The American flavor industry sells their home made chemical formulas to all different types of food and beverage companies around the world. What frightens me about this list is, we would have no clue walking into a restaurant and truly know if we ate chemically enhanced food or 100% natural.
These flavorist sell to:
- Dairy Companies
- Fast Food Companies
- Frozen Food Companies
- Meat, Poultry & Sea Food Products
- Snack Food Companies
- Gourmet Foods
- Miscellaneous Foods and Products
The list goes on. Unfortunately most restaurants aren’t liable to disclose if they are using natural flavors in order to enhance the food they’re serving.
Lets try this, walk away from the computer and open your refrigerator, your freezer, your kitchen cupboards, and look at the labels on your food. You’ll find “natural flavor” or “artificial flavor” in just about every ingredient list.
In the book “Fast Food Nation” it says “flavorists also makes the smell of household products such as deodorant, dishwashing detergent, bath soap, shampoo, furniture polish and floor wax. All of these aromas are made through the same basic process: the manipulation of volatile chemicals to create a particular smell. The basic science behind the scent of your shaving cream is the same as that governing the flavor of your TV dinner.”
If the quality of food is measured by flavor, then how will we ever know if we are ever consuming quality food when the flavor is always manipulated? Not only that but the color is also obstructed! Fake color, fake flavor and fake smell. I can even grasp what we are really consuming. Quite frankly, it’s all disgusting.
“The flavor industry is highly secretive. Its leading companies will not divulge the precise formulas of flavor compounds or the identities of clients. The secrecy is deemed essential for protecting the reputation of beloved brands. The fast-food chains, understandably, would like the public to believe that the flavors of their food somehow originate in their restaurant kitchens, not in distant factories run by other firms.” Fast Food Nation.
Also it’s very rare to find a fast food company that do not use any natural flavors in their meat, fries or shakes. I recommend staying away from fast food in general but at least they could give us some quality in their meals.
Tomorrow lean more about the manipulation of the natural flavor industry and what the FDA has to say about it.