Many (most) soy products are teated with HEXANE, a petroleum derivative, to separate oils from the soy solids. Hexane has been strongly implicated in relation to brain tumors.

The CORNUCOPIA INSTITUTE has a list of both non-hexane and hexane treated soy products.

Most interesting to backackers is the list of energy bars in the two groups.

For ex. Lara Bars are NON-hexane drived while Luna Bars are hexane derived, as are Clif Bars.

Will someone with more computer savvy than me please make a link to that site's page?

In general "ORGANIC" foods MUST be non-hexane derived while "NATURAL" foods usually contain hexane derived soy products.

Amazing what the FDA permits in food processing and that they have NOT updated their dangerous chemicals list since the '70s!

Edited by Danepacker on 11/22/2012 12:18:08 MST.

Here is the link Hexane-Soy

As with all chemicals, the harmfulness is a function of dose and exposure. At the levels residual hexane is being found in these soy products by independent studies, I'd say that we aren't facing any real harm. We don't know everything these is to know about this issue for sure, and more studies need to be done, but saying the FDA isn't doing their job by banning it is a little bit of a stretch IMO as a professional toxicologist.

Sure I will chose foods not treated with hexane given the option, but I'm not worried about the occasional cliff bar, and morning star sausage patty =)

Lara bars don't have soy in them, so... of course they don't have hexane treated soy.

Are there any energy bars with non-hexane treated soy?

The Article specifically listed Luna bars so I guess they just included ANY non-hexane treated bar, woth or without soy content. Kinda disingenuous of them.

Eric -- thank you for posting about this. I did not know about the methods used for post processing soy. I rarely eat these bars or the "tofuturkey" stuff, but kids do, so good to know.