- I'm thirsty. OK, sheep secretions, oh, oh God. Pink slime is about as
appetizing as it sounds and if you're in the United States, chances are it's in some
of your meat products. Pink slime is made form
all the bits of meat, that get cut from the beef alomg with fat. In order to separate the meat and fat, it gets simmered down and
then spun in a centrifuge. After that, all the bits are
pushed together through a pipe and treated with ammonia
to kill any bacteria. Just talking about it is
starting to gross me out. It's then dyed pink, in order
to look like real raw beef, formed into blocks and frozen, before it's sent off to
food processing plants. Pink slime is used as filler
in a lot of meat products, just like ground beef. Now, just how much of it
is used is up for debate, with some estimates as high
as 10 billion pounds per year. Back in 2012, an ABC News investigation claimed that nearly 70%
of ground meat product, being sold in grocery stores
was actually pink slime. Luckily, it's banned from
use in countries like Canada and the European Union, but
it still exists in some places and you're eating that
pink slime, yum, yum, yum. Considering how many ingredients on any processed food
label that there are, that I can barely pronounce, silicon dioxide probably
wouldn't stand out. It also goes by silica, it
may sound harmless enough, but it's actually sand, yeah, like, "Let's make a sandcastle, "the entire beach is made from it", sand. It's actually used as an anti-caking agent in almost anything from
salt to coffee creamer and even peanut butter. The sand absorbs any extra
moisture in food products and stops them from clumping together. It also occurs naturally
in plants like beets, peppers and brown rice and fortunately, it doesn't
seem to have any negative, longterm effects on human beings, but rather than stirring up
all the sand in our bodies, our kidneys take on
the job of filtering it all the way back out. Interestingly the FDA, the
World Health Organization and the European Food Safety Authority have labeled it as safe, so long as you don't eat more than 2% of your meal's weight in it, so in other words, don't
go eating bowls of sand, 'cause you're gonna be, not pooping, you won't be pooping at all,
you'll just, you'll die. Few things are as simple and satisfying as ice cream on a hot day, but you'll probably want to
opt for another treat soon, because a lot of the
ice cream, that you eat is actually flavored with castoreum, otherwise known as beaver anal glands. Castoreum is a brown, hold on, castoreum is a brown, slimy substance, that's basically a mix of
urine and anal secretions, that's taken from the castor sacs of mature North American
and European beavers. The sac is found right
under the beaver's tail, right by its butt and for some reason, it apparently smells really good. Still wouldn't wanna lick it. It's actually been used
by humans for centuries and today it's used in a lot of perfumes. It's also considered
safe for humans to eat. It's actually really common in strawberry, raspberry and vanilla flavored foods and since it comes from an animal and is not made from chemicals, it can actually be labeled
as naturally-flavored. This is good ice cream,
what is that, beaver anus? So the chances are that you've
probably already eaten it, but it probably wasn't the natural flavor that you were hoping for, was it? Hm-mm, or maybe it was, sicko. If you ever thought that
your fruit punch was red from all the natural
strawberries and raspberries, that are in it, think again. Carmine is that vibrant red color you find in anything from
ice cream to Skittles and it's actually made from insects. Cochineal beetles are
dried out, ground down and boiled in ammonia to
release the carminic acid. The signature red is created
when it's mixed with aluminum. It's supposed to be safe for humans, but after reports of some people suffering from major allergic reactions, it's now required to be clearly labeled as an ingredient on foods. In fact, in 2012 Starbucks
was in hot water, when it moved away from
using artificial ingredients and went natural by using carmine in its Strawberry Frappuccinos. After a vegan website started
a petition against them, Starbucks agreed to stop
putting bugs in their drinks in April of 2012 and said that they'd go with real
strawberries instead and this whole time you thought you were having a real
strawberry, no baby, bug shells. If you've ever found a hair in your food, you might wanna convince
yourself that it's your own, but if you're like me, you
might just have to suck it up and accept it's definitely not. In boxes of macaroni and cheese, one rodent hair per 50 grams is allowed and one hair per 100 grams is allowed in chocolate and peanut butter and apparently it's even
more common in making spices. In fact, ground sage has
the highest allowance with nine hairs per 10 grams, mm-mm The FDA-allowed amounts of rodent hair is a small enough amount
to not be harmful to humans and it's labeled as a natural contaminant. Human hair is also found in
food, but not by accident. When broken down, human
hair contains an amino acid called L-Cysteine and it's used
in commercial bread products to give them longer shelf life. Local bakeries likely don't use it, since it's not added to flour, but it is common in buns and bread items at fast food restaurants. Oh, your hair bun, sir, enjoy. Chewing on gum can be a
pretty satisfying habit, that is until you find out
what's making it so chewy. Lanolin is commonly added
to gum to make it soft and it comes from sheep
wool secretions, yummy. It's also known as wool grease and it is a natural
occurrence in wooly animals, that produce the oily substance through their glands in their skin. Lanolin is made when the wool
is sheared from the sheep and washed in hot water
with a special detergent, that will remove the wool grease. Mmm, wool grease. It's then spun in a centrifuge
to separate the grease from the dirt, skin cells (laughs) and anything else that's stuck in there, but you might better recognize it as what it's commonly referred
to, which is gum base. It's also used in vitamin D3 supplements, in case you were wondering. Since it's naturally waxy and waterproof, it's a great lubricant and is used in a lot of cosmetics and baby products. It's also used in
expensive skincare products as a treatment for eczema and wounds. But you've most likely been
chewing it all day long. Mm-mm-mm, oily gum, num nums. Have you ever bought shredded cheese and wondered why it seemed
a bit, you know, dusty. Well, it's not just extra cheesy goodness, but actually cellulose, or as it's most commonly known, sawdust. The sawdust is from virgin wood pulp and is used in shredded and grated cheese to stop it from clumping together. In 2016, an investigation by the FDA found that some Parmesan cheese brands, that were claiming to be 100% real contained up to almost 9% wood pulp, but it's not just cheese that
can come with a side of wood, it's also in baked goods,
ice cream and crackers and even as filler in meat products. I think I'm starting to see
why people don't eat meat. It's pretty cheap for food manufacturers and extends a product's shelf life. It can also act as fiber and because of its absorbent properties, it's used to lower fat content. It's supposed to be safe for humans, but the USDA has said
that at least in meat, any more than 3.5% cellulose and a product is no longer
nutritionally sound. You hear that? So don't think you're gonna lose weight by going out and (gnashing)
just eating a tree, it's gonna mess y'all up. OK, we're talking about poop again. I'm all for a little
extra flavor and whatnot, but animal poop is definitely
not the same as ciratra. In the FDA subtly-named
Defect Level Handbook, over 100 foods are listed, along with the maximum amount
an item can be contaminated, before a food manufacturer
has to get rid of it and animal poop, or as they
call it, mamillian extreta, is one of those contaminants. The guidelines basically say that whether it's when the food is harvested,
being prepared in a plant or all the times it gets transported, it's impossible not to get
a little extra bits in it. Mouse droppings in particular
are actually pretty common. In most herbs and spices,
only one milligram per pound is allowed, which
is basically no trace. However, the highest levels
are allowed in wheat, which can have nine
milligrams of poop per pound, in cocoa beans with 10
milligrams per pound, but let's be honest, really, any poop is too much poop, in my opinion. Tinned food is great for keeping food from rotting over long periods of time, but there's a price to pay for that luxury and the cost is maggots. It turns out that maggots
and other bits of insects aren't that rare in our tinned food. According to the FDA, up
to 20 maggots are allowed in 100 grams of drained mushrooms and maggots aren't the only things living in your canned goods. Insect eggs, particularly
from fruit flies, are often found in maraschino cherries, canned tomatoes and citrus fruit and what's most disturbing
is that the FDA rules get pretty particular. For example, one cup of citrus
juice can have one maggot, but not if it already has
five or more insect eggs, now that would just be crazy. Mushrooms also attract
mites and up to 75 mites are allowed per 100 grams. The same goes for canned
and frozen spinach, which have 50 mites, so
long as there aren't larvae over three millimeters
long already in there. Here's a, you know, a reasonable question, who's measuring these things, ooh! It's one thing not to
want to waste any food, but this is taking that
to a whole other level. Mechanically-separated meat, or MSM, is also known as mechanically-deboned meat and it's less about
separating all the meat, that gets used in our food
from the animal's body and more about mushing
everything together. Basically, after an animal is butchered, all the leftover pieces of
meat and connective tissue, including bits of bone and cartilage are smashed together and
forced through a sieve at an incredibly high pressure. This forms a white meat paste and is used in products
like hotdogs and baloney. There was controversy
that some fast food joints were using it in their chicken, but almost all of them
now use all white meat. MSM poultry and pork is
still used in human food, but because of all the bacteria, mad cow disease became a big concern for mechanically-separated beef and it was eventually
banned, thank God, ugh. But as always, thank you guys
so much for watching this and if you enjoyed it, or
you just learned something, maybe you laughed a little
bit, drop a Like on it and don't forget to
subscribe if you haven't yet. I'll have a brand new
video for you tomorrow at 12 West Coast Time,
three Eastern Standard Time, so make sure you come by then, have a great day, I'll see you, bye!
