whats in your food

What’s In Your Food?GDNM

Disgusting MeatTo start off with I watched a documentary called “Britain’s Really Disgusting Foods” I first saw this documentary about 2 years ago, and it has really changed my thoughts on processed food since. I was amazed by how and what goes into making this so called “meat” And even more Shockingly it isn’t made clear by what's put into your

processed burgers or chicken nuggets. Many companies claim its “100% chicken” or “100% beef” but really its all a big cover up! My aim is to investigate into how these products are made, and try and make people aware of what's really in there processed food.

Stills taken from “Britain's Really Disgusting Foods”


What’s In Processed Meat?I came across ingredients that are used for making processed food products, and they weren't the ordinary ingredients you would expect to find in your burgers. Many processed chicken products contain; chicken skin, fat, connective tissue,chicken and a lot of chemi-cals. These ingredients are then mashed together to create the desired chicken shape product, packaged and sold. I was shocked at how little amount of actual meat can

go into these products! A chicken Kiev doesn't even have a legally controlled amount of meat, so this means you can put as little chicken in as you like. Connective tissue, fat and skin can all be classed as meat, so this bulks the percentage of meat up making the product legal for food standards.

Mechanically Recovered Meat (MRM)MRM was another interesting ingredient that is often found in Hot

Dogs. MRM is all the left over bits that you wouldn't normally eat of the animal i.e. the carcass, they take this and but it through a giant processor and then sieve out the lumps leaving a pink gloop. MRM cannot be classed as meat as it is made up of Gristle, rind, bones, but does have to be stated on food packaging.

52% Chicken 76% Chicken 13% Chicken

Above: Stills taken from “Jamie Olivers Food Revolution”Top Right: Homemade “Pink Gloop”


Jamie OliverI watched a short video clip taken from the television series “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” it illustrates in a simplified form the process by which mechanically recovered poultry is turned into chicken nuggets or patties. In the video clip Jamie Oliver is not successful in changing the minds of these young children. He thought that the shock tactic would work…..this shows that some people are undeterred in eating fast food, yet knowing what is actually in it.

Pink GloopThis is basically what Jamie Oliver created in his video clip, “Pink Gloop” I had ago at making some myself just to see how easy it was. Once I had blended all the bits up, I put it in a jar to represent some sort of chicken paste that you could maybe buy in a supermarket one day, so that you could make your own processed burgers, as people don’t seem to be that bothered about eating this “Pink Gloop”


Pink Slime Fast Food BurgersAs I searched the internet for information on what was put into the glorious “Fast Food” products, I came across something called “Pink Slime” It’s quite difficult to find out what fast food restaurant really put into there food, as they are so good at covering it up.

What is it? “Pink slime” is the nickname earned by a formerly inedible by product of the beef industry. Once used in pet food, it’s now a cheap additive in ground beef. Despite the ammo-nia, pink slime has had a number of contamination issues. Another thing to have a beef with is pink slime’s official name; the company that makes it misleadingly calls it “Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings.”

It’s hard to find a list of restaurants that use pink slime but people can say with certainty that a few major institutions use this additive. Burger King does. And McDonald’s has since 2004. Cargill, the multinational food producer and

supplier which services both, is a major pink slime dealer. But since big meat producing companies tend to keep their supply chains hidden, it’s difficult to know exactly who uses pink slime and who doesn’t.

In case you needed another reason to skip that fast food burger at lunch, we’ve got one for you. It turns out that several fast food chains include something called “pink slime” in their “secret” recipes

Top row: Stills taken from a clip about MRM processorBottom left: Pink Slime burgerBottom right: MRM meat

Top: Food Stylist burgerBottom: What it really looks like

What makes us eat this rubbish?Advertisement has a big part in promoting food, it glorifies it, makes it more tempting to buy, and often makes it out to be something it’s not! It’s up to each of us to decide what we eat, but if we are constantly bombarded with images of food every time we turn the TV on or pick up a magazine, then we are going to be swayed into what we choose.

Making the food look goodHave you ever been into Burger King or McDonald’s and looked at the pictures of the burgers that are on offer, brought one, sat down to eat it. And have been disap-pointed by the way it looks once you unwrapped it? You find yourself thinking “It didn’t look like that in the picture” And that’s because the picture is a lie! It’s made to look that way by a Food Stylist. When I came across a Food Stylist I could hardly believe it myself, the lengths these company’s go to just so people will buy there food.

So what does a Food Stylist do?The role of the food stylist is to make the food look attractive in the finished photograph. The main difference between how a home cook or chef may present food and what a stylist does is the time and effort a stylist takes to carefully and artfully arrange the food. Also required is the visual know how, and ability to translate the perception of taste, aroma and appeal that one gets from an actual dish, to a two-dimensional photograph.

Top row: Stills taken from a clip about MRM processorBottom left: Pink Slime burgerBottom right: MRM meat


ExperimentsAfter researching about processed meat and how it was made, how its advertised, and made to look pretty, it was time to create my own adver-tisements. Looking at McDonalds adverts I found one featuring David Dickinson which was a bit weird, his message was that McDonalds food is a bargain, and value for money. I

didn’t agree with this false front, so changed the voice over to something more truthful. My message was about the food being mechanically processed and not to buy McDon-alds food.

I had a look at food advertisement posters, and they where all false and glorified. So I decided to change the

meaning around and show people the truth about processed food. Many people are unaware of what goes into there food. I also came up with a fake product called “Chicken Gloop” which I branded and created a poster for. I still wasn’t happy with my outcomes so looked into informa-tion graphics.


Information GraphicsI came up with the idea of creating an information leaflet, it would put across the most important facts about processed food in a simple and clear format. Mainly by

using a small colour pallet with bold type, and simple diagrams.


Above: Is the final outcome of the leaflet

Documents

whats in your food