, Dodecahydrate. This is in breakfast cereal?!

This site: Food Additives A-Z](http://www.dottisweightlosszone.com/nutrition15.html) says that phosphates (including trisodium phosphate) are generally recognized as safe, except at high levels of consumption:

I don’t know her source, though. She lists The Label Reader’s Pocket Dictionary of Food Additives by J. Michael Lapchick with Cindy Appleseth, R.Ph. at the bottom of the page, but I think that may just be the source for her glossary definitions.