Revealed: What REALLY goes into your favorite foods - the astonishing breakdown of everything from Chicken McNuggets to the 'healthy' loaf with THIRTY ingredients

• e-mail

If you don't want to know exactly what goes into your food, look away now.

A new book has broken down the ingredients of 25 foods and laid them out next to each other in series of striking pictures.

Photographer Dwight Eschliman and food writer Steve Ettlinger deconstructed foods like Twinkies, wholemeal bread and ketchup to show what they are really made up of.

Others they have broken down include Dr Pepper, Campbell's chicken soup, Naked Green Machine smoothie and PowerBar energy bars.

In each case small piles of each ingredient are laid next to each other in rows and photographed from above - and the results can be quite surprising.

OROWHEAT HEALTHY MULTI-GRAIN BREAD 

OROWHEAT HEALTHY MULTI-GRAIN BREAD 

 

01 Whole wheat flour

02 Water

03 Sugar

04 Wheat gluten 

05 Brown rice

06 Cornmeal

07 Oats

08 Wheat bran

09 Yeast

10 Cellulose fiber 

11 Soy bean oil

12 Black sesame seeds

13 White sesame seeds

14 Salt

15 Molasses

16 Datem

17 Calcium propionate (preservative)

18 Monoglycerides

19 Calcium sulfate

20 Poppyseeds

21 Grain vinegar

22 Soy lecithin

23 Citric acid

24 Calcium carbonate 

25 Walnuts

26 Hazelnuts (filberts)

27 and/or Almonds

28 Whey

29 Soy flour

30 Nonfat milk

MCDONALD'S CHICKEN NUGGETS 

MCDONALD'S CHICKEN NUGGETS 

 

01 White boneless chicken

02 Water

03 Food starch-modified

04 Salt

 

Seasoning:

05 Autolyzed yeast

06 Salt

07 Wheat starch

08 Natural flavor (botanical source)

09 Safflower oil

10 Dextrose

11 Citric acid

12 Sodium phosphates

13 Natural flavor (botanical source)

 

Battered and breaded with:

14 Water

Enriched flour:

15 Bleached wheat flour   

 16 Niacin

17 Reduced iron

18 Thiamine mononitrate

19 Riboflavin

20 Folic acid

21 Yellow corn flour

22 Bleached wheat flour

23 Food starch-modified

24 Salt

 Leavening:

25 Baking soda 

26 Sodium acid pyrophosphate

27 Sodium aluminum phosphate

 

28 Monocalcium phosphate

29 Calcium lactate

30 Spices

31 Wheat starch

32 Dextrose

33 Corn starch

 

Prepared in Vegetable Oil:

34 Canola oil

35 Corn oil

36 Soybean oil

37 Hydrogenated soybean oil

38 with TBHQ

39 and Citric Acid to preserve freshness of the oil

40 and Dimethylpolysiloxane to reduce oil splatter when cooking 

By studying the publicly available nutritional information Eschliman and Ettlinger found that McDonald's Chicken McNuggets have a total of 40 ingredients.

They included dextrose, a sugar also used by shoe makers to make leather more pliable.

Another ingredient was corn starch which is used for thickening in food but is also used to make paper and cardboard or as a substitute for gasoline.

Red Bull's best known ingredient is taurine, an acid which many believe came from bull sperm but in fact is synthesized in laboratories.

It is naturally occurring in the bile glands of humans and animals.

Another ingredient is sugar which is used as a preservative for food and has some surprising industrial uses.

They include fortifying cement by retaining moisture and slowing the setting process.

In total Red Bull has 17 ingredients including three colorings, it says in 'Ingredients: A Visual Exploration Of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products'.

Oroweat Healthy Multi-Grain Bread appears to be healthy but has far more additives than you might expect and a total of 30 ingredients.

Among them are salt, molasses, hazelnuts, oats, cornmeal, brown rice and nonfat milk.

Another ingredient is soy lecithin, a versatile emulsifier that is a byproduct of soybean processing that keeps chocolate smooth and emulsifies paint pigments, works as a softener in cosmetics and is even added to explosives.

It also includes datem, which stands for diacetyl ester of mono- and diglycerides, and which is an emulsifier used to give bread its chewy texture.

Unsurprisingly, Klondike Bars and Twinkies are full of additives.

NAKED GREEN MACHINE 100% JUICE SMOOTHIE 

NAKED GREEN MACHINE 100% JUICE SMOOTHIE

 

01 Apple juice

02 Mango puree

03 Pineapple juice

04 Banana puree

05 Kiwi puree

06 Spirulina

07 Natural flavors

08 Alfalfa

09 Broccoli

10 Spinach

11 Barley grass

12 Wheat grass

13 Parsley

14 Ginger root

15 Kale

16 Odorless garlic 

HOSTESS TWINKIES 

HOSTESS TWINKIES

 

Enriched Bleached Flour:

01 Flour

02 Reduced iron

B Vitamins:

03 Niacin

04 Thiamine mononitrate (B1)

05 Riboflavin (B2)

06 Folic Acid

07 Water

08 Sugar

09 Corn syrup

10 High-fructose corn syrup

Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening:

11 Soybean oil

12 Cottonseed oil

13 and/or Canola oil

14 Beef fat

15 Whole eggs

16 Dextrose

 Contains 2% or less of:

17 Soy lecithin 

 Leavenings:

18 Sodium acid pyrophosphate

19 Baking soda

20 Cornstarch

21 Monocalcium phosphate

22 Modified cornstarch

23 Glucose

24 Whey   

 25 Glycerin

26 Soybean oil

27 Salt

28 Monoglycerides

29 Diglycerides

30 Polysorbate 60

31 Cornstarch

32 Sodium stearoyl lactylate

33 Natural flavor

34 Artificial flavor

35 Sorbic acid (to retain freshness)

36 Potassium sorbate

37 Xanthan gum

38 Cellulose gum

39 Enzyme

40 Wheat flour

41 Yellow No. 5

42 Red No. 40 

A Klondike Reese's Ice Cream Bar has a total of 42 ingredients while a Twinkie has the same number.

According to the book -  which is on sale now - the Klondike bar includes cellulose gel which is the basis of rayon and cellophane as well as being used in foods to bulk things up.

It also contains propylene glycol monoesters, which originally come from crude oil which is blasted with a high heat and reacted with chlorine or lye.

Propylene glycol is used to make color pigments disperse evenly and keeps the flavor smooth and thick.

A Hostess Twinkie has added glucose, whey, glycerin, soybean oil, salt, monoglycerides, diglycerides, polysorbate 60, cornstarch and sodium stearoyl lactylate among the many ingredients.

A bottle of Naked Green Machine 100% Juice Smoothie appears to be one of the healthiest items in the book with just 16 ingredients.

But alongside the apple juice, banana puree, broccoli and spinach there is also odorless garlic, ginger root and kale, which many may not expect.

Vegetarians may also be surprised to learn that a Morningstar Farms soy sausage has 42 ingredients, some of which are also used in junk foods.

In another section of the book Eschliman and Ettlinger explained the origin and purpose of 75 of the most commonly used additives.

This includes ethyl vanillin which is used for butterscotch and rum but starts life as what they describe as 'toxic, explosive benzene'.

Another additive featured is shellac, which is used to coat apples to make them appear shiny and comes from insect larvae.

KLONDIKE REESE'S ICE CREAM BARS 

KLONDIKE REESE'S ICE CREAM BARS

 

01 Nonfat milk

02 Sugar

 

Reese’s Peanut Butter:

03 Peanuts

04 Sugar

05 Peanut oil

06 Dextrose

07 Salt

08 TBHQ (preserves freshness)

09 Corn syrup

10 Milkfat

11 Whey

12 Maltodextrin

13 Propylene glycol monoesters

14 Cellulose gum

15 Monoglycerides

16 Diglycerides

17 Cellulose gel

 18 Locust bean gum

19 Guar gum

 20 Polysorbate 80  

 21 Carrageenan

22 Caramel color

23 Vitamin A palmitate

24 Annatto (for color)

 

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Pieces:

Milk Chocolate:

25 Sugar

 26 Cocoa butter

27 Chocolate

28 Nonfat milk

29 Milkfat

30 Corn syrup

31 Soy lecithin

32 PGPR (polyglycerol polyricinoleate)

33 Peanuts

34 Sugar

35 Dextrose

36 Salt

 

 

Milk Chocolate Flavored Coating:

37 Coconut oil

38 Sugar

39 Chocolate liquor (processed with alkali)

40 Soy lecithin

41 Artificial flavor

42 Salt  

RED BULL 

RED BULL

 

01 Carbonated water

02 Sucrose

03 Glucose

04 Citric acid

05 Taurine

06 Sodium bicarbonate

07 Magnesium carbonate

08 Caffeine

09 Niacinamide

10 Calcium pantothenate

11 Pyridoxine HCl

12 Vitamin B12

13 Natural flavor

14 Artificial flavor

Colors including:

15 Red No. 40

16 Blue No. 1

17 Yellow No. 5 

On sale now: the cover of the book

Alginate stabilizes the head of beer and binds things like dog food together but originally comes from seaweed.

Sorbitol was originally extracted from mountain ash berry and is now used to sweeten products like mouthwash, toothpaste and sugar free gum because it does not cause cavities.

The authors say that they do not want to judge people who eat processed foods and say that approved additives have been tested by the Food and Drug Administration and deemed safe for human consumption.

They say that food additives have a 'a lot of baggage' but says it is 'plain stupid' to assume that everything that has chemical in it is bad for you.

The book says: 'Some readers might expect a firm indictment of artificial food ingredients, but they will not find that in this book. This is a visual exploration...not a polemic.

'We are not here to tell you that artificial ingredients are bad for you, or what to eat.

'We are simply curious about these ingredients and assume that many of you are too. We ask, "What does it look like?" and "Why do they put this in my food?"'

The authors add that the 'real debate' is whether a diet filled with processed foods is good for you and sustainable for the planet.

They write: 'We don't get into that because, simply put, we're dealing here with art and science, not policy.'

Ingredients, a Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products, is on sale at Amazon.com.