Birds – Harmful Ingredients in Peanut Butter Suet

Q: You talk about making a suet mixture for birds. My concern is with the Crisco, lard, & peanut butter, that you use. Would you research the ingredients in these products? The main one I’m concerned about is Propylene glycol. This is an Antifreeze, used to deice airplanes. Others are: 1) Hydrogenated oil 2) Animal fat. These are ingredients that everybody should know they are eating, after all they are in just about every thing we eat today.

A: In the words of Paracelsus, “The DOSE makes the POISON.”
In other words, it depends on how much of a chemical you consume as to whether it will hurt you. Sodium chloride is used to de-ice roads…but I just had some on my pork chop and it was delicious. Acetic acid causes severe burns on skin but I had dill pickles made with acetic acid for lunch without worrying about it.

Propylene glycol is generally considered safe when used in food according to this site
Ethylene Glycol and Propylene GlycolConsult your doctor about consuming the other ingredients – – or feeding them to birds.