Hungry? 7 Gross Ingredients In Your Favourite Foods
Are you feeling hungry right now? By the time you’ve had a read of this article, you may not be quite as ravenous! We were probably just as surprised as you will be to learn that there are some unsavoury ingredients sometimes used in foods and drinks that are favoured amongst consumers. Below, we look at what has been found in foods such as cakes, bread, beer, wine and chicken nuggets. All of these of the ingredients will, or at least should, raise alarm bells in your mind. Will this knowledge make you think twice the next time you reach for your favourite food and drink items?
Beaver Anal Secretions
‘Scientifically’ known as Castoreum, secretions from beaver anal glands are commonly found in vanilla flavouring – therefore making up many popular sweet treats such as ice-cream, cakes and milkshakes. Whilst most commonly used for its vanilla-like smell, it can also be found in some raspberry and strawberry flavourings. Yum!
Human Hair
When looking at the ingredients of your favourite bagel or loaf of bread, ‘L-Cysteine’ may not immediately jump out at you. Made from human hair and/or duck feathers, it is an amino acid typically used as a flour-improver. The only way to avoid its consumption is to opt for wholemeal breads and cakes – which it cannot be used in.
Fish Bladder
It isn’t just food products which contain such unsavoury ingredients – Isinglass, a substance obtained from dried fish-bladders is commonly used as a processing aid in the brewing industry to accelerate the fining, or clarification, of beer. Not only this, Isinglass is often used in the production of Kosher wines.
Breast Implant Filler
What’s the difference between a chicken nugget and a breast implant? Turns out, they’re more similar than you would think (or hope!). McDonalds Chicken Nuggets have been found to contain only 50% actual chicken, with the rest comprising synthetic ingredients such as dimethylpolysiloxane, a chemical used in silicone breast implants.
Jet Fuel Additive
You might be forgiven for thinking that the worst thing found in your everyday cereal is the criminally high level of both sugar and salt, but no. Listed under ingredients as ‘Butylated Hydroxytoluene’ (BHT), the chemical compound found in petroleum products such as jet fuel has the property of keeping food fresh for longer, helping your cornflakes stay crunchy for weeks.
Coal Tar
The use of dried bugs in red food-colouring is old news, and at least they are vaguely natural! Scarily, almost any artificial food colouring contains coal-tar, the product of carbonised coal. Whilst this is in the process of being phased out, the alternative fails to be much more promising – oil.
Arsenic
This article wasn’t explicitly designed to put you off beer (or any food & drink mentioned above for that matter), but we wouldn’t be surprised if it does just that. Unbelievably, traces of arsenic can be found in both beers and wine that are clearer in colour. Nobody ever praised alcoholic beverages for their health benefits, but arsenic, really?
Contact Our Food & Drink Experts
Do you need help with research, marketing, category management or more? Have you got any new food or drink products you need help launching? Our food and drink marketing team is on hand to ensure everything is in order for your entry into the given market or to help develop your position in a market. Call us on 01803 203387 or email at hamish@hra-global.com.
