Opinion – Cozinha Bruta: Strawberry-filled cookie doesn’t have strawberry, but there are insects in the recipe

Interesting that people were surprised by the absence of picanha in McDonald’s McPicanha sandwich. That they were appalled by the lack of ribs in the Ribs Whopper at Burger King.

I was not surprised. Misleading – if not lying – advertising is the norm, not the exception, in the food industry. Hundreds of cases can be enumerated, but I’ll stick to just one: the strawberry filled cookies.

Cookies, sorry, strawberry “flavor”. “Flavor” is a little word that works as a safe-conduct to stamp on packaging and advertising pieces ingredients that go far beyond the preparation of the food itself. The law allows.

The case of the strawberry shortcake is not restricted to one brand, but to several manufacturers. Let’s examine your ingredient lists.

Starting with the Bono brand, according to a Nestlé website:

“Wheat flour enriched with iron and folic acid, sugar, vegetable oil, starch, vegetable fat, whole milk powder, salt, invert sugar, chemical leavening agents, ammonium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate and monocalcium phosphate, emulsifier soy lecithin, flavorings and natural carmine dye.”

Where’s strawberry? It does not have. And notice the last item on the list, “natural carmine dye”. Do you know what it’s about?

It is a tincture obtained from the grinding of cochineal, a tiny insect whose extract has a vibrant red color. Thousands of individuals are crushed to make a handful of food coloring. It’s been that way for a long time and it’s not a big deal, but the industry hates to have such information in the spotlight.

It’s the bug juice that makes the cookie filling pink, not the strawberry that was never there.

Let’s move on to the Piraquê brand. Same situation:

“Wheat flour enriched with iron and folic acid, sugar, vegetable fat, whey powder, maltodextrin, invert sugar, malt extract, corn starch*, salt, emulsifiers: soy lecithin and calcium stearoyl lactylate, flavorings , chemical leavening agents: sodium bicarbonate and monocalcium phosphate, carmine dye and citric acid antioxidant.”

Now for the Oreo (Mondelez), which calls the cookie filling a “strawberry milkshake”. Again, zero strawberries and lots of little bugs:

“Wheat flour enriched with iron and folic acid, sugar, interesterified vegetable fat, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, calcium carbonate, invert sugar, salt, chemical leavening agents: ammonium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate, emulsifier lecithin of soy, flavorings, citric acid acidulant and carmine coloring.”

Identical situation in Renata (Selmi) and Adria (M. Dias Branco) cookies. You already understand, right?

The brands Negresco (Nestlé), Bauducco and Triunfo (Arcor) claim to include dehydrated strawberries in the recipe.

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