Trusting food

[fzjohnson]

Hi,
I wanted to check in & see if this was just my little neuroses or whether any others were also starting to mistrust food products. Three things I am now dealing with in more visibly 'obviously plant' ingredients; hummus, coffee and herbal tea.

The hummus has been tasting less like chickpeas and is very fluffy, almost like a mousse. Is this normal? I mean, it tastes nice but for a fairly solid legume I'm pretty sure it's not meant to be a savoury mousse. Needless to say, I now make my own and freeze the excess.

The coffee grinds in tins ... just coffee? I've tasted some unusual flavours and decided I quite like the reassurance of seeing an actual coffee bean go into my grinder.

Finally, the herbal tea bags ... I use top quality British ones because I prefer to buy British. Why are they sweet? I've looked this up & found that some add a drying powder to aid shelf life. The powder is allegedly natural but it isn't always on the ingredient list (unless, like I say, this is my taste buds going off on holidays without me). Something tastes sweet & a tiny bit slimey to me when compared to my homemade mint leaf tea. I wouldn't have noticed if the mint in my garden weren't growing so well.

Feel free to call me mad... But if anyone else has noticed things I'd quite like the company.

 

[sharla86]

I agree with you. When I changed my diet I noticed my sense of smell and taste magnified. I think its because those senses get tired the quickest so when you have a change of diet it becomes 'awake' again and you notice more things.

That said companies frequently change their recipes and I believe they don't have to add some ingredients to the list if it is considered a trade secret or present in only trace quantities.

The sweetener they use in tea sounds a lot like sorbitol or xylitol, though that's only my guess I'm not an expert on these matters.

Continue to make your own is the best advice I could give you.