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Potentially cancer-causing chemical may be in your peanut butter

Posted 11:28 AM, Oct 24, 2018
and last updated 7:57 PM, Oct 24, 2018

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — A potentially cancer-causing chemical may be in your child's favorite snack. It was found in peanut butter.

Non-profit Clean Label Project tested 125 of the most popular brands in America to see which ones got the worst grades.

The chemical they were searching for is called Acrylamide. Acrylamide is a natural byproduct that forms when nuts are roasted quickly.

Clean Label Project teamed up with an independent third-party analytical chemistry laboratory called Ellipse Analytics. Ellipse is an accredited lab out of Colorado.

The non-profit's executive director tells us people may be most surprised they found the three worst for overall purity, were all almond butters. Click on the video to find out which brands they named.

"It could literally be the manufacturing process now there are food mitigations that help remove this Acrylamide formation, but that's still something quite new in the food industry," said Bowen.

The cleanest brands were peanut butters made by JIF, Earth Balance, Market Pantry (Target's private label), and Great Value (Wal-Mart's private label).

They hope testing what is behind the labels help consumers see past the flashy marketing and feel empowered.