Oreos were probably healthier back in the day, when the filling was made with lard.
"There's one ingredient not listed on the Oreo packaging, however, that may well still be in your cookie: Titanium dioxide, a chemical used to whiten products. The whitening agent is actually wrapped up in a bit of scandal. In 2014, two men from California were sentenced to prison time after stealing the formula for making titanium dioxide from American chemical company DuPont. The men sold the formula to Pangang Group, a Chinese company that had been unsuccessfully attempting to buy the formula from DuPont, for over $20 million. The conviction of the men subsequently leaked the fact that Oreo used the chemical to whiten their filling, much to the concern of the American public. Although titanium dioxide is a common food additive, recent studies have flagged the chemical as a potentially cancer-causing carcinogen."
- Rebecca Firkser
