I was researching for a post about the ridiculous length of ingredient lists for fast food. It was going to be a fairly short post about being careful of what goes into your body; about being aware that the ingredients information is readily available to you; about trying to make conscious decisions to be thoughtful about what you put in your body.
Of course, I was going to make the disclaimer that I am not a nutritionist. I was going to relay information available on various fast food companies’ websites about what is in their food, then do some research on the ingredients that I, as a lay person, did not recognize. Before I started writing, though, I would never have guessed that the more pertinent disclaimer to be made is that I am not a scientist. I am not a chemist. Because chemistry is what happens to fast food, not nutrition.
I would also not have guessed that nationally, ingredients do not have to be listed by restaurants, only packaged foods. In fact, the current FDA guidelines dictate that restaurants (including fast food restaurants) only even need to list calorie content if they have 20 or more locations and other nutrient information (like the breakdown of fat, cholesterol, sodium, etc) has to be made available upon request. Ingredients are not required to be listed.
Originally, the plan for this post was to write about Subway sandwiches as an example of how we can be tricked by ad campaigns designed to convince us that food is ‘Fresh’, ‘Fit’, or ‘Healthy,’ when ingredients lists bely their statements. I knew their bread alone had a ridiculously long list of ingredients. (Their 9-grain wheat bread has at least 40 listed. You can assume it’s more, because ‘natural flavor’ could be a whole subset of ingredients). I chose Subway because, while I haven’t eaten McDonalds food in at least 10 years because I try to limit the amount of mystery ingredients I consume, up until a couple of years ago I had no problem with eating a Subway sandwich every now and again.
Let’s face it, occasionally you’re in a situation when you don’t have many choices if you haven’t planned ahead. Malls, airports, road trips – sometimes when all your options appear to be fast food places and there are one or two of them appear to cater to the healthy eater, then maybe that’s a sign that the US is starting to realize the financial and health impact of fast food on the population. Right…?
Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Go ahead and look at the nutrition data Subway shares on its own website. Read it and weep. ‘Chicken Breast Strips’, which by title alone you would imagine contain, I don’t know, just chicken breast meat? have over 25 ingredients. Two of them, disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate, are flavor enhancers specifically for increasing the ‘umami’ taste sensation which imparts the meaty, or savory flavor in food. So they’ve added flavoring to make the meat taste more meaty. Huh?
I figured if Subway was using so many additives in their food, most likely all the fast food chains would have some mystery ingredients I could research further. Below are a few lowlights of what just some simple googling uncovered. Despite the fact that ingredients are not required to be listed, many chains do include them on their websites, which surprises me, based on what those lists contain.
At Taco Bell, their “Seasoned Beef” ingredients list reads as follows:
Beef, Water, Seasoning (Cellulose, Chili Pepper, Onion Powder, Salt, Oats (Contains Wheat), Maltodextrin (Corn, Potato, Tapioca), Soy Lecithin, Tomato Powder, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Sea Salt, Yeast Extract (Contains Gluten), Spices, Garlic Powder, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Potassium Chloride, Cocoa Powder Processed with Alkali, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Trehalose, Modified Corn Starch, Inactivated Yeast, Lactic Acid, Torula Yeast, Natural Smoke Flavor, Salt, Sodium Phosphate, Less Than 2% Beef Broth, Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Lactate. Contains: Soybeans, Wheat.
I’ve highlighted in bold our old friends disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate which are there to make the meat taste meaty. I’ve also highlighted ‘Natural and Artificial Flavors’. This is an easy way to shorten an ingredients list substantially. If the chemicals used for the flavoring are listed on the FDA’s GRAS (generally regarded as safe) list, then there is no requirement to list every single chemical. And these are chemicals created in a laboratory by flavorists. Even if it is a natural flavor being used, it is still taken from a natural source using a chemical process in a lab.
While we’re on the topic of ‘Natural Flavors’, do you recall the controversy over the decidedly non-vegan natural flavor Starbucks was found to be using in its Strawberry Frappuccino dye? Mmmm, crushed bugs! That’s the thing about ‘natural flavors’ – you may imagine it to mean vanilla, or cinnamon, or lemon, but the actual flavor you are eating may be from a surprising source.
Then I took a look at Arby’s sesame seed bun ingredients:
Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Yeast, Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Wheat Gluten, Contains 2% or less of the following: Salt, Dried Malt, Dough Conditioners (contains one or more of the following: mono and diglycerides, ethoxylated mono and diglycerides, calcium peroxide, azodicarbonamide, calcium stearoyl lactylate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, DATEM, ascorbic acid, calcium iodate, soy lecithin, enzymes), Yeast Nutrients (contains one or more of the following: calcium carbonate, ammonium chloride, ammonium sulfate, calcium sulfate, mono calcium phosphate, carbamide), Dextrose, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Caramel Color, Propylene Glycol, Diammonium Phosphate, Tricalcium Phosphate, Wheat and/or Corn Starch, Corn Grits, Soy Flour, Potato Flour, Milk, Calcium Propionate and/or Potassium Sorbate (preservatives). Topped with Sesame Seeds. CONTAINS: MILK, SOY, WHEAT.
And this is about the moment I became HORRIFIED by what is eaten on a daily basis by many people in the USA. In bold is an ingredient called azodicarbonamide. This additive is used as a bleaching agent and makes the bread more elastic. Its non-food use is as a foaming agent in plastics (think the bottom of your sneakers). Here’s a frightening fact about this additive: EFSA, which is the European version of our FDA, banned the use of azodicarbonamide as of 2005. The EFSA press release regarding SEM contamination in food* clearly states “use of azodicarbonamide as a dough improver is illegal in the EU.”
*SEM is a byproduct of azodicarbonamide – EFSA was researching its presence in food as a result of being transferred via gaskets used to close lids on jars.
I have to tell you, I never expected to be finding ingredients in fast food that are actually illegal in the EU. These are ingredients we are ingesting when we eat these foods. What are they doing to our bodies? I have no idea: as I wrote earlier, I am not a nutritionist or a scientist. I think more tellingly, EFSA has banned this one particular additive, because they are not sure what it could be doing to our bodies. And I assume they DO have a huge number of nutritionists and scientists working for them.
Here are a list of just a few of the fast food chains in the US which list azodicarbonamide in their bread ingredients, as found on their websites. This list is not conclusive, because as I mentioned above, restaurants are not required to list their ingredients.
Arby’s
Burger King
McDonalds
Subway
Wendy’s
White Castle
But it’s not just fast food restaurants using mystery ingredients. Go to the bread aisle of your local supermarket and take a look at some of the ingredients lists of a basic loaf of bread.
Wonder Bread contains azodicarbonamide.
Nature’s Own (whose website boasts “No artificial preservatives, flavors or colors”) lists 10 dough conditioners for their 100% Whole Grain bread, with the disclaimer that it might contain one or more of those. Yes, azodicarbonamide is on the list.
Sara Lee Whole Grain White’s ingredient list has the exact same disclaimer as Nature’s Own. And again, azodicarbonamide is on that list.
Here’s what makes me crazy:
You know what that is? All the ingredients you need to make bread.
Look, I get that these companies are national chains who need to transport bread all over the country, so they need to use preservatives in order for that to happen. Azodicarbonamide is not a preservative, though. It’s clearly been banned in Europe and I don’t hear reports that you can’t buy bread in France or Italy any longer.
Ugh, I thought that since I don’t eat the meat, that Subway was a pretty good choice for me. I would have never guessed the bread would be so crazy! This is a great post, really dispels some myths about the healthy brands. Although sometimes, you have to pick the lesser of evils. 🙂
Yup, if you’ve gotta eat, you’ve gotta eat. It just annoys me that Subway markets themselves as a healthy option based solely on calories and fat. I wish we could get past ‘calories’ as the be-all and end-all of health markers!
That azodicarbonamide? It’s in 99% breads you find at a grocery store that aren’t organic. How’s that for disgusting? H and I started buying organic bread and pastas because we’d see the bit on azodicarbonamide. It’s terrible. The only thing I can really say is that I’d much rather eat a turkey sub packed with lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cukes, and pickles than go to McD’s. (Gag.) Speaking of McD’s…a student did an honor’s project in one of my instructor’s classes. Let burgers from there, BK, and Hardee’s on the kitchen counter for the entire semester. NONE of them spoiled. They just turned into dark hockey pucks. If nature won’t eat it, then neither should we. lol
It’s so awful. What is so terrible is that it clearly does not need to be used for any purpose if it’s been successfully banned in other countries. WHY is it ok for this to be used in our food??
I get what you’re saying about picking the lesser evil though. I will tell you that a part of me was relieved when reading the ingredients lists that ‘Lettuce’ was just ‘Lettuce’! Ha!