April 17, 2009

Misnomer

Pistachio-almond is one of Baskin Robbin's classic 31 flavors.

Upon closer inspection, two oddities emerge.

First, the product's official description is: "a nutty combination of pistachio-flavored ice cream and roasted almonds."

That's right, the nut pieces you see are almonds, not pistachios.

Then there's the ingredient list, from which pistachios are entirely missing:

"Cream, nonfat milk, almonds, sugar, corn syrup, natural & artificial flavor, blue 1, yellow 5, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, carrageenan, polysorbate 80."

It's not just ice cream chains pulling this trick.

I recently stopped by a well-known New York City vegan restaurant and ordered a delicious-sounding spinach-almond-banana-soy milk smoothie to go.

As I watched the smoothie man concoct my beverage, I was slightly crushed to see it didn't contain actual almonds, but rather a few drops of almond extract.

I think I now understand how Milli Vanilli fans felt when the lip-syncing scandal broke...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Being that I live in New Jersey, it's hard to not be familiar with the NJ Turnpike factories that produce 'natural flavor.' Every time I see it on a food label, I'm very wary of what that could be. I know it's a highly secretive industry but has anyone written anything on what 'natural flavor' or 'artificial flavor' actually IS? I'd be very interested in reading about that.

Cloud said...

Hi Andy,

I couldn't find any other way to contact you other than posting a comment on one of your articles.

My name is Heidi, community manager for Askables.com.

I have a proposition for you regarding your obvious knowledge of and passion for Nutrition.

I think you'll be interested in hearing more, so please contact me if you'd like to know more - heidi@askables.com.

This is not spam and I am a real human with feelings :-)

Look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for your time.

Heidi Ward

Community Manager

Askables.com