Please read this...Best not to look at labels on your food

<p class="p1">Maybe it's best just not to look at the labels...</p><p class="p1">...we're talking the labels on the food products we consume.</p><p class="p1">Not all that many years ago, I really did not pay attention to the labels. Then, not all that many years ago, there may not have been labels on the our food products, at least not the kind that we see now.</p><p class="p1">Times, and things, change. For one thing, I really do need to know what's in the food we are consuming at home. That's just the way it is. Not knowing could put a damper on our plans for the holidays.</p><p class="p1">That being said, I really think that it might have been a good thing just to skip reading the label on an item I had for a dinner not long ago.</p><p class="p1">The item: pizza. More specifically, a frozen pizza. I am going to refrain from mentioning a particular brand name, mainly because there are lots of legal wizards in suits out there who are always looking for ways to keep busy.</p><p class="p1">Just out of curiosity, while the oven was preheating, more or less, to the recommended 400 degrees Farenheit, I started reading the label on my frozen pizza's package.</p><p class="p1">The label featured "Nutrition Facts," which indicated that my frozen pizza had five "servings per container." I had never looked at a frozen pizza in terms of being a "container."</p><p class="p1">Just to the right of the "Nutrition Facts" were the "Ingredients." I tried to count the number of ingredients in the pizza. However, the ingredients were listed in teeny, tiny type, something that kind of looked like <span class="s1">this.</span> I made it through about 16 or 17 items on the list, when my eyes started to hurt. </p><p class="p1">I was somewhat surprised by the first ingredient which was on the ingredient list. Meat? Nah. Flour? Nah.</p><p class="p1">Water.</p><p class="p1">Yup. Water. I guess if you're making a frozen pizza, you have to start with a big glass of water. </p><p class="p1">Next up on the list: wheat. Actually, it was "enriched wheat flour," which meant that it was flour with other stuff.</p><p class="p1">Then, we had "low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese," which involved "part-skim milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes."</p><p class="p1">After the cheese culture, we had tomato paste, which, I guess, just involved tomato paste. Somewhere, and I'm guessing again, the paste involved at least one tomato.</p><p class="p1">From tomato paste, we moved on to "cooked seasoned pizza topping," which, until that moment, would be one of those things that I had never heard of.</p><p class="p1">"Cooked seasoned pizza topping" involved pork, water (again) and "mechanically separated chicken." Really. "Mechanically separated chicken." Conjure up that image in your mind. Ponder the chicken as it awaited what no doubt is the rather unpleasant fate of being mechanically separated. </p><p class="p1">The pizza topping also included "textured vegetable protein," as in "[soy protein concentrate, caramel color], salt, modified corn starch, beef, spices, soy protein concentrate, flavoring, sodium phosphate, caramel color, BHA, BHT, citric acid. Cooked in pork fat, beef fat or vegetable oil)." BHT? BHT? OMG.</p><p class="p1">Other yummy ingredients in the pizza included yet more mechanically separated chicken, "lactic acid starter culture," "oleoresin of paprika," yet more BHA and BHT and the always popular "L-cysteine hydrochloride," which, I am guessing, is used on roads after a winter storm covers them in ice and snow.</p><p class="p1">OK. I've waded through the frozen pizza's ingredients. I think the oven has been preheated to 400 degrees Farenheit. Time to cook this thing. Thank goodness there are "Cooking Directions" on the package. Um, container.</p><p class="p1">Thank goodness, also, that the fine folks who produce this frozen delicacy are watching out for my well-being, 'cause they made sure to warn me: "DO NOT EAT WITHOUT COOKING." I guess they want to make sure that the BHA, BHT and L-cysteine hydrochloride gets nice and toasty warm.</p><p class="p1">The pizza people also made sure to alert me to the fact that after the pizza has been in a 400-degree oven for approximately 18 to 20 minutes, "or until cheese is melted and edges are golden brown," the pizza is, surprise, going to come out "hot, please use care when handling." </p><p class="p1">Honestly, I think that I understand why all of that stuff has to be on the label. It has something to do with the world we live in. You know, the world where we have to be told that something which has been cooking in the oven is going to come out of the oven hot. </p><p class="p1">Next day, I had a slice of leftover pizza for lunch. I ate it cold. Didn't even think about BHA. However, I am starting to worry about when we'll start seeing genetically modified Frankenpizzas...</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p2"> </p>