Do you really know what is in your food? If you're one of those people who doesn't read food labels and has confidence that the FDA wouldn't let anything creepy or icky get by, prepare to be surprised.
1. Bug Poo
This appetizing ingredient is better known as shellac. Yep, that's right - the nifty stuff in wood finishers that give your furniture shine is also in your food. While it's mostly used on shiny hard candy, it can also be found in some chocolate and jelly beans. It is usually listed on food labels as "confectioner's glaze" or "resinous glaze." Oh, and for those of you who are smirking because you don't eat things like chocolate and candy, guess what keeps your apples shiny? Yep.
So where does shellac come from? It is excreted by the Kerra Lacca bug to help it stick to trees better. It is literally simply scraped right off the tree and sent to be added to your food. Yum.
Other interesting places shellac is used: Furniture Polish Aluminum Foil (the shiny coating) Hairspray Mascara and Lipstick Printer ink Medicine coating Fertilizer
2.Bone Char
This is, unfortunately, exactly what it sounds like. You see, when sugar is first harvested it starts out brown. Sugar companies felt that this made the sugar look unappetizing, so they use various methods to bleach the sugar white. Most of them are fairly inane and boring, however with sugar harvested from sugar cane a different method is used. In this case, the bones from cows that have died of "natural causes" are bleached in the sun, heated, and then used to filter the sugar. I'm not sure how exactly that works, but apparently it does.
3. Ground Up Bugs
As if bug poo wasn't bad enough, now we get to eat the whole bug. This lovely additive is usually listed on food labels as "Natural Red #4," "Cochineal," "Carmine," or (the most terrifying), "natural color." You can find this appetizing ingredient in anything from cherry ice cream to that healthy cherry or strawberry yogurt you like to enjoy.
4. Viruses
I don't mean the natually occuring viruses that would be on your food anyway. In 2006 the FDA approved the use of a set of viruses collectively known as bacteriophages for use on lunch meats and sausages to fight listeria. Now, admittedly listeria kills hundreds of people each year, and can be dangerous. Apparently spraying potentially microbe-infested lunchmeat with 6 different viruses so the two can battle it out while people eat it is the correct solution.
5.Fertilizer
Everyone knows you need to wash your fresh fruits and vegetables to rinse away any pesticides and fertilizers that might have been sprayed on them, but there is actually one fertilizer that is commonly used as a food ingredient in many breads, including Subway rolls. Ammonium Sulfate is a common fertilizer ingredient often added to bread yeast to provide a more consistent dough. Want another foot-long?
Castoreum, which is the anal glands of a beaver is used in many rasberry flavored candies and some vanilla flavored ice creams. Usually found listed as castoreum or "natural flavor" on food labels.
7. Human Hair
Another wonderful thing used as a dough conditioner in your bread is L-cysteine or cysteine. Cysteine can be obtained from two main sources: duck feathers and human hair. Though it can also be made artificially, the process tends to be expensive, and many companies opt for the cheaper option.
8. Coal Tar
Allura Red AC is found in many red candies and sodas, and is derived from United Nations "dangerous goods" number 199 - coal tar.
9.Wood Pulp
Look on almost any prepackaged food label and you'll find an ingredient listed as "cellulose." Cellulose is essentially wood pulp, and it's used widely in prepackaged foods as a filler, stabilizer, or to boost fiber content. It is also used to improve the texture of things like bottled milkshakes. If your nutrition facts label lists "dietary fiber," chances are the product contains cellulose. In some cases cellulose is substituted for a portion of the flour needed in a recipe, and many shredded cheeses are coated with cellulose to repel moisture.
Also known as lanolin, the oils inside a sheep's wool are added to bubble gum (usually listed as "gum base"). Lanolin can also be found in skin moisturizers, conditioners, soaps and shampoos.
11. Silicon Dioxide You know, better known as "sand." Wendy's apparently decided that silicon dioxide made a great "anti-caking agent" in their chili (although, why chili would be caking at all is beyond me). Other foods you'll find silicon dioxide in include vinegar, mustard, pudding, American cheese, and condensed milk. 12. Titanium Dioxide Titanium dioxide is a pigment usually found in paint, sunscreen, makeup, and all skim milk. That's right. You see, skimmed milk usually has a strage bluish color. Once upon a time, it was called "blue milk" (hence the blue top it bears today) and was actually only fed to pigs. So, if your skim milk isn't blue, it contains titanium dioxide.
13. Calf Stomach Many cheeses are made with rennet, which is the fourth stomach of a calf. Yum!
9.Wood Pulp
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