board77

The Last Homely Site on the Web

The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza

Post Reply   Page 1 of 1  [ 11 posts ]
Author Message
Legolas the elf
Post subject: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Sun 12 Apr , 2009 1:56 am
Trudging the road of happy destiny...
Offline
 
Posts: 1712
Joined: Wed 06 Jul , 2005 5:04 pm
Location: Helsinki, Finland
 
I'm temporarily on an uber-tight budget and am eating the worst stuff Kroger's has to offer. I give you...the scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza:

Ferrous Sulfate
Sodium Aluminum Phosphate
Potassium Chloride
Magnesium Oxide
Titanium Dioxide
Sodium Aluminum Phosphate
Monostearate
Sodium Citrate
Xanthan Gum
Sodium Ascorbate
Sodium Nitrite
BHT (sounds like an herbicide)
BHA

Are these all synthetic chemicals made in laboratory???
:help: :roll:


Top
Profile Quote
Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Sun 12 Apr , 2009 3:23 am
bioalchemist
Offline
 
Posts: 5205
Joined: Wed 16 Mar , 2005 2:10 am
Location: at a safe distance
 
Define synthetic. ;)

The BHA and BHT (preservative) were probably synthesized in a chemical plant. ;) The metal oxides and potassium chloride would have come from natural sources like seawater and rocks. I have no idea why most of that would be in pizza dough. Titanium dioxide is a white pigment used in paints so maybe it's for coloration. As for the rest? :shrug: The ferrous sulfate might be in there as an iron supplement, but that's me stabbing the dark. Same for the magnesium oxide. Magnesium is good for you but I'm not sure that's why it's in the dough

Xanthan gum is produced by bacteria and, by the by, can be purchased in a health food store. It's often used as a thickening and/or emulsifying agent. Monostearate is a conjugate base for stearic acid, which is a fatty acid and used for purposes similar to xanthan gum. It's extracted from animal fat. Sodium ascorbate is the conjugate base for vitamin C and some of it will convert to vitamin C once it's in solution. Sodium citrate is the conjugate base for citric acid. I'm not entirely sure why those are in your pizza dough though neither of these is bad for you (quite the contrary, though you produce your own citric acid). Not sure where they came from. Maybe they were synthesized, though it's also possible they were purified out of something that lived. Not sure why they're in your pizza dough. Potassium chloride can come from saltwater or a rock and it's a common way to take in potassium, which you need to live (though too much will give you a heart attack). Not sure why that's in your pizza dough either. Ditto for sodium nitrite and sodium aluminum phosphate.

Generally, chemical companies use the most cost effective means available to make their products and that often involves extracting them from natural sources. Just because it has a chemistry class name doesn't mean it was pieced together, atom by atom, in a lab. That said, it's wise to know what you're eating. Titanium dioxide probably won't hurt you, but why ingest it at all, you know?

By the way, it's not that hard to make your own pizza dough.

_________________

"He attacks. And here I can kill him. But I don't. That's the answer to world peace, people."
-Stickles Shihan


Top
Profile Quote
Legolas the elf
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Sun 12 Apr , 2009 3:43 am
Trudging the road of happy destiny...
Offline
 
Posts: 1712
Joined: Wed 06 Jul , 2005 5:04 pm
Location: Helsinki, Finland
 
Thanks, River. I feel....less poisoned. :D


And I don't think making my own pizza would be cheaper than the Totino's at $1.29....although it sounds much better.


Top
Profile Quote
BrianIsSmilingAtYou
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Sun 12 Apr , 2009 4:59 am
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 1225
Joined: Wed 21 Sep , 2005 2:38 am
Location: Philadelphia
 
River covered the bases pretty well.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if it also contained Dihydrogen Monoxide.

BrianIs :) AtYou

_________________

[ img ]

My niece, Humera, under a pumpkin leaf!


Top
Profile Quote
Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Sun 12 Apr , 2009 6:08 am
bioalchemist
Offline
 
Posts: 5205
Joined: Wed 16 Mar , 2005 2:10 am
Location: at a safe distance
 
Legolas the elf wrote:
Thanks, River. I feel....less poisoned. :D


And I don't think making my own pizza would be cheaper than the Totino's at $1.29....although it sounds much better.
I've never priced out how much my pizza costs/batch so I can't say either way. I can say that, even if you use a very plain recipe, you're going to get many warm fuzzies and an ego boost and there's a good chance it'll just be better because for some reason, stuff from scratch is like that. You'll also know what's going into it. One of the perks of cooking for yourself is, even if you're cooking yourself crap, you were very conscious of what was going on with your food the entire time you were prepping it and you're very deliberately making the choice to eat crap.

_________________

"He attacks. And here I can kill him. But I don't. That's the answer to world peace, people."
-Stickles Shihan


Top
Profile Quote
Crucifer
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Sun 12 Apr , 2009 6:50 am
A song outlasts a dynasty.
Offline
 
Posts: 3202
Joined: Tue 29 May , 2007 9:42 pm
Location: Wouldn't you like to know...
Contact: Website
 
Hey, you are what you eat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XthZ7rFP ... re=related" target="_blank

Nothing like a homemade pizza, Lego, especially if you're having a group around!

_________________

Sleep is a death; Oh, make me try by sleeping what it is to die.


Top
Profile Quote
Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Mon 13 Apr , 2009 12:36 am
Daydream Believer
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 5780
Joined: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 11:15 pm
Location: Pac Northwest
 
Perhaps they use sea salt as their salt at Totinos.

_________________

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in

Five seconds away from the Tetons and Yellowstone


Top
Profile Quote
Jonny
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Wed 15 Apr , 2009 1:30 am
pixel-pusher
Offline
 
Posts: 1560
Joined: Tue 06 Dec , 2005 1:18 am
Contact: Website
 
I lived off Totino's pizzas for a good year and a half or so and had to make a conscious decision to stop buying them. They are lets face it pretty tasty :Q And so cheap. They were a buck a pop at wal-mart for a long time, and now I think they've gone up to something like $1.06 lol

River, after reading your post... you're really smart :suspicious:

_________________

“And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”


Top
Profile Quote
Dave_LF
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Thu 16 Apr , 2009 12:11 pm
You are hearing me talk
Offline
 
Posts: 2950
Joined: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 8:14 am
Location: Great Lakes
 
I lived on those things for a four year span around the time I finished college. I remember getting upset when they raised the price to 89 cents. It was always a dilemma; do I buy Totino's or the bigger frozen pizzas that cost less per ounce but more total?


Top
Profile Quote
Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Thu 16 Apr , 2009 5:46 pm
bioalchemist
Offline
 
Posts: 5205
Joined: Wed 16 Mar , 2005 2:10 am
Location: at a safe distance
 
Jonny wrote:
River, after reading your post... you're really smart :suspicious:
Hardly. But I am a biochemist. Being able to grok a food label to completion is sort of an occupational hazard. There's a reason I prefer to cook for myself...

_________________

"He attacks. And here I can kill him. But I don't. That's the answer to world peace, people."
-Stickles Shihan


Top
Profile Quote
Sunsilver
Post subject: Re: The scary ingredients in a Totino's frozen pizza
Posted: Thu 16 Apr , 2009 10:38 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2666
Joined: Mon 24 Jan , 2005 12:43 pm
Location: Gone to the dogs!
 
Dihydrogen monoxide...Brian, you're being cruel to those who don't know anything about chemistry... :suspicious:

Lego, in case you're worried, that translates to H2O!

:toast:

_________________

When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose[/size]


Top
Profile Quote
Display: Sort by: Direction:
Post Reply   Page 1 of 1  [ 11 posts ]
Return to “The Turf”
Jump to: