When you go to your favorite restaurant and order one of their juicy burgers, chances are that you’re not dreaming about eating wood pulp. It may surprise you to learn that most of the major food chains are adding wood pulp to their meats, as well as to a number of different products.
Next time you decide to order food, take a few minutes to read the list of ingredients and you’ll likely see names like microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), alpha-cellulose, flour cellulose, cellulose fiber, cellulose gum, powdered cellulose or regenerated cellulose. Translated into plain English, those are fancy names for wood pulp.
These cellulose-based ingredients are added for emulsion-stabilizing, cling improving and anti-caking purposes. The Food and Drug Administration tells us that cellulose cannot be digested by humans, it has no nutritional value and when consumed in large amounts, it provides dietary bulk that may have cause a laxative effect.
Cellulose is commonly added to ground meets, fish filets, biscuits, buns, tortillas, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, pancakes, milk shakes, shredded cheese, syrup, ice cream, honey mustard, barbecue sauce and many other types of food.
Trying to cut down on your wood pulp consumption can be quite difficult if you are dining out or buying processed foods at the grocery store. If you are really serious about avoiding wood pulp, you may have to buy fresh ingredients and start cooking at home.
Meanwhile, if you don’t mind eating wood pulp and you like using it as a cheap filler, let me know. I’ll have my guys sweep up all of the saw dust after we finish a job and we’ll save it for you.
