To whom it may concern,
Just a heads up, I have to write an email about what I learned from a book called Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner. It’s an account of some of the things that happen to our food in the food industry. Heads up, Kraft Cheese has several pages dedicated to it in the book, and they are not exactly singing its praises.
So first, I want to point out that you always complained when I would bake bread from home because, excepting the many times that the bread went wrong, when it did turn out correctly, you always said that it was too dense. Warner investigated the bread industry use of processing and additives in bread making, when you only really need four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast.
As it turns out, instead of mixing the ingredients together, as I do at home, they use industrial machines to beat the bread so that more water and air mix into the dough. So essentially, the less dense bread you are used to not only has less nutrition because of the increased air in the bread, but there are also more additives inside it to preserve the bread while it is being beaten to death by machines (101-102).
So essentially, the bead you claim is so good is not only a ghost of what used to be bread due to the thrashing it gets, it has various chemicals thrown into it to keep it from completely disintegrating. Okay, so you may argue that these chemicals are somewhat safe, and you would be correct, kind of.
As it turns out, most of the chemicals that are used are things that are on the GRAS list – Generally Recognized as Safe. This list is from the 1958 law concerning food additives that the government thought there could be two lists for additives, one where food additives were put through strenuous processing, and another where food that the public generally recognized as safe would be put on in order to circumvent things like yeast or spices needing to be rigorously tested.
The best part about these lists is instead of requiring companies to submit their additives to be tested and potentially be put on the list (if it was considered safe), the additives the company could submit were all voluntary. On top of that, in 1997 the rules for submission on the GRAS list were changed, so most companies realized that they could easily put any product on the list by claiming that they tested the ingredient and it was safe.
Now, the argument could be made that companies have the best interest of their customers at heart. They want to make sure the customers are happy and healthy so they can buy more product right? Wrong. We were reading another article in class called The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food by Michael Moss. In the book he describes a meeting that took place between the CEO’s of some of the top companies in the food industry. They were shown a presentation on the growing obesity epidemic in America and asked to make changes to their unhealthy food to curve the issue.
After the presentation, the current CEP of General Mills stood up and said, in so many words, that he didn’t care that people were getting fat because of his unhealthy products, as long as they made money and sold, he’d still try selling them.
We have now established that my bread baking is superior to that of any industry standard, and I feel that after reading this book, I will try my hand at cheese making. Yes, that’s right, buckle in, because it’s Kraft Cheese time!
Oh I’m sorry, did I say Kraft Cheese? I meant Kraft Cheese Product because they can no longer call their substance cheese, legally. In 2003, the FDA investigated Kraft facilities and found that they were using milk protein as a quarter of its cheese instead of actually using cheese. The FDA contacted Kraft and said they could not claim that the product was cheese. Instead of hurting their profits and actually putting the ingredient that they were claiming to sell inside their product, they just added the word “product” to the label.
They aren’t even selling cheese. But for the benefit of the doubt, let’s look at whatever product they actually are selling. The main reason for the creation of Kraft Cheese was the need for a product that wouldn’t expire. So in order to make their product last, they added sodium citrate to regulate acidity, and sodium phosphate to emulsify the cheese. While you could argue that these chemicals have not been proven dangerous, it does cause double the sodium content of normal Cabot Cheddar Cheese (48).
The writer of this book, Melanie Warner, was curious how well preserved the cheese actually was. She left a Kraft Single slice in her refrigerator for two years, and when she removed it, it resembled a plastic square of inedible garbage. This idea of everlasting food made me question why we bought the products that we do. Would it be so horrible if we bought fresh cheese from a local market every week? In my mind we have bought into the notion of convenience.
In another article we read, called Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro, she talked of how frozen foods pushed the idea of ease and time management to sell 1950’s housewives on buying cake mix, canned goods, and frozen food. We have been brainwashed by these corporations to believe that the only way to function today is to buy food that is processed beyond recognition.
I used to be proud of my eating habits as a vegetarian, I thought that I was doing some good in the world of food manufacturing. But after reading this book, I’m starting to question our choices in food. Would it really kill us to go to a farmers’ market and buy meat from there? Or maybe buy meat from the local butcher? Essentially, are we doing our best to get the best possible food?
Just a heads up, I have to write an email about what I learned from a book called Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner. It’s an account of some of the things that happen to our food in the food industry. Heads up, Kraft Cheese has several pages dedicated to it in the book, and they are not exactly singing its praises.
So first, I want to point out that you always complained when I would bake bread from home because, excepting the many times that the bread went wrong, when it did turn out correctly, you always said that it was too dense. Warner investigated the bread industry use of processing and additives in bread making, when you only really need four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast.
As it turns out, instead of mixing the ingredients together, as I do at home, they use industrial machines to beat the bread so that more water and air mix into the dough. So essentially, the less dense bread you are used to not only has less nutrition because of the increased air in the bread, but there are also more additives inside it to preserve the bread while it is being beaten to death by machines (101-102).
So essentially, the bead you claim is so good is not only a ghost of what used to be bread due to the thrashing it gets, it has various chemicals thrown into it to keep it from completely disintegrating. Okay, so you may argue that these chemicals are somewhat safe, and you would be correct, kind of.
As it turns out, most of the chemicals that are used are things that are on the GRAS list – Generally Recognized as Safe. This list is from the 1958 law concerning food additives that the government thought there could be two lists for additives, one where food additives were put through strenuous processing, and another where food that the public generally recognized as safe would be put on in order to circumvent things like yeast or spices needing to be rigorously tested.
The best part about these lists is instead of requiring companies to submit their additives to be tested and potentially be put on the list (if it was considered safe), the additives the company could submit were all voluntary. On top of that, in 1997 the rules for submission on the GRAS list were changed, so most companies realized that they could easily put any product on the list by claiming that they tested the ingredient and it was safe.
Now, the argument could be made that companies have the best interest of their customers at heart. They want to make sure the customers are happy and healthy so they can buy more product right? Wrong. We were reading another article in class called The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food by Michael Moss. In the book he describes a meeting that took place between the CEO’s of some of the top companies in the food industry. They were shown a presentation on the growing obesity epidemic in America and asked to make changes to their unhealthy food to curve the issue.
After the presentation, the current CEP of General Mills stood up and said, in so many words, that he didn’t care that people were getting fat because of his unhealthy products, as long as they made money and sold, he’d still try selling them.
We have now established that my bread baking is superior to that of any industry standard, and I feel that after reading this book, I will try my hand at cheese making. Yes, that’s right, buckle in, because it’s Kraft Cheese time!
Oh I’m sorry, did I say Kraft Cheese? I meant Kraft Cheese Product because they can no longer call their substance cheese, legally. In 2003, the FDA investigated Kraft facilities and found that they were using milk protein as a quarter of its cheese instead of actually using cheese. The FDA contacted Kraft and said they could not claim that the product was cheese. Instead of hurting their profits and actually putting the ingredient that they were claiming to sell inside their product, they just added the word “product” to the label.
They aren’t even selling cheese. But for the benefit of the doubt, let’s look at whatever product they actually are selling. The main reason for the creation of Kraft Cheese was the need for a product that wouldn’t expire. So in order to make their product last, they added sodium citrate to regulate acidity, and sodium phosphate to emulsify the cheese. While you could argue that these chemicals have not been proven dangerous, it does cause double the sodium content of normal Cabot Cheddar Cheese (48).
The writer of this book, Melanie Warner, was curious how well preserved the cheese actually was. She left a Kraft Single slice in her refrigerator for two years, and when she removed it, it resembled a plastic square of inedible garbage. This idea of everlasting food made me question why we bought the products that we do. Would it be so horrible if we bought fresh cheese from a local market every week? In my mind we have bought into the notion of convenience.
In another article we read, called Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro, she talked of how frozen foods pushed the idea of ease and time management to sell 1950’s housewives on buying cake mix, canned goods, and frozen food. We have been brainwashed by these corporations to believe that the only way to function today is to buy food that is processed beyond recognition.
I used to be proud of my eating habits as a vegetarian, I thought that I was doing some good in the world of food manufacturing. But after reading this book, I’m starting to question our choices in food. Would it really kill us to go to a farmers’ market and buy meat from there? Or maybe buy meat from the local butcher? Essentially, are we doing our best to get the best possible food?