FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
TERTIARY BUTYLHYDROQUINONE, TBHQ
Ruth Winter.1978. A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York.
This antioxidant is finally on the market after years of pushing by food manufacturers to get it approved. It contains the petroleum-derived butane and is used either alone or in combination with the preservative-antioxidant butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and/or butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). (Hydroquinone combines with oxygen very rapidly and becomes brown when exposed to air.) The FDA said that TBHQ must not exceed 0.02 percent of its oil and fat content. Death has occurred from the ingestion of as little as 5 grams. Ingestion of a single gram (a thirtieth of an ounce) has caused nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse. Industrial workers exposed to the vapors-without obvious systematic effects-suffered clouding of the eye lens. Application to the skin may cause allergic reactions.