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You are what you Eat: Five ingredients that will kill your appetite
Thursday 11th October 2012 | Sophie
Would you like a beaver gland with that?
The array of ingredients added to the foods we eat is endless, ranging from unusual to downright disgusting. To get your taste buds tingling, here is a selection of just five of the additives you have been eating on a daily basis.
Beaver Glands:
Yes that’s right, the the dried perineal glands of these large rodents is used for flavouring anything from sweets and chewing gum to puddings. Dessert anyone?
Sawdust:
What have we got for dinner today? Sawdust and Hay. Or technically, the powdered cellulose from wood shavings which is used to make your low-fat ice-cream taste like the real deal. It is also used to prevent pre-grated cheese from clumping up.
Beetles:
The glaze on all kinds of sweets and cakes is made from shellac, courtesy of the Lac beetle. The shell of the desert beetle is also used to make red food colouring. Surely there is a simpler method?!
Silly Putty:
What does Silly Putty have in common with a battered sausage? It contains dimethylpolysiloxane of course! Dimethylpolysiloxane (try saying it!), a silicone used in the making of the childhood toy, is also utilised as an anti-foaming agent in the oil used to fry your chips! Considering Silly Putty can lift the print from newspapers and ruin carpets, some may find this a little worrying, but fret not because dimethylpolysiloxane has been found to have no adverse health effects.
Human Hair:
This one will make your hairs stand on end. In order to make it more pliable, bread dough commonly contains L-Cysteine, which is derived from human hair, hog hair and duck feathers. But where do they get the hair from? If you’re the type who likes to know where your food comes from, industry experts believe that the majority of hair sourced comes off the heads of Chinese women. This is obviously an ethical issue that needs to be addressed. Thankfully much of the baking industry has now replaced human hair for the more moral yet just as un-appetising choice of duck feathers. Got a hair in your food? Probably, either that or a feather.
There are countless examples of strange and unpalatable ingredients being used in our food, but as long as they’re considered safe, the food industry is allowed to keep on using them.
Check out Jamie Oliver discussing the use of the anal glands of beavers in vanilla icecream. Bon appétit!
By Sophie Douglas
