Self-Preservation

Think of this as *the* shovel talk about the shelf life of your food.

Ah, here it is again. Another food-based lawsuit, ready to rile you up with phrases like “purposely obfuscated” and “hidden chemicals.” I get a funny tingling in the back of my neck when I see these articles pop up now—call it intuition, call it absurd excitement over bringing you yet again another overblown wellness topic.

This time, they’re leveling hits at Costco’s rotisserie chicken¹. Have we lost all joy and whimsy? A $5, fully-cooked, multi-meal-making chicken with perfectly crispy skin that you can carry around by the handle like an edible purse is the new source of our woes?

Okay quickly, let’s run through the facts: The lawsuit² was filed January 22 in Southern California (hoo boy I have feelings about this but let’s keep going). The lawsuit only names two plaintiffs³, which claim they, and other customers, were “systemically cheated out of tens—if not hundreds—of millions of dollars,” by Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken with a claim of ‘no preservatives’ on the label. So you’re saying a roasted chicken, a non-sentient cooked food product, [checks notes] swindled you? Girllllll that’s so dramatic. Anyway.

In 2021, over 320 food-based lawsuits⁴ were filed in California—the highest number of any state—a number that only New York recently surpassed⁵. Why is this? California is known for having some of the most strict food laws of the whole country, on top of tight environmental guardrails and consumer protections. Therefore, a lawsuit in California has a better shot of getting pushed through, recognized by the courts as valid, and publicized. It’s why the red dye ban⁶ originated there, any eggs sold have to be free range (which is why they were hit the hardest by bird flu⁷ last year), and why there’s a special cancer warning—aka prop 65⁸—on some foods sold there. Yet, some of the highest per capita⁹ of Botox users? Make it make sense!

Back up. What is a preservative?

Preservative(s) is a sneeze away from getting the “p-word” treatment—a word so dirty and offensive it shall not be uttered in the food space. To paraphrase: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Preservative talk is everywhere. Whole Foods has it plastered all over their bags, proudly declaring how they’ve “bravely” banned 300+ additives¹⁰, some of which are preservatives, then proceed to list them all. One is cricket flour, for whatever reason, so take that as it is. Great fodder for when you need something to put you to sleep while reading. I hate this phrase, but holy virtue signaling. Not to mention it’s easy to ban something that isn’t allowed in the food system anyway (some of these listed products are barred¹¹ by the FDA and USDA).

It gets a little muddled though, when Whole Foods claims to allow sulfites in wine, but not in dried fruit (where it’s commonly used to delay browning or oxidization of the fruit skin). A sulfite is still a sulfite, no matter how small, as the saying goes. Uh, oh, there’s that pesky nuance again.

The preservatives called out in the Costco lawsuit are sodium phosphate and carrageenan. So yes, there are two preservatives in Costco’s rotisserie chicken; the lawsuit still stands, and Costco has since removed the ‘no preservatives’ claim. Are the preservatives put there to confuse, cheat, or kill someone? No.

Sodium phosphate is what is called a P-additive—modified starch and lecithin are also P-additives—named for the ability to be more easily absorbed by the body, upping phosphorus intake. A French study on P-additives¹² followed 100,000 people for 10+ years who ate, broadly, processed foods, and claimed a “modestly higher” cancer risk as result. That study was self-reported, which, in science, is as accurate as blindfolding someone, spinning them in a circle and asking them to point due west. Well, more accurately, it’s like me asking you to name exactly what you had for breakfast three years ago on this day.

The main study that journals and nutritionists pull from when citing the dangers of sodium phosphate was done on veterans getting colonoscopies. Those studied were given enemas that contained sodium phosphate, and reports claimed some increase¹³ in kidney issues and renal failure. We made a lot of jokes about different enemas in the 00s, spanning from coffee to alcohol, all in the name of speeding up and amplifying effects of whatever substance. Are you putting rotisserie chicken in… you know what? Never mind. You get it. Don’t be stupid. Other studies show benefits in high-performance athletes¹⁴. It’s all a spectrum.

Carrageenan is a plant-derived and is a naturally occurring substance found in a type of red seaweed. It’s mainly used in food as a thickening agent, and is especially helpful in binding proteins, like say, chicken. It’s also in yogurt and baby formula. The “issue” is that the polysaccharide¹⁵ contains a-Gal, which is the same thing found in ticks that can trigger alpha-gal¹⁶ syndrome, an allergic reaction to meat. A-Gal has also shown to irritate those with existing gut issues, causing flare ups in the gut microbiome¹⁷ and, spooky…broadly undefined and untethered inflammation.

In a rotisserie chicken application, carrageenan helps promote even cooking across the whole surface area¹⁸, and moisture retention. Sodium phosphate also helps with texture and moisture in proteins¹⁹. Let’s be real, customers wouldn’t buy a rotisserie chicken that was unevenly browned, or had weird dry or scraggly patches on it, or if the texture of the chicken was bad.

It’s not only about shelf life, it’s about what the average consumer expects their food to look and behave like, even if that wouldn’t be the case without interventions like preservatives.

Yet, preservation is a key factor in our food systems, and has been historically crucial around the world since almost the dawn of time, essentially. Preservation isn’t about chemical warfare on food, it’s about delay, safety, and sometimes (a lot of the times) sustainability, too.

We gotta stop saying chemicals like it’s a dirty word. Saliva is made of chemical compounds²⁰. Our DNA is a literal chemical²¹ structure. YOU ARE CHEMICAL. Saying something is a chemical is like saying the sky is blue. Yes, and?

A favorite fact of mine, in the realm of preservation, is that kosher salt wasn’t named because it was anymore applicable to kashrut law²² than any other salt, but because it was most commonly used in preserving and curing methods for meats because of the size of the salt crystal—small enough to stick without falling off, and big enough to not melt into the meat from the excess liquid present. The salt rubs dried the meats so they would be safe at room temp without spoiling or growing bacteria and or mold (which they sometimes did anyway, because nothing is foolproof).

But, they cry, what about nitrates? I could filibuster about nitrates. Well, let’s be real, I could do that for many a wellness topic²³. But I’ll spare you—and me—the diatribe and give the elevator pitch on nitrates in cured meats. Nitrates and nitrites²⁴, are mixed with salts to make a rub, and legally cannot be more than 10 percent of the meat weight. Nitrates lose potency—basically are pretty undetectable on cured meats—after about 90 days, which is the minimum cure time needed for meats to be commercially²⁵ sold.

Additional notes: Your body organically produces nitrates. So do plants. Celery is actually a common curing agent because it naturally has high level of nitrates—celery salt, anyone? Actually, some documentation shows nitrate-laden salt was being used to cure meats back in 850 B.C. Nitrites specifically get a bad rep because some studies show, when heated to high temperatures, they can become carcinogenic²⁶, and carcinogens have the potential²⁷ to cause cancer.

Those high temperatures are never specified, and that’s on purpose, to freak the general public out and make their claims seem worse. “High heat” in this instance is 300℉. The food commonly associated with this claim is barbecue—a technique that involves literally charring the heck out of the outer surface of a protein over an open flame for hours. Unless you’re routinely burning all of your food to a crisp, you’re fine. If you are doing that, please see me after class.

And what am I going to say about these carcinogenic studies? Those studies were done mainly on mice and rats²⁸ where they plied them with volumes that exceeded half of their body weight and said oh no, manufactured consequences! Toxicity = volume. (Say it back.)

How does the FDA and USDA “allow” these preservatives in our food, then, if they’re bad enough that legitimate lawsuits are cropping up? Simply put, they operate on an innocent-until-proven-guilty basis. The agencies are constantly reviewing studies, lawsuits, and other internal checks for new information that would prove any of these substances are harmful enough to pull from the food system. Per the FDA, “Depending on the results of our reassessments, some of these actions may include revoking authorizations or approvals for certain uses, working with industry on voluntary market phase-out agreements and recalls, and issuing alerts and informing consumers.”²⁹

If you crave 365-days-a-year access to something like a strawberry—which has no business being red and juicy in February—the tradeoff is preservatives. If you want that quart of yogurt still unspoiled by the time it takes you to eat all of it, the tradeoff is preservatives. If you want your salmon to be perfectly, evenly pink, the tradeoff is preservatives. If you have a deep seated need for a bounty of options at the grocery store, no matter the season or locale, the tradeoff is preservatives.

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1. https://www.fastcompany.com/91483417/costcos-beloved-5-rotisserie-chickens-are-ruffling-feathers-heres-why

2. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/business/costco-chicken-lawsuit-preservatives.html

3. https://www.almeidalawgroup.com/updates/costco-rotisserie-preservative-lawsuit/

4. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/san-francisco-files-landmark-lawsuit-comparing-ultra-processed/story?id=128046148

5. https://instituteforlegalreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Food-Litigation-Update_web.pdf

6. https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204839281/california-ban-food-additives-red-dye-3-propylparaben-candy

7. https://caes.ucdavis.edu/news/bird-flus-varied-impacts-egg-and-milk-markets

8. https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/fact-sheets/foods-and-beverages

9. https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/News/Statistics/2024/plastic-surgery-statistics-report-2024.pdf

10. https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/quality-standards/food-ingredient-standards

11. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-chemical-safety/list-select-chemicals-food-supply-under-fda-review

12. https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(25)00009-7/abstract

13. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5495542/

14. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8538808/

15. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7838237/

16. https://www.cdc.gov/alpha-gal-syndrome/about/index.html

17. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8539934/

18. https://ginobiotech.com/carrageenan-in-chicken/

19. https://www.chefsresource.com/what-are-sodium-phosphates-in-food/

20. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11674559/

21. https://www.britannica.com/science/DNA

22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_foods

23. ha ha ha I’m okay I swear

24. compounds of nitrogen + oxygen, nitrites have one less O molecule (2) and are less stable

25. https://www.fda.gov/food/meat-guidance-documents-regulatory-information/fda-regulated-meats-and-meat-products-human-consumption

26. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9322758/

27. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts204.pdf

28. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10790-nitrite-for-meat-preservation-controversial-multifunctional-and-effective

29. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-chemical-safety/list-select-chemicals-food-supply-under-fda-review