--- title: Soy Milk Brand Stops Using Carrageenan description: Organic food lovers tend to give multisyllabic ingredients the side-eye, so the natural stabilizer carrageenan—count ’em: four—raises flags as red as the seaweed from which... canonical: https://time.com/3162074/carrageenan-whitewave/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-22T21:34:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:49:03.723Z article:section: Health og:title: Soymilk Brand Gives Carrageenan The Axe og:description: Organic food lovers tend to give multisyllabic ingredients the side-eye, so the natural stabilizer carrageenan—count ’em: four—raises flags as red as the seaweed from which... og:url: https://time.com/3162074/carrageenan-whitewave/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e9fc59e4d719aa4/6986a09c13c79f609319391b/milk-97659139-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cold glass of Milk og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Soymilk Brand Gives Carrageenan The Axe twitter:description: Organic food lovers tend to give multisyllabic ingredients the side-eye, so the natural stabilizer carrageenan—count ’em: four—raises flags as red as the seaweed from which... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e9fc59e4d719aa4/6986a09c13c79f609319391b/milk-97659139-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Soy Milk Ingredient That's Getting the Axe  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 22, 2014 9:34 PM UTC  Silk soy milk is going carrageenan-free Silk soy milk is going carrageenan-freewww.davebradleyphoto.com—Dave Bradley Photography  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 22, 2014 9:34 PM UTC Organic food lovers tend to give multisyllabic ingredients the side-eye, so the natural stabilizer carrageenan—count ’em: four—raises flags as red as the seaweed from which it’s extracted. The marine-sourced additive is used in many packaged foods like sauces, ice cream, and processed meats to help them thicken, gel, and stabilize. Natural and organic companies often favor it as a vegan alternative to gelatin, but consumers are wary because some animal studies suggest it causes gastrointestinal inflammation and ulcers. Last year, Stonyfield Organic [vowed](http://www.stonyfield.com/blog/recipe-update/) to remove carrageenan from its products, and Friday, WhiteWave Foods followed suit, announcing that it’s nixing carrageenan from its brands which include Silk and Horizon Organic. The phaseout will begin with Silk soy milk and coconut milk and Horizon’s line of organic flavored milks. “Many of our conversations have focused on the use of carrageenan,” reads a [post](http://www.thegrazingmind.com/2014/08/22/our-decision-to-remove-carrageenan/) published today on WhiteWave’s blog by Sara Loveday, spokeswoman for the company. “Even though it is safe, our consumers have told us they want products without it.” WhiteWave will retire carrageenan over the next two years. “We get a lot of questions,” Loveday tells TIME. “It’s definitely been a consistent area of concern for a few years.” The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared carrageenan safe many years ago, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) echoed those safety claims last month in a joint statement on food additives. But the seaweed extract has drawn the attention of many consumers, notably by Vani Hari, who blogs under the name [Food Babe](http://foodbabe.com/2014/08/19/breaking-major-company-removing-controversial-ingredient-carrageenan-because-of-you/#more-17711) and recently successfully petitioned Subway to remove the common compound azodicarbonamide from its bread. “I’m so thrilled that WhiteWave made this announcement,” Hari writes, “because this will likely lead to other companies following suit.” Though science hasn’t proven carrageenan to be unsafe in humans, major natural food brands are making those four little syllables easier to avoid than ever. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3162074/carrageenan-whitewave/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3162074/carrageenan-whitewave/"},"headline":"The Soy Milk Ingredient That's Getting the Axe","datePublished":"2014-08-22T21:34:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:49:03.723Z","description":"Organic food lovers tend to give multisyllabic ingredients the side-eye, so the natural stabilizer carrageenan—count ’em: four—raises flags as red as the seaweed from which...","url":"https://time.com/3162074/carrageenan-whitewave/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e9fc59e4d719aa4/6986a09c13c79f609319391b/milk-97659139-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e9fc59e4d719aa4/6986a09c13c79f609319391b/milk-97659139-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cold glass of Milk","caption":"Cold glass of Milk","creditText":"www.davebradleyphoto.com—Dave Bradley Photography","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3162074/carrageenan-whitewave/","name":"The Soy Milk Ingredient That's Getting the Axe"}}]}] ```