8 American Foods That Come With Warning Labels In Europe But Not In The U.S.

These Ingredients Are Sold in the U.S. Without Warnings but Flagged Across Europe for Health Risks

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The Same Foods, Two Very Different Rules

Imagine you’re standing in a Carrefour in eastern France, groggy from jet lag, just trying to find something familiar to snack on.

You grab a pack of rainbow-colored cereal, the kind you grew up with.

But right there on the front, smack in the middle of the box, is a big, bold label warning you that the contents, “May impair attention and behavior in children”.

That’s when it hit me!

Back home in the U.S., we market this stuff with cartoon leprechauns and talking animals.

In France, they slap it with the kind of warning label you’d expect to see on a cigarette pack.

Now, I’ve dodged mayonnaise-laced pizza in Ukraine, squinted at Cyrillic ingredient lists of Russian imports in Georgia, and even fumbled through grocery aisles in Spain wondering whether I was buying yogurt or grout.