Personally, I completely prefer Hidden Valley packets to the bottles. I think the bottles are flavorless and boring! Now if I could only figure out a way to make mixing the mayo easier without those old ranch making tupperware things we had in the early 80s (with the little wheel inside the lid with the pour spout).
It is frustrating to me to see everyone freak out about MSG. Scientific research has not been able to slow down the urban-myth scare regarding this flavor additive. A very small portion of people may have a sensitivity to it, but I suspect you'd know if you did. MSG is used all over the place in American foods too (not just Chinese).
from Wikipedia showing where MSG is used:
* most canned soups of the US food industry like Campbell's (except the low sodium varieties)
* most beef and chicken stocks of the US food industry like Swanson's (except the low sodium varieties)
* most flavored potato chip products of the US food industry
* many other snack foods
* many frozen dinners
* almost all US-originated fast foods
* instant meals such as the seasoning mixtures for instant noodles
I don't see people keeling over from Cambells and chicken stock.
again from wikipedia:
In 1959, the FDA classified MSG as a "generally recognized as safe", or GRAS, substance. This action stemmed from the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which required premarket approval for new food additives and led the FDA to promulgate regulations listing substances, such as MSG, which have a history of safe use or are otherwise GRAS. Since 1970, FDA has sponsored extensive reviews on the safety of MSG, other glutamates and hydrolyzed proteins, as part of an ongoing review of safety data on GRAS substances used in processed foods. One such review was by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Select Committee on GRAS Substances. In 1980, the committee concluded that MSG was safe at current levels of use but recommended additional evaluation to determine MSG's safety at significantly higher levels of consumption. Additional reports attempted to look at this. In 1986, FDA's Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that MSG poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people. Other reports have given the following findings:
* The 1987 Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization placed MSG in the safest category of food ingredients.
* A 1991 report by the European Community's (EC) Scientific Committee for Foods reaffirmed MSG's safety and classified its "acceptable daily intake" as "not specified", the most favourable designation for a food ingredient. In addition, the EC Committee said, "Infants, including prematures, have been shown to metabolize glutamate as efficiently as adults and therefore do not display any special susceptibility to elevated oral intakes of glutamate."
* A 1992 report from the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association stated that glutamate in any form has not been shown to be a "significant health hazard".
So folks, you are probably already eating more glutamate than you realize, with it just labelled differently. A little bit in some food here and there is not going to hurt most people, and it makes the food taste better!
