In the July 11th issue of the Times, Sonner talked about the ingredients
in Kraft Dinner and he noticed that the cheese sauce contains bacterial
cultures and citric acid. I know they sound like something that
shouldn't be in your food, but don't worry, they're good for you.
First, I'll discuss the importance of bacterial cultures. Bacterial
cultures are used in fermented dairy foods because it is believed that
the good bacteria in the cultures will overpower harmful bacteria which
could be in the food or in your body. They are also used to improve
people's health; for example, they relieve lactose intolerance, stimulate
your immune system, and prevent cancer. Since cancer runs in my family,
bacterial cultures are something I definitely want in my food.
Also, we need bacteria in us because it helps us digest some of the food we eat.
If bacterial cultures weren't in our food, sour cream would be runny and
it wouldn't taste sour, cheese would have a different texture (think
runny cheese... ew!!) and it'd taste different, buttermilk wouldn't
exist, sourdough bread wouldn't be sour, and I'm sure the cheese sauce
in Kraft Dinner would be a lot different.
Ok, now I'll talk about citric acid. Citric acid helps us digest some of
the chemicals in our bodies. It also gives food a tangy flavour and it
masks bad flavours in some food. The reason I think citric acid is in
Kraft Dinner is that citric acid is formed by fermentation. Now, all of
you biology whizzes out there(like me ^_^) know that there are tons of
different kinds of fermentations that happen. I don't know if the
kind of fermentation that makes citric acid happened in the cheese sauce,
but it might have.
I hope that this answers some questions some of you have been asking, and
remember, just because you see the word "bacteria" in the ingredients
doesn't mean that your food will make you sick! Also, your food doesn't
always contain everything that's on the ingredients list.
Oh, and while we're talking about the ingredients in our food, here's something I
wanna know... one day, I was helping my mom grocery shop and I was
reading the ingredients on this can of something to do with seafood.
One of the ingredients was "imitation crab meat". What exactly is
imitation crab meat??? A few people I've asked said that it's
lobster or fish... so if it really is lobster or fish, why do they call
it imitation crab meat? Why not lobster or fish or whatever else it actually
is?
Well, there's something for you to think about until someone finally finds out the answer.
I'm off to eat some Kraft Dinner (okay, not really)...
This is rainbow15. Bye, and have fun eating bacterial cultures!
