flavor

eric schlosser & charles wilson - chew on this: everything you don't want to know about fast food

     "Consumers prefer to see natural flavors on a label, our of a belief that they are healthier. But the difference between artificial flavors and natural flavors is much less simple than it sounds. Both kinds are manufactured at the same factories. The differences between them is based more on how the flavor additive has been made than on what it actually contains. Natural flavors and artificial flavors sometimes contain exactly the same chemicals, produced through difference methods. Amyl acetate, for example, sullies the strong aroma of banana flavor. When you make amyl acetate from bananas, it is a natural flavor. When you make amyl acetate by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol and sulfuric acid, it is n artificial flavor. Either way, it smells jut like a banana." (115-116)

     "McDonald's didn't use any beef flavoring in [the french fries sold in] India. Nor did it add beef to the fries in Great Britain, a country with a large Hindu population. Without telling anyone, McDonald's was quietly using difference French fry recipes in different countries. In India and Great Britain, it didn't use any beef. In the United Sates, it used beef flavoring. And in Canada, Japan, Mexico, and Australia, McDonald's still made French fries the old-fashioned way, cooking them in beef fat.
     "McDonald's apologized to the vegetarians in the United States... The apology led other restaurants chains to admit that they were also using animal products to make their French fries taste better. At Denny's and Church's Chicken, the fries were flavored with beef. At Burger King the fries were flavored with chicken. Fries that taste like chicken may sound gross, but they're not as gross as some of the fries mad in France. At restaurants over there, in the nation that invented French fries, they're sometimes cooked with horse fat."(127)