Chicken McNasty

How scary are those unnatural ingredients?

By Culinate staff

October 15, 2010

Here at Culinate, we have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Consumer Reports attitude toward food. On the one hand, the magazine (published by Consumers Union) is a great advocate for food reform, publishing such calls-to-arms as its study on contamination in chicken. On the other hand, the magazine routinely comparison-shops for the best deals (and “flavor”) available in national brands of processed food.

In the November 2010 issue, however, the magazine seems to have finally read its Michael Pollan. In his article "Unhappy Meals," Pollan advised readers not to eat anything “your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” Consumer Reports ups that to “foods Grandma wouldn’t recognize” and, amusingly, asks readers to guess which list of chemical ingredients matches which synthetic product. (It’s actually quite tricky.)

Since it was the ingredients in Chicken McNuggets that got Consumer Reports thinking — ammonia, petroleum preservatives, and antifoaming hair conditioners, among other tasty additives — we’ll add this frightening photo of super-processed chicken product as food for, um, thought.