About a year ago I wrote about food labels. This was after a friend bought a jar of imitation honey they thought was real honey. A few weeks ago it was me who got duped. In a rush, I bought a jar of dry roasted peanuts without fully reading the label. Whether intentional or not, product labels, ingredient list and nutritional fact labels can paint an inaccurate picture of whats really in the package.
This year, the REN DAO Wellness Center participated in a Halloween celebration organized by Lucy Moreno for kids in her Greyston Community Gardens Project. We gave the kids a karate class, then I spoke briefly about healthy foods and snacks. I like to emphasize eating more whole foods and less processed foods (with added sugars etc.) We ended by having the kids participate in making a healthy trail mix snack (with Chex cereal, raisins, peanuts and pretzels). The kids then when to the Groundworks Science Barge to crave pumpkins and to the Buena Vista community garden to watch a movie.
Halloween celebration went well, the kids enjoyed the trail mix. It wasn’t until the following day when I ate some of the nuts by themselves that I realize something was strange. At first I thought, “Man, these are some tasty nuts” (in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice). Then I realized the nuts actually tasted sweet. I had feed Lucy’s kids (and parents) salted dry roasted peanuts laced with sugars, MSG and favor enhancers.
The peanuts were Target’s store brand, ‘Market Pantry Dry Roasted Peanuts’. One would expect that the jar should contain only dry roasted nuts. Below is the ingredient list:
| Dry Roasted Peanuts | |
| Salt | |
| Sugar | Sucrose derived from sugar cane or sugar beets. |
| Maltodextrin | A short chained starch, added to provide texture or thickening. Is mildly sweet, absorbed as fast as glucose |
| Monosodium Glutamate | Glutamate flavor enhancer. |
| Torula Yeast | Glutamate flavor enhancer, derived from processed Torula yeast. |
| Paprika and other Spices | |
| Natural Flavors | Can be from any food source or food source derivate, whose function is to add flavor vs. nutritive value. |
| Hydrolyzed Soy Protein | Glutamate flavor enhancer derived from processed Soy and Soy protein. |
| Onion and Garlic powder |
Obviously these nuts are mis-labeled. They are Salted Flavored Dry Roasted Peanuts. A Shoprite’s store brand, labeled ‘Unsalted Dry Roasted Peanuts’, accurately listed only peanuts on their ingredient list.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 luisacb // Dec 7, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I had no idea. Thanks for bringing attention to this.
2 dieseldog // Dec 20, 2009 at 12:14 pm
thanks for a well writen and informative article, also thanks for being a part of the rising consciousness of our society.
Robert
from the blacksmith building
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