My wife is doing a paper for university on Morality in business. She's decided to explore the wonderful world of food additives and how they kill us slowly but surely(a lot of them, anyway). One of the articles we stumbled upon when searching for articles on dishonesty by food companies talks about the dishonest/misguiding labeling many food manufacturers put on food products in order to make customers think better of the product, or at least not be alarmed at the junk they are going to eat.

 

Here are a couple of phrases from that article. You can read the rest here. Enlightening.

 

" ..As a good example of the kind of ingredients that are hidden on food labels, let's take a look at MSG, also called monosodium glutamate ( see related ebook on monosodium glutamate ). MSG is an excitotoxin -- an ingredient known to cause nerve damage by overexciting nerves. This is exactly how MSG enhances the taste of foods: by overexciting the taste buds on your tongue. While MSG is sometimes listed directly on the label, it is more frequently hidden in other ingredients, such as yeast extract , autolyzed vegetable protein, or hydrolyzed vegetable protein. All three of these ingredients contain monosodium glutamate , and yet they are designed to mislead consumers by avoiding mentioning MSG directly on the label..."

 

"... Other ingredients may be misleading without necessarily being dangerous. One such ingredient is carmine -- a red coloring frequently used in yogurt, candies, fruit drinks and sweets. Carmine is actually made from the dead, ground-up husks of female red beetles. These beetles, which are typically raised in the Canary Islands, are dried and ground up to create a red paste. This red paste is then exported to the United States and other countries where food is produced. It is added to foods to give them a rose-like color, something similar to a strawberry color. It's listed on the label as "carmine", not as "ground-up red beetles." And while carmine doesn't necessarily pose a health risk to American consumers, it is still an example of dishonest labeling, because people have the right to know when ground-up insects are being used in their foods. There are probably 100 items in your grocery store right now with carmine listed right on the label. You can go to your store right now and check it out, and verify that what I'm relating here is true. (Pick up practically any strawberry yogurt...) "