mcdonalds sauce

[ondemania]

does anybody else just love the sweet n sour sauce! can you buy it anywhere do u know or is it only for the restuarant. now u have to pay for it there aswell!! aghhhhh!

[Peahead66]

I avoid it like the plague to be honest. All that MSG in it does the brain no good.

[blueeyedlass]

yeah mcdonalds fries just arent the same without it.

[Xollob]

Not the most appetising list of ingredients, but at least the US version seems to be MSG-free:

High fructose corn syrup, water, fruit concentrate (apricot and/or peach), distilled vinegar, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), salt, modified food starch, dextrose, soybean oil, xanthan gum, spices, sugar, sodium benzoate sorbate as a preservative, natural flavors (fruit and vegetable sources), garlic*, carboxymethylcellulose gum, guar gum, malic acid, onion*, caramel color, extractives of paprika, succinic acid. *Dehydrated

For full list: McDonald's USA Ingredients Listing. Makes for grim reading.

[Peahead66]

Sorry Xollob but MSG is rarely labelled as MSG (wonder why)? Interesting read here http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

[Xollob]

Hallo Peahead66 - thanks for the interesting link. McDonlald's list MSG with many other products in their ingredient list, so I assumed that its absence for sweet and sour sauce meant it was not present there.

Seeing "flavour enhancers" or "monosodium glutamate" on a label is a reason for me not to buy that product. However, glutamic acid occurs naturally in tomatoes, mushrooms and parmesan cheese, all of which I use regularly when cooking.

I suppose anyone even vaguely MSG-sensitive wouldn't touch a fast-food burger with a bargepole. But even if you don't have a problem with this particular additive, you have to ask yourself when you read a list of ingredients (over 70 different ingredients/additives in a Big Mac): is this really necessary?

[Peahead66]

I know what you mean Xollob and thats why I cut out the processed foods a while back and my what a difference I feel. I think your pretty safe with the naturally occuring MSG in tomatoes and such

"Glutamate is a naturally occurring amino acid found in varying concentrations in many foods. Defenders of MSG safety allude to this fact in their defense. But, it is free glutamate that is the culprit. Bound glutamate, found naturally in foods, is less dangerous because it is slowly broken down and absorbed by the gut, so that it can be utilized by the tissues, especially muscle, before toxic concentrations can build up. Therefore, a whole tomato is safer than a pureed tomato. The only exception to this as stated, based on present knowledge, is in the case of ALS. Also, the tomato plant contains several powerful antioxidants known to block glutamate toxicity"  Source: http://www.rense.com/politics6/excito.htm

[PurpleLinzi]

buuurrrp, sorry that must have been the beans I ate yesterday