October 01, 2013
14 Things You Really Don't Want To Know About Your Groceries
14 Things You Really Don't Want to Know About Your Groceries
1. Greek yogurt manufacturing produces millions of pounds of (toxic) acid whey waste every year, and no one knows what to do with it.
Source: http://modernfarmer.com/2013/05/whey-too-much-greek-yogurts-dark-side/
2. Maraschino cherry producers bleach the fruit with chemicals and then marinate it in huge vats of corn syrup and dye to turn the cherries red again.
3. This is how the ingredients for packaged veggie burgers get mixed together:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewGJnGmhDEo
4. Many ice creams are thickened and stabilized with carrageenan, which is actually a seaweed extract.
Source: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question315.htm
5. Not-from-concentrate orange juice is processed with “flavor packs” to artificially ensure that each bottle tastes exactly the same.

Source: http://civileats.com/2009/05/06/freshly-squeezed-the-truth-about-orange-juice-in-boxes/
6. Most commercial milk is made by combining, heating, homogenizing, and repackaging the milk of hundreds of cows.

Source: http://articles.latimes.com/2000/aug/02/food/fo-62752
7. Lots of imported (and expensive) “extra-virgin” olive oils are actually cut with cheaper seed and nut oils.

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller
8. To make bacon, pork bellies get hung up in this weird carwash closet machine and showered with “liquid smoke.”

9. Many canned soups are flavored with MSG, even when they claim they aren’t.

10. The canning process for soup is so violent that companies grow huge, super-tough carrots for the soup so they won’t disintegrate.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/shopping/2002/12/go_ahead_underestimate_the_power_of_soup.html
11. Red- and pink-colored products are often dyed with cochineal extract, aka the bodies of crushed-up teeny insects.


Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-cochineal-insects-color-your-food-and-drinks-2012-3?op=1
12. Shredded cheese is packed with cellulose — aka refined wood pulp — to keep it from clumping.


Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834804576300991196803916.html
13. Coffee creamer is made of corn syrup and (hydrogenated, trans-fatty) vegetable oils.

Source: http://www.organicauthority.com/health/what-the-heck-is-coffee-mate-creamer.html
14. Hot dogs are filled with a gloopy blend of meat trimmings, fat, and starch or “cereal filler.”
