A woman named Carolyn Friedman recently e-mailed me with a link to an article on “30 Scary Food Facts” that she had just posted on her blog, Forensic Science Technician. Since I would hate to frighten my readers away at Twin Cities Restaurant Blog, I thought I would enlighten ya’ll here instead.
Food is a common necessity in our everyday life. We constantly have to make decisions about food for both ourselves and our families. While trying to decipher the labels while standing in the aisles of the grocery store, one might establish that many of the foods we consume are indeed made of some unexpected ingredients, and some that are just unpronounceable in the English language. There are hundreds of little known facts about food out there, but we have picked the ones we think are both a bit intriguing and undoubtedly scary at the same time. Either way, we think that these facts are absolutely worth knowing about. So if you think you’re up for it, here we go.
Fast Food
We’ve all heard the horror stories about fast food restaurants. These facts will definitely make you think twice about super sizing.
1. An average person’s yearly fast food intake will contain 12 pubic hairs. – Fast food products are more likely to have human hairs and you will never know about it. Think about all the reported cases of customers finding strands of hair in their fries. What about all the hairs that possibly ended up in your stomach that you never even noticed! Now that’s scary.
2. Most fast food chains dip their French fries in sugar to give them that deliciously golden brown hue after frying . – What many of us don’t realize is that some fast food fries aren’t just fatty and starchy. They are also sugary as well. While they don’t taste very sweet, the sugars are added for other incentives. It also helps to develop that nice outer crispiness that can be complicated to imitate when frying at home.
3. The Strawberry flavor Contains 50 Different Chemicals. – In order to copy the flavor of a strawberry, fast food corporations include 50 distinct chemicals like ethyl acetate, phenythyl alcohol, rose, and solvent. So, the next time you get a craving for a strawberry milkshake, take a minute to remember the ingredients.
4. Grilled chicken sandwiches and salads on fast food menus, might contain beef. – For example chicken McNuggets contain several beef additives disguised generally with secret names like “extract” or “essence”. Current offenders include Wendy’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich and KFC’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich.
5. Hamburgers are made in huge factories. – One ordinary hamburger can encompass pieces of beef from a variety of cattle from many different areas. This multiplies the risk of contamination being that just one unhealthy cow in the group can have a major effect on making hundreds of people ill in distant regions of the country.
6. Propylene Glycerol used for antifreeze keeps your salad crispy . – This chemical, also comes with alerts like skin and eye irritation if exposed to the human body. It is generally used in products like Sierra Anti Freeze and even worse Astroglide Sexual Lubricant .
7. You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac . – Unless you plan to get right on the treadmill after your lunch, it’s probably best not to go for those extra humungous fries and drink with your bacon double cheeseburger.
Beverages & Sauces
You’ll be surprised when you read these facts about the ingredients used in your favorite beverages and sauces.
8. The highest price coffee in the world comes from civet droppings. – Kopi Luwak are coffee beans that come from Civet poop. The animals indulge on only the most exquisitely ripe berries, and excrete the partly eaten beans, which are then cultivated to be sold. Kopi Luwak sells anywhere from $120 and $600 per pound. It is primarily sold in the U.S. and Japan.
9. About one-third of bottled water contained synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. – In a study of over 900 bottles and 100 store brands that were tested by the National Resources Defense Council. On another note, there are also more than 115,000 human-made chemicals that are finding their way into the public water supply system.
10. Pink-grapefruit juice drinks may contain bugs. – You won’t find it listed in the contents, but it is definitely there. The insects are in the shape of an ordinary food coloring named cochineal extract, carmine, or carmines acid. The reddish color is derived from the insect known as Dactylopius Coccus Costa, whose diet is of red cactus berries. The bugs are dried up and then ground into a fine powder that is used in a lot of processed foods with a pink, red or purple tint.
11. Worcestershire sauce is made from dissolved fish. – The world renown English sauce is made with liquefied anchovies. The anchovies are soaked in vinegar until they are totally melted down. This includes the bones and all!
12. The phosphoric acid found in cola is so acidic that it can dissolve a nail in 4 days. – The pH of soda is equivalent to the pH level of vinegar .That’s what makes this the most acidic beverage that is sold. Next time you see a truck toting concentrated Coca-Cola, look for the highly corrosive materials sign.
13. Water is reusable. – So basically, an allotment of the water you’ve been drinking has already been drunk by someone else. Maybe even more than once.
Sweets & Snacks
Read some of these fascinating tidbits about popular staples found in any American families pantry.
14. Jelly Beans keep their shine with Shellac. – Shellac is regularly associated as being a type of wood finishing material. It’s common uses include furniture, guitars and even AK-47’s that special shine. Shellac is derived from the excretions of the Kerria lacca insect which is native to the Thailand forests.
15. The FDA allows bugs and rodent hair in peanut butter. – The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter. To find out more about other foods, here is the link to the FDA Defect Levels Handbook , which provides this scary information.
16. Sugar derived from pure sugar cane goes through a purification process using bone char. Bone char is manufactured by using bones from cows that have died of natural causes. These bones are mostly from the countries of I Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. After being bleached by laying in the hot sun, they are then sold to exporters who in return sell them to the gelatin and sugar companies.
17. Natural vanilla can be moderately addictive – Reason being? It causes the body to increase the levels of catecholamine’s known to us as epinephrine, and even more commonly, adrenaline. These claims have not been documented precisely by a group of scientist, but there are several articles out there on the web.
18. Many mass produced ice creams have seaweed in them. – This does not mean a chunk of seaweed from the ocean is in your ice cream. What you will see on the label is the name carrageenan .It’s a seaweed extract not added for flavor, but as a stabilizer to keep the ice cream crystal free.
19. Peanuts can be used for a component to make Dynamite. – Peanut oil can be produced to create glycerol, which is then processed into nitroglycerin, one of the items that make up dynamite. This is not usually the norm however; there are several other ways to generate dynamite with the use of peanuts being involved.
Beef & Poultry & Fish
Here are a few weird facts about beef, poultry, and fish.
20. About 4 years ago, the FDA allowed the use of bacteriophages to fight microbes that are found on lunch meat, sausages, and hot dogs. – If you are wondering what a bacteriophage is, the general term would be virus. What this really means is that that the processed turkey you eat for lunch contains a number of virus’s that are being used to fight off one microbe that can be dangerous for consumption.
21. Over 90% of the salmon that is sold to us in stores is farm-raised and can contain as many as 16 more contaminants than wild salmon. – Did you realize even realize that salmon are gray and not supposed to be pink? Since farm raised do not consume their natural foods, they are given coloring agents that give them the salmony pink color.
22. The waste produced by one chicken in its lifetime can supply enough electricity to run a 100 watt bulb for five hours. – Is there really any more to say? That’s just icky and gross.
Delicacies
Finding out these details on what some considered to be delicacies might find you with a bit of a week stomach.
23. The fungus called truffles can cost $800 to $1,500 per pound. – They are snorted out by female pigs, who recognize the chemicals smell from being produced by the saliva of the male pig. This exact chemical is also originated from the perspiration of human males.
24. The largest item on any menu in the world is the roast camel. The camel is stuffed with a sheep’s carcass, which is then stuffed with chickens, which are then stuffed with fish, which are finally stuffed with eggs. This is a rare delicacy and is mostly served at Bedouin wedding feasts.
25. The toxic puffer fish delicacy called Fugu kills about 300 people per year. -In spite of the meticulous measurements of expert chefs, this total remains. The emperor of Japan can only eat Fugu when it is going to be his last meal. And for those experts chefs, they must also eat their own Fugu once It is cooked.
26. In ancient China and certain parts of India, the meat from a mouse was considered a great delicacy. – Furthermore, in ancient Greece, the mouse was help sacred to Apollo. Mice were often relished by the temple priests.
27. Casu Marzu is a cheese made from sheep’s milk that has cheese flies purposely added. – This cheese is a delicacy in Sardinia . And it is also illegal. This dish requires protective eyewear being that the larvae are able to jump into the air about 6 inches. The taste is potent enough to burn your tongue and when undigested larva can live long enough to infest in the intestine walls, causing vomiting and severe diarrhea…yummy.
Dairy
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28. Cheese Products Contain Less than 51 percent Cheese. – This is truly one of the more interesting facts we’ve come across. Any cheese whose package states it is processed or pasteurized is most likely made from less than 51 percent of cheese The other 49 percent would be a concoction of flavorings and concocted with additives and flavorings to give your taste buds the illusion of cheese.
29. When Swiss cheese ferments, the bacterial chemistry creates a gas. – When the gas is released, it creates bubbles that eat their way through. This is how the holes are made in your Swiss cheese.
30. Some yogurts contain beef or pork gelatin. – The gelatin used in most leading brands of yogurt is derived from beef and/or pork. Many products containing Glycerin or its pseudonym, Stearic Acid have animal by-products. Stearic acid comes from beef tallow and Glycerin comes in synthetic or natural form, but usually has beef tallow as an added ingredient also.
When we eat, we don’t always think about where are food came from, or what ingredients were used, but maybe the above facts might make you take a closer look at what you are feeding our stomachs, as well as our families too.
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