Swallow This: Serving Up the Food Industry’s Darkest Secrets

Swallow This: Serving Up the Food Industry’s Darkest Secrets
Joanna Blythman

From the author of What to Eat and Shopped, a revelatory investigation into what really goes into the food we eat.Even with 25 years experience as a journalist and investigator of the food chain, Joanna Blythman still felt she had unanswered questions about the food we consume every day. How ‘natural’ is the process for making a ‘natural’ flavouring? What, exactly, is modified starch, and why is it an ingredient in so many foods? What is done to pitta bread to make it stay ‘fresh’ for six months? And why, when you eat a supermarket salad, does the taste linger in your mouth for several hours after?Swallow This is a fascinating exploration of the food processing industry and its products – not just the more obvious ready meals, chicken nuggets and tinned soups, but the less overtly industrial – washed salads, smoothies, yoghurts, cereal bars, bread, fruit juice, prepared vegetables. Forget illegal, horse-meat-scandal processes, every step in the production of these is legal, but practised by a strange and inaccessible industry, with methods a world-away from our idea of domestic food preparation, and obscured by technical speak, unintelligible ingredients manuals, and clever labelling practices.Determined to get to the bottom of the impact the industry has on our food, Joanna Blythman has gained unprecedented access to factories, suppliers and industry insiders, to give an utterly eye-opening account of what we’re really swallowing.

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Copyright (#u43e4e515-078c-56db-899a-40a7c00a1158)

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2015

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk (http://www.4thestate.co.uk)

FIRST EDITION

Text © Joanna Blythman 2015

Original lettuce photograph © Shutterstock

Joanna Blythman asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007548330

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780007548347

Version: 2015-12-04

Dedication (#u43e4e515-078c-56db-899a-40a7c00a1158)

In memory of Derek Cooper,

a fellow foot soldier in the food wars.

Contents

Cover (#uff7a7bb3-d3c3-5c59-b54d-81ef4806f88c)

Title page (#ulink_ea07b98b-01aa-5c51-b58a-d3c9d9122402)

Copyright (#ulink_dcabae16-9f2c-560d-955d-8781fcdd7fe6)

Dedication (#ulink_4ecf5281-ee54-5c16-b7a9-32910db9fe59)

Introduction (#ulink_9cec0e59-1aba-5888-a114-435473d05992)

PART ONE: How the processed food system works (#ulink_0458645a-471a-5edd-b4d0-ee2087f54699)

1 Why it all tastes the same (#ulink_b8a3e370-1825-5c7c-a94a-c0a15e672edd)

2 On the factory floor (#ulink_4ba500c0-bd32-5267-84e8-455bf06f5ac0)

3 Clean label (#ulink_24c35c91-a777-541a-bf0f-fe776aa7422e)

4 At the food makers’ market (#ulink_7491d907-d9b7-5c56-9253-5d053aad9199)

5 Fresh in store (#litres_trial_promo)

PART TWO: The defining characteristics of processed food (#litres_trial_promo)

6 Sweet (#litres_trial_promo)

7 Oily (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Flavoured (#litres_trial_promo)

9 Coloured (#litres_trial_promo)

10 Watery (#litres_trial_promo)

11 Starchy (#litres_trial_promo)

12 Tricky (#litres_trial_promo)

13 Old (#litres_trial_promo)

14 Packed (#litres_trial_promo)

Postscript (#litres_trial_promo)

Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)