Trisodium Phosphate: Is it really in our foods?

Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisodium_phosphate

Earlier today I came across a picture. It was from snopes.com and I took the picture and not the article for what it was worth. I fell victim to confirmation bias. Below is the picture I was presented. Without further research until now.

Credit: http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/tsp.asp

I even grabbed a box of Lucky Charms and said to myself, "Yep Trisodium phosphate is there." Of course I've got a large box of Lucky Charms. They are magically delicious.

Of course we have to look at what this chemical itself does. In high concentrations it is a heavy duty cleaner. But the amounts used in what we eat are very tiny. It is a water soluble salt which when mixed with water creates an alkaline solution. Our blood is slightly alkaline at slightly above 7 which is neutral. As a student of both chemistry and biology I have found that many things which in high concentration are poisonous and if low enough its perfectly safe. The trick is finding the magic number and everything that can potentially go into our bodies have one. Hydrogen Sulfide is extremely poisonous to us yet we produce it naturally. Anything up to 1.5 PPM is a typical rotten egg smell. Our bodies are equipped to handle this.

Trisodium Phosphate is safe up to about 1000mg/kg There is no where near this amount in the cereals we eat... unless you ate a whole box everyday for 2 years. Then again if all you eat is Lucky Charms perhaps you are already sick. This stuff is even used in nutritional supplement. It's just not bad. I've included references below.

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+583

Naifaz