Alum in Potato Salad? Check the Ingredients!

My wife recently has purchased potato salads from Wal-Mart, Aldis, and Woodmans in Appleton, Wisconsin. The potato salad from Woodmans made by Garden Fresh Foods of Milwaukee had a peculiar flavor, my family noted. There was an unpleasant feeling in the throat similar to the irritation that sodium benzoate, a preservative, causes in some fruit punch drinks like Sunny Delight. Sure enough, sodium benzoate was an ingredient in the potato salad. But even more disturbing was the inclusion of alum. Hey, there is no need to dump alum into food. Alum contains aluminum ions, and higher aluminum levels have been found in the brains of Alzheimers patients. No, we don’t know if they are part of the problem or just a symptom, but while that remains unknown, I think we should be deliberately avoiding aluminum in our diet.

For information on the issue of aluminum and human health, see the objective page from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

By |2017-12-05T06:14:52-07:00July 14th, 2007|Categories: Consumers, Health, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Alum in Potato Salad? Check the Ingredients!
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International Flavors and Fragrances: Impressive Breakthrough in Orange Flavor

I’m thinking of investing in International Flavors and Fragrances, a $5 billion market cap company with a strong suite of flavors and fragrances, including a new breakthrough in orange flavor. Many scientists collaborated to identify the key flavor components in orange juice and then sought to mimic them with relatively low-cost materials, relying less on citrus oils that can add a bitter aftertaste and vary wildly in price. I marvel at how inadequate artificial orange flavor is in drinks and foods. I look forward to a long overdue improvement, and if it’s as good as they say, expect a strong increase in sales for IFF.

By |2007-06-17T14:33:10-07:00June 17th, 2007|Categories: Consumers, Investing, Uncategorized|Comments Off on International Flavors and Fragrances: Impressive Breakthrough in Orange Flavor
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The Mysteries of Ink Jet Cartridges: Print Often or Clog!

Consumers are often perplexed about how few prints they get from ink jet cartridges before they have to buy news ones. Some cartridges will result in “low ink” warnings, others will just quit printing properly, after only a few uses – if the caretridge isn’t used regularly. The problem is that the ink dries or gels near the print head and clogs the printer. Some inkjet companies, such as Lexmark, are said to actually put gelling agents in their inks (this is according to the experts at Cartridge World), which almost guarantees that you will have to buy a new cartridge if your old one sits unused for more than a couple weeks. But the Cartridge World inks that are supposed to be so much better don’t seem to do any better, as far as I can tell, for printers that aren’t used much.

If you have an ink jet printer, print something in color at least one a week. You’ll use more ink, but you’ll probably use fewer ink catridges that way.

By |2007-03-23T05:43:33-07:00March 23rd, 2007|Categories: Consumers|Comments Off on The Mysteries of Ink Jet Cartridges: Print Often or Clog!
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