Bleached Enriched Wheat Flour (Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thaimine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Whole Wheat Flour, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Contains One of More of the Following: Cottonseed Oil, Soybean Oil), Mono And Diglycerides, Honey Whole Wheat Blend [Dextrose, Corn Starch, Sugar, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Fructose, Caramel Color, Sucralose (Artificial Sweetener), Less Than 2% Tricalcium Phosphate and Silicon Dioxide Added to Prevent Caking], Contains 1.5% or less of the following: Salt, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate), Fumaric Acid, Sodium Bicarbonate, Dough Conditioner (Wheat Flour, Calcium Sulfate, Sorbic Acid), Preservatives (Sodium Propionate and Potassium Sorbate), Cellulose Gum.
Oh. My. Goodness. I just ate that. Ylaargh. Well, what's done is done. I went and looked at the ingredient lists of some other things. A spicy chicken yields another paragraph worth of strange things such as Artificial Green Bell Pepper Flavor, spice extractives, disodium guanylate, and dehydrated garlic. Yummy. How does this happen???
I'm currently in the process of writing an extensive list of questions I have to ask people who work at my school. I have a lot of organizing to do, a lot of people to e-mail... well, a lot to do. Though there is a "Behind the Scenes" page on the dining website, most of the explanations for food purchasing are vague. Consider the following quotes from the page:
"All fresh, frozen, and dry foods along with food related items, are centrally purchased from reputable, FDA-approved manufacturers and distributors. In fact, (the school) routinely inspects the production plants and warehouses from where we purchase our foods."
"Beginning at 5:00 a.m., semi-trailers arrive at the CSC dock to replenish the stock levels in our giant freezer and other storage locations. Buying centrally and in bulk helps keep student meal plan costs to a minimum."
"Each product purchased for service goes through a blind tasting process to be selected for service in our dining locations."
Couple things - to the first point, who are these FDA-approved manufacturers/distributors? Are they located near the school? What are the FDA guidelines? Production plants for what? Food PRODUCTS or food? Who inspects these plants? In what parts of the plants? How often do these inspections occur?
To the second point... student meal plan costs. Okay, that's understandable. Exactly how much would buying meat from a local farmer up the price? How many costs did you compare before settling on this one? Are we talking monetary costs or health costs to students (because health costs are probably higher)? "Giant freezer"???
To the third... apparently they decide the brand of the food products we bring in by blind taste test. Well, goodness, if you blindfolded me and gave me chocolate cake or Twinkies or whatever, of course I would say it tastes good! But our taste buds have been compromised. Once valuable evolutionary traits (sugar content in non-processed foods generally indicates that the food is okay to eat), they have now fallen under the spell of engineered food products, not whole foods. Oy. The worst part is, they wouldn't keep stocking a lot of crap if we would just stop eating it, but we don't. A major part of this is educating the student body. The problem is, people just don't care that much about food or where it comes from anymore. We dedicate a smaller part of our stressful lives to food, eating on the go, not really dining anymore in dining halls. It's upsetting.
Earlier today, in line for lunch, I overheard two girls speaking French to one another, probably exchange students judging by their rapid speech and, well, general lack of English. One motioned for the other to come over and look at a bowl on her tray. It was filled with some awkward cream-colored thing, maybe with pasta in it, and little green thingies - I couldn't tell even though I was standing a foot and a half away at most. She had a disgusted look on her face, and though I didn't catch everything her friend said in response, they seemed to be very upset with the food in our dining halls. I can't imagine coming from France to America and witnessing the food quality, portion sizes, the way it's prepared... holy goodness. Culture shock indeed.
P.S. - that picture? Of people with tons of cookies? That is on the nutrition resources homepage. Huh.
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