PSA - Read your seasoning's ingredients!

bicktrav

This really shocked me, so I figured I'd post here as a sort of PSA.  I was making dinner tonight and wanted to add some seasoning to a kale dish I was doing.  I use John Henry's Mojave Garlic Blend pretty regularly, but I don't love the fact that it has some anti-caking agents in it, so rather than grab it I decided to make a quick seasoning blend of my own.  I pulled some garlic salt off the shelf, figuring I'd mix it with some pepper and maybe chili powder.  The garlic salt is Lawry's brand.  I've used this garlic salt a million times with great results, but for some reason--probably because of the whole John Henry anti-caking agent thing--I decided to check the ingredients.  What I found blew me away: partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.  For those that aren't familiar, that means trans fats.  Not long ago, the FDA proposed a ban on trans fats, stating there is no safe level for human consumption.  And there it was, sitting in my garlic salt, a product I use all the time.  All of sudden, the John Henry was looking pretty good.  I'm really vigilant about checking ingredients, but I never even thought to check spices or seasonings.  And here I've been loading my food with a trans fat laden product.  I'm very health-conscious so this really pisses me off, but at the end of the day it's my own fault for not checking.  Anyway, all of this is to say... READ THE LABELS.  EVEN ON YOUR SEASONINGS!

Biggreenpharmacist

I absolutely refuse. My magic egg will make it all better. Besides, as much beef and pig fat I eat I probably don't have a prayer anyway.

caliking

To each his own of course, but just to put it in perspective, how much Lawry's garlic salt do you consume, that the trans fats in it would be so deadly? I  too don't eat certain things for certain reasons, but you can consume more trans fats than you can cyanide

bicktrav

Yeah, not worried about the amount or anything.  Just was totally shocked to find trans fats in seasoning.  Didn't even cross my mind that it could be in there.

Zmokin

I stopped buying garlic salt and onions salt etc. a long time ago.  I only buy garlic powder, onion powder, etc.  I prefer to control the salt to spice ratio on my own.  Also, many pre-mixed seasonings have MSG which I try to eliminate as my wife can't tolerate MSG.  It gives her headaches and makes her nose run to woebegone.  It took her years to figure out why she felt crappy after eating dinner so often and after we eliminated the MSG, her problems went away.

BigWader

The use of fats (veg oil types mostly) in dry spice blends is to help control dust during the production and packaging of them.  Imagine the dust in your kitchen magnified 1000x in a plant so they add a little (and I mean like 1% or less) to keep the dust down.

The choice of fat is made based on achieving shelf life.  Hydrogenated fats and fully saturated fats, solid at room temperature would last longer before becoming rancid like a vegetable oil. 

They probably are worried about minimizing off flavours more than trans fats in this case since lots of spice bottles sit in the pantry for a long time.

TexanOfTheNorth

You might also be interested to know that there are FDA approved guidelines for natural "defects" in food as well.

Skiddymarker

TexanOfTheNorth said:

You might also be interested to know that there are FDA approved guidelines for natural "defects" in food as well.

Beat me to it - I keep that one bookmarked. The most troubling was the 2500 aphids per 10 grams found in hops....I am not giving up beer no matter what they find in the ingredients. 

TexanOfTheNorth

Skiddymarker said:

TexanOfTheNorth said:

You might also be interested to know that there are FDA approved guidelines for natural "defects" in food as well.

Beat me to it - I keep that one bookmarked. The most troubling was the 2500 aphids per 10 grams found in hops....I am not giving up beer no matter what they find in the ingredients. 

Exactly! And whose to say that ground paprika would taste as good without some insect and rodent filth mixed in?