12 Bizarre Ingredients You Didn’t Know They Put In Your Food

You think you live in a bizarre world? Really?? What do you really know about the bizarreness of world besides your next door neighbour who wears her T-shirt inside out and poker playboy Dan Bilzerian’s decision to contest for US president. Anyway, the point is that there are certain hardcore bizarre facts I am going to present before you, facts that will make you throw up as you read along. Facts, that are always present in your food mocking your ignorance.

And if you are binging on a large mac while reading this, I suggest you stop right away. Because here I am to make your day suck (because my sucky day wanted mass company) by telling you about weird AF and gross ingredients the weirdos put in your food. Ingredients you most times hog on unknowingly, and sometimes, deliberately, because you are bizarre too.

BLERGH ALL THE WAY.

Animal-based ingredients

1. Beaver anal glands in ice creams and candies

Derived from the castor sacs of beavers, Castoreum, you wouldn’t believe is an FDA approved ingredient! Was that too much science for you? Okay, so take this: your raspberry candies and vanilla, strawberry and raspberry ice creams contain anal and urine secretions of beavers.

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2. Bugs make your food red

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Scientifically known as carmine, the food colouring that gives your candies, ice creams, and drinks their vivid red colouration comes from cochineal– a red bug dye. The make it by boiling the shells of the female cochineal insect in sodium carbonate solution or ammonia. The popular coffee chain ‘Starbucks’ even confessed to have used crushed red bugs in their popular Strawberry Frappuccino drink. There’s also a danger factor associated with it. WHO says that aside from triggering allergic reactions, the cochineal extract can cause asthma.

So much for the red drink!

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3. Ingredient we absolutely can’t live without contains bone dust. SUGAR, people.

Sugar cane and sugar beet are two key ingredients, HELL YES. But, in order to enhance that white colour, manufacturers use bone char of cattle as a whitening agent.

But sugar is like the queen of all ingredients in the kitchen, you can not, not have it. So in order to avoid having some ground cattle bones through sugar, make sure to buy 100% beet sugar or the unbleached one (the one that hasn’t undergone the filtration process).

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4. Rodent Hair in mac & cheese and peanut butter

FDA says, each box of mac and cheese contains one rodent hair per 50 g and each 100 g quantity of peanut butter contains one rodent hair. These gross AF ingredients are very accurately labeled as ‘natural contaminants’. If only we understood in the first go that ‘natural’ doesn’t mean veggies all the time.

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5. Sheep secretions in your chewing gum

An oily substance called lanolin is obtained from the wool of sheep. Basically sheep sweat, it is the same ingredient you find very juicy and addictive in your gum. It is listed as ‘gum base’ on the cover. It is also a chief ingredient in Vitamin D3 supplements.

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6. Calf stomach in cheese

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Dear vegetarians by choice, you can cry your eyes out. Cheese, mainly in the UK, contains an ingredient called rennet, which is basically no milky deal but the fourth stomach of a cow. Although, there are brands that constitute non-animal rennet also.

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7. Raisins have fruit fly eggs

FDA PERMITS 10 insect and 35 fruit fly eggs per 8 ounce of raisins.

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Human-based ingredients

8. Human hair in bread

Amino acids are essential for good health. One of the amino acids called L-Cysteine is used in bread to prolong its shelf life. And oh yes, the sources of this amino acid are duck hair, chicken feathers and cow horns. But the major source of L-Cysteine is HUMAN HAIR, which is harvested from barber shops and salons in China!

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9. Ttonsul-  A traditional Korean wine containing human feces

This Korean drink is a traditional wine possessing medicinal qualities and, human feces. Moreover, Wiki says that medicines made from feces are an old news in China, Japan, and Korea. Not surprised, really. -_-

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10. Virgin Boy Egg

Trust me, its preparation is crazier than its name. They collect urine of young school going Chinese boys, preferably under 10 years of age and boil eggs in their urine. If this wasn’t enough, get a load of this: The Chinese city of Dongyang recognized the recipe as a “local intangible cultural heritage.”

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11. Breast milk flavoured ice creams

Picture credit: Cordula Donhauser/EPA

Can also be used as creamer in coffee and other drinks. Yes, it is possible.

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And escalating the whole thing really quickly and dying with it, I present to you this woman who, mind you, in all consciousness…

12. Used insides of her vagina to make bread

Erm. She used the naturally occurring yeast in her vagina to make sourdough bread.

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Hate me all you want, but as I mentioned in the beginning, I didn’t want to have a sucky day all by myself. Also, this article is a realization of the fact that staying vegetarian in this duniya isn’t a cake walk anymore, nai?

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