I learned a very important lesson at the grocery store today. Read the labels.. always.
My local grocery had Margaritaville Shrimp on sale this week so I thought, since I will be traveling for part of this week and Dan will be home alone, that it might be a quick meal that he could make after dinner. Shrimp is within our diet plan and falls in line with pescetarian limits so why not, right? Wrong!
I have been making it a habit to read the labels of the pre-manufactured food that I have been purchasing just to make sure that there are no chicken, beef or other meat products in them, as well as getting a general idea of what products container more 'junk' than others. So I tossed the Island Lime Shrimp box into my cart and decided to go back and take a look at the ingredients:
INGREDIENTS: SHRIMP, SOYBEAN OIL, WATER, NONFAT MILK,
CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MALTODEXTRIN, MILK, WHEY, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS,
SALT, OIL OF LIME, DEHYDRATED BUTTER (CREAM, SALT), CHICKEN FAT, LIME
JUICE SOLIDS, XANTHAN GUM, DEHYDRATED CILANTRO, SPICES, NATURAL FLAVORS,
ONION POWDER, GARLIC POWDER, DEHYDRATED JALEPNO PEPPER, NATURAL WHITE
WINE FLAVOR, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE (TO RETAIN MOSTURE), WHEAT FLOUR,
HYDROLIZED SOY PROTEIN, YELLOW 5, EXTRACTIVES OF TUMERIC (COLOR), SODIUM
BISULPHATE (AS A PRESERVATIVE)
CONTAINS: SHRIMP, MILK, WHEAT, SOY
Really?!?!?! Chicken Fat in a frozen shrimp entree? That is crazy! Needless to say, I did not purchase this product. Additionally, when I got online to write this post I did the research to find the info at the producer's website and note that in the pasted text above the special 'Contains' area includes shrimp, milk, wheat and soy but on the actual package, as show in the photo, it only lists milk and shrimp. Interesting. I don't know the specific labeling laws and requirements for various food products, but I do find it to be a shame that this product does contain chicken. Hope this helps provide a bit of a warning to my fellow pescetarians, vegetarians and vegans - especially those of you just starting out like me - be sure to read the labels!
2 comments:
Ugh, YES, I hate this conundrum. I check the labels on EVERYTHING now, especially since my favorite soup replaced its tomato base with chicken stock, and I discovered this only after bringing it to work, expecting to have some nommy soup for lunch. Needless to say, that didn't happen. ::sighs::
Anyway, that whole chicken fat thing really irritates me! It seems to be in so much nowadays (that and other animal byproducts), and it's like... why? WHY?!
It was just flabbergasting... still floored by the whole thing. Chicken Fat... not only is it misleading but its gross. I don't like chicken fat on chicken, why would I want it on frozen shrimp?
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