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Pork and beans, salt and bottled water aren't always what they seem to be. |
STOPPING AT A local conve-
I grabbed a few pepper packets to spice up that broth a bit, and also took one of those little free sachets of salt in case the cook working on today's blend had forgotten to add enough to make it satisfying.
I just tossed them all into the bag along with my soup and sandwich and headed back to the office.
Sitting now at my desk, that tiny package of salt caught my eye. On one side it just read "Salt," but there was a whole lot of printing on the reverse.
The packet was only about the size of a postage stamp, but all that tiny script printed on the back definitely stirred some curiosity. I mean, this is just salt. Right?
A closer examination revealed that my "salt" actually contained the following ingredients: sodium chloride, sodium silicoaluminate, dextrose, potassium iodine and sodium bicarbonate.
OK, I understand that the potassium iodine is in there so I won't get a goiter, but what are all those other chemicals doing in a simple package of salt? Isn't "dextrose" a kind of sugar? Why would the manufacturer add sugar to my salt?
Sweet salt? Raise your hand if you think that's a proper combination.
Even if you took only the most rudimentary chemistry class in high school, didn't we all pretty much learn that salt was sodium chloride, or "NaCl" in official science talk?
Sure; I'll bet you remember that.
On the way home from work that same evening, I stopped at another little store and picked up a cup of coffee. I also grabbed one of their little free salt packets located on the counter next to the cream and sugar for fixing your coffee.
When I got home, I looked at the listed ingredients in this one: salt, sodium silico aluminate, potassium iodine and yellow prussiate of soda.
What the heck is a "prussiate" anyway? I did look up sodium silico aluminate and found it was some kind of detergent or cleaning agent for aluminum. It's also an anti-caking component of some sort so all your salt granules aren't going to stick together so, if you happen to eat a piece of tinfoil anytime soon, as a bonus it should come out fairly clean on the other end.
I really thought that when you take a little package of salt, that's what you were getting--salt.
In fact, it's sometimes more than NaCl.
I checked in our cupboard at home. Plain Morton salt contains salt and calcium silicate. I'm guessing that second ingredient keeps the salt crystals from sticking together, but what if I eat some aluminum foil now with only that around to spice up my soup? I guess we'll have to put up with a grimy finish.
Kosher salt lists only "salt and yellow prussiate of soda" as ingredients.
Aren't you wondering now if prussiate of soda comes in any other color besides yellow?
I paid attention going down the aisles of the supermarket last weekend. Next time you're there, check out the ingredients in Dasani water.
That's right: Dasani, or any water out there, ought to contain two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. That's "H2 O" as we learned in that same old chemistry class.
Well, Dasani "water" contains "purified water, magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride and salt."
There's that salt kicker again. I wonder now if it's just plain old salt, maybe with a little iodine added to keep you healthy, or will this salt have that sodium silico aluminate in it or, perhaps, will we be blessed this time with some green, or maybe blue prussiates?
Welch's "100 Percent Grape Juice" should have listed only "grape juice" as the solitary ingredient if it's really 100 percent grape juice.
Read the label. They add ascorbic acid.
"Juicy Juice" promotes their product as being 100 percent juice. So, you'd probably think their grape juice is 100 percent grape juice, right?
That's a logical conclusion, but you'd better take a close look at that label, too. Juicy Juice's grape juice actually lists "apple juice" in the ingredients first, so that means there is more apple than grape inside. Grape juice is the second ingredient noted but then pear juice comes in third. It has ascorbic acid, too.
With apple juice being so prominent in the product, I figure it must be cheaper than the other kinds of juices. I checked out their apple juice label just out of curiosity. Oh, it had apple juice listed as the main ingredient, but this stuff also had ascorbic acid and now malic acid, too.
What's with that?
Pork and beans is certainly a popular product. I read the label on one can and couldn't believe my eyes. It's called "pork and beans," so wouldn't you guess it would have mostly pork and beans inside?
Don't count on that. "Water" is the first listed ingredient, so that means it's also the most abundant. Beans were included second, but then you had to go through "high fructose corn sugar," "modified food starch" and our old friend "salt" again before you came to the "pork" listing on the label.
The can I was holding also had "oleoresin paprika" noted as an ingredient.
Who out there besides maybe Emeril Lagasse or Rachael Ray knows anything about oleoresin paprika?
I'm leaving my reading glasses at home next time I go grocery shopping.
We haven't even mentioned propylene glycol yet as a fairly common additive in some foods today. That stuff should set off bells in your head, making you think antifreeze, de-icing of airplanes or maybe paint solvent. Do we really need to see that kind of stuff in our Italian salad dressing?
I'll tell you what: Just open up some can and heat up what's inside from now on. Please don't tell me the ingredients.
JIM KUNDRESKAS of Louisa County near Lake Anna has been an outdoors writer for more than 20 years. Contact him at
Email: Zbasser@aol.com.
