Buzz
We live in an era where convenience often takes precedence over quality, and nowhere is this more evident than in how we eat. The ability to enjoy a quick meal without much effort or expense is a highly valued benefit of modern life. However, this convenience comes with little understanding or concern for the ingredients that fill the packaging of those fast food items. The truth might be harder to stomach than you think (even if you did opt for the Supersize). Here, we uncover 10 additives that are not only questionable but, in some cases, downright disturbing, commonly found in your fast food, whether you’re aware of them or not.
10. Sulfur Dioxide
Sulfur dioxide, also known as coal tar, is used as a bleaching agent to prevent browning in various foods, including fruits, vegetables, and both soft and hard drinks. While it serves a preservation role, this chemical has a dark side: it destroys Vitamin B1 and has been linked to 12 fatalities in individuals with a sensitivity to it. For a preservative that offers minimal benefits, the risks far outweigh any savings or convenience.
9. Nitrates
Nitrates are primarily used as preservatives in meats and cheeses, enhancing both flavor and color. However, regular consumption of nitrates can lead to unpleasant side effects, including headaches, flushed skin, and impaired oxygen transport in the blood. With effects that could rival the warnings on a prescription drug ad, this is another compelling reason to opt for organic products or fire up your own grill for those burgers.
8. Cellulose
Cellulose, derived from plants, offers a healthy, high-fiber, low-fat alternative to flour and oils. It's commonly used to thicken products like salad dressings, strawberry syrup, muffins, and cheese. But here's the catch: it's made from processed wood pulp. Yes, trees. The powdered form of cellulose is obtained by either chemically boiling the pulp or, in certain cases, using acid. It’s almost inevitable to find cellulose in the fast food you just picked up from the drive-thru.
7. Silicon Dioxide
Commonly known as sand, silicon dioxide is used in the creation of glass and cement. It also serves as an anti-caking agent in chili at fast food chains like Wendy's and Taco Bell. This ‘sand’ keeps the processed meat from clumping together. While it's deemed safe to consume, it definitely doesn’t sound appetizing.
6. L-cysteine
L-Cysteine is an amino acid that helps improve the flexibility of dough, making it more suitable for machinery. The primary source of this amino acid? Human hair and duck feathers. Around 80% of fast food chains use duck feathers, including McDonald's for their pies and rolls. But this wasn’t always the case, as human hair was the original ingredient – making for a truly unsettling form of quasi-cannibalism. It’s gross, even if it’s just a hair in your food.
5. Dimethylpolysiloxane
Dimethylpolysiloxane, also known as Silly Putty plastic, is useful for making bouncy balls, reproducing funnies from the newspaper, and – in the fast food industry – preventing oil in fryers from foaming. This means that anything dunked into that hot oil, which includes most items at your local mall food court, contains a small trace of your childhood favorite toy.
4. Carminic Acid
You might recognize this ingredient, a natural food colorant, by several of its names: Crimson Lake, Natural Red 4, Carmine, and so on. It appears in a wide range of products, from soft drinks to desserts, jam, and gelatin. However, the source might give you pause: the cochineal. Go ahead and look it up. Yep, it’s an insect – specifically, a scale insect. The dye comes from the dried, crushed bodies of the females. The Lac Beetle, in the same family, provides ingredients like 'confectioner’s glaze' and shellac – yes, that same finish your dad used to polish the coffee table.
3. “Pink Slime”
This stomach-turning, Ghostbusters-like fast food ingredient has been widely covered by the media. Although it is legal and deemed 'generally safe' by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, McDonald’s decided to stop using it in their beef – likely due to all the negative press. Interestingly, it wasn’t until McDonald’s dropped it that Burger King and Taco Bell followed suit, abandoning their 'What, me worry?' attitude. The truth is, this so-called pink slime is treated with ammonium hydroxide, a chemical used to kill bacteria. This same substance can also be found in various household cleaners, fertilizers, and even homemade bombs.
For fun, I’ve included the list of ingredients in McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets here:
"White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning [autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid], sodium phosphates, natural flavor (botanical source). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dextrose, corn starch."
Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane [silly putty] added as an antifoaming agent." [Source]
2. Ammonium Sulfate
Distributed by chemical companies, ammonium sulfate is often used as food for bread yeast (as if sugar wasn't enough!). But its other role – brace yourself – is as a fertilizer for alkaline soils. It also finds its way into pesticides to improve their effectiveness (though it's not harmful on its own). Here’s how it’s not just the livestock and crops from farms that make their way into your food – but even the farms themselves.
1. TBHQ
This petroleum-based preservative shows up in everything from beauty products to lacquers and varnishes, and most of the items on McDonald's dollar menu – like the Fruit and Walnut Salad, McGriddle, and Chicken McNuggets. Just 5 grams of this stuff can be lethal, 1 gram can make you seriously ill, and although it would take 11 pounds of McNuggets to hit that amount, it's still chilling to know that the FDA approved this chemical for general consumption (despite it being limited to only 0.02% of the oil and fat content in the food).
