Mission flour tortillas have 11 ingredients. A tortilla needs 4, flour, water, fat and salt. The bag lists enriched bleached flour, water, vegetable shortening made from interesterified and hydrogenated soybean oils, then 2% or less of salt, sugar, baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, distilled monoglycerides, fumaric acid, calcium propionate and sorbic acid. The shortening is soybean oil that was hardened in a reactor so it acts like lard at room temperature. Baking soda and sodium acid pyrophosphate are a baking powder split in two, so the tortilla puffs on the hot plate in the plant. Distilled monoglycerides are an emulsifier. They keep the starch from going stale and hard, which is why a Mission tortilla is still soft weeks after you bought it. Fumaric acid drops the pH, and calcium propionate and sorbic acid stop mold in a bag that isn't refrigerated.

Reese's Pieces have no chocolate in them. The peanuts had their oil pressed out and a cheaper fat put back in. Sugar is first, then partially defatted peanuts, then hydrogenated palm kernel and soybean oil, then corn syrup solids. Everything after that is 2% or less, and it's the dyes, the glaze, some vanillin and a little milk. There's no cocoa anywhere. Partially defatted just means the peanuts went through a press. The peanut oil comes out one side and gets sold as peanut oil. What's left is a dry peanut flour, and that's what the center is made from, because flour holds a shape in a panning drum and doesn't go rancid. Then they put fat back in, and the fat they picked is hydrogenated palm kernel oil, which is solid at room temperature and costs less than peanut oil. You can see the swap on the panel. 38 pieces have 6 g of fat and all 6 are saturated. Peanut oil is mostly unsaturated, so that number isn't the peanut. The shell is sugar with 4 dyes and a coat of shellac.

The pork chops at the meat counter were injected with solution. The tray reads up to 12% solution of water, salt and sodium phosphate. It's not just the store brand. Hormel Always Tender tenderloin is up to 12% of water, potassium lactate, sodium phosphates, salt and sodium diacetate, and a Kroger cook-in-bag tenderloin is up to 15% plus a rub. At the plant the loins go through a bank of needles that pump the brine in, then into a tumbler that spreads it through the muscle. The phosphate raises the pH of the meat so the proteins grab water and hold it, and the salt helps them hold more. The pork comes out heavier than it went in, it won't dry out on a grill, and the water expands margin. The lactate and the diacetate are there for shelf life. Check the sodium for the tell. A plain tenderloin is about 60 mg in 4 oz, the 12% ones run 290 to 320, and the 15% one with the rub is 710. Since 2016 the solution line has to be part of the product name on the front of the tray, at least a third the size of the name, and the word enhanced isn't allowed.

The hard boiled eggs at the hotel breakfast weren't boiled there. They came peeled, in brine. The foodservice case is a 25 lb tub. The label reads hard cooked eggs, water, citric acid, sodium benzoate and nisin preparation as preservatives. Shelf life is 56 days in the cooler. A plant cooks the eggs in a continuous boiler, cracks and peels them with rollers and water jets, and floats them in the tub. The kitchen opens it, drains a hotel pan's worth and sets it out. A peeled egg is wet, high in protein and sits at a pH bacteria like, so the acid drops the pH and the benzoate stops yeast and mold. Nisin is a peptide made by a dairy bacterium, and it's in there for Listeria. A 2019 Listeria outbreak traced to a Georgia plant that peels eggs made 7 people sick in 5 states, hospitalized 4 and killed 1.

Veggie Straws are potato starch. The vegetables are powders, and most of them are there for color. The bag reads potato starch, potato flour, corn starch, cane sugar, sweet potato powder, salt, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, spinach powder, tomato powder, then beetroot, turmeric and beta-carotene for color. The spinach and the tomato come after the salt. An ounce of straws is 140 calories, 6 g of fat, 200 mg of sodium and 1 g of protein. An ounce of Lay's Classic is 160 calories, 10 g of fat, 140 mg of sodium, 2 g of protein, more fiber and more potassium. It's basically a potato chip pushed through a die instead of sliced. The green straws are spinach powder and the red ones are tomato and beet, all of it listed below the salt.