Poisonous Additives; in the Foods You Feed Your Families and are Eating Yourselves

Strangely-but possibly connected to the “what you don’t know won’t hurt you” myth, most Canadians do not want to know what is being injected or pumped into the fish, meat, poultry they eat  and they definitely do not want to know how bacon, ham, sausage- or any other- highly processed food item is made. But does that apply to vegetable items like French fries{the potato product that most North Americans, following the dictate of the United States of the Americas, incorrectly, of course, like to refer to by that name}?

In its latest crusade to answer consumers’ questions about such fare, United States of the Americas based fast food chain, McDonald has revealed how iconic golden fries are made and the 19 ingredients that go into the side dish. Their processing however is not at all dissimilar to the process long used by most all large hotels, restaurants, other institutional kitchens, or most all the food industries processing operations.

The potatoes are lined up and shot through a water knife for precision cutting – that is how they get their uniformity. They are shot into the knife at 60 to 70 miles per hour.

As is traditional in all larger kitchens, (reduces waiting time for the consumer placing the order) they’re also fried twice – once in production- and again at the restaurant. The first partial frying is to help get the crisp outer shell. The fries are also dipped in dextrose, and or possibly powdered milk, to help them stay consistently golden regardless of the season.

Here’s the full list of ingredients as used by McDonald’s fast food restaurants. Items two to nine are a blend of oils and ingredients used in the initial partial frying while 13 to 19 are used for frying once you’ve placed your order: Potatoes, Canola oil, Soybean oil, Hydrogenated soybean oil, Natural beef flavour(originally the potatoes were always deep fried in beef tallow), Hydrolysed wheat, Hydrolysed milk, Citric acid (an anti-oxidant to keep the oil fresh), Dimethylpolysiloxane (an anti-foaming agent that keeps especially slightly rancid oil from splattering), Dextrose {Glucose and dextrose are both simple sugars or monosaccharaides. The words "glucose" and "dextrose" are often used interchangeably. Dextrose or D-glucose is the form of glucose found naturally in foods such as fruit and honey. It is also derived from plants, like corn. A majority of dextrose in foods is derived from corn starch, Sodium acid pyrophosphate (keeps the potatoes from going grey), Salt, Canola oil, Corn oil, Soybean oil, Hydrogenated soybean oil, TBHQ (another anti-oxidant-this time, to preserve the freshness of the oil- as it travels to the restaurant), Citric acid, Dimethylpolysiloxane-I’ve No Idea What That Is Other Than That It Is Yet Another Chemical Additive.

The Canadian variation doesn’t stray too far, but there are some differences. It uses safflower oil, but does not include natural beef flavour, hydrolysed wheat or hydrolysed milk in its Canuck/Canadian formulation.

While most-NOT ALL-added ingredients are USUALLY placed on pre-packaged products (as sold in retail stores); at the present time the listed additional ingredients ARE NOT shown in restaurants or on food portions sold there in.

Sandy, (son), had a very serious skin disease (acute acro-dermatitis antipathica, or similar spelling). He was deadly allergic to milk-other than mothers- and or any milk products. At one point, they almost killed him in A Edmonton hospital, because he was being given "Popsicles". Milk is an ingredient of the Popsicles sole In North America-and it is listed on the packaging label. The So Called-incorrectly- French fries sold on many fast food JOINTS also contain milk but It Is Not  presently listed on the menus or on the food packaging. Fortunately- because I was a highly trained worker in the food industry myself I was aware of this; OTHERWISE; simply eating in one of these “fast-food restaurants might well have caused my son’s death. ©Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.