4 ms·

Since you and the OP are here, I have a random question: were the blizzards ever made with liquid plastic ingredients? It probably sounds insane, but someone f

by d23 6y ago

Since you and the OP are here, I have a random question: were the blizzards ever made with liquid plastic ingredients? It probably sounds insane, but someone from a plastics company spoke at my high school and said this was the case since it was easier to ship and needed no refrigeration. Now, decades later, I'm wondering if this was just complete nonsense or had an element of truth to it. I've been able to find nothing online.

fossuser 6y ago
Maybe you mean McFlurry (Blizzards were Dairy Queen). Basically the same thing, but not sure if whoever said that was specifically talking about Blizzards.
- d23 6y ago
  Ah yes, McFlurries. Got my wires crossed.
jonny_eh 6y ago
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-fair-shake/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-fair-shake/ Mcflurry ingredients: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-oreo-cookies.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore... (no mention of plastic)
- shakna 6y ago
  > Mcflurry ingredients: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore... (no mention of plastic) That's actually incorrect, they list two plastics there. It's just that "plastic" isn't something that is actually necessarily toxic, and the media misuse the terminology all the time. The two are: > Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum
Judgmentality 6y ago
Not the same, but plastic-y chemicals have been used in fast food before. https://www.eater.com/2016/8/8/12403338/subway-yoga-mat-chemical-mcdonalds-burger-king-wendys https://www.eater.com/2016/8/8/12403338/subway-yoga-mat-chem... https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/06/286886095/almost-500-foods-contain-the-yoga-mat-compound-should-we-care-keep https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/06/286886095/al...
- DerekL 6y ago
  Yeah! Whatever you do, never eat pretzels! They dip them in oven cleaner before baking, then they sprinkle them with those crystals they use for removing ice from roads!
  - Bjartr 6y ago
    And dihydrogen-monixide figures heavily in their production. Nearly everyone that's ever died had consumed DHMO in the 24 hours leading up to their death!
    - hibbelig 6y ago
      DHMO is a very dangerous substance. For example, in gaseous state it causes skin irritation, severe burns even.
    - nsxwolf 6y ago
      I prefer "oxidane" for this joke, as most people haven't heard it, sounds poisonous, and dihydrogen monoxide is not wrong but it is irregular.
      - bloaf 6y ago
        Can also try out "hydranol" or "dihydral ether".
  - surbas 6y ago
    Lye dipped pretzels are a thing! I didn’t know that thanks!
pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Not my field, but edible gums (guar gum, or xanthan gum for example) is "plastic" (adj.). Gums are used more and more, AFAICT as a consumer; presumably to allow products to be bulked out with air. Basically take anything homogeneous, add gum, add air, create a foam. Basically like an Aero bar but with way smaller bubbles. You just cut a quarter (I'm guessing on this figure) off your ice-cream ingredients by weight and you can now advertise "scoops from the freezer"! It's genius but just a more complex version of putting all the pizza toppings in the little window, or having the coleslaw tub be much wider at the top, or putting everything in a wide plastic skirt so the box is 20% bigger than it needs to be, ... packaged food sellers are scumbags.
- jbverschoor 6y ago
  I saw these yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3Z028prSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3Z028prSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8t7u5mupS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8t7u5mupS4 I don't think I'd want to eat that
  - lhoff 6y ago
    What the hell There is no way i would eat something linke that.
- LeifCarrotson 6y ago
  This 'bulking up with air' is most evident if you go to the yogurt or cream cheese section and look for the Yoplait Whips or Philadelphia Whipped containers. It's the same product, just as a foam, and seems to be marketed as a healthier alternative where users choose a satisfactory portion by volume, not by calories or weight. And while I think the whipped foods are stupid, I don't think that packaged food sellers are necessarily scumbags. They're merely people responding to incentives, just like everyone else. The food market has razor-thin margins and consumers are ill-informed. Neither consumers (who are hard to inform) nor regulators (who are captive to the multinational conglomerates) have been able to push back more strongly than the profit incentive, so the so dark patterns like those you describe are inevitable.
balls187 6y ago
Speaking about BK, the liquid they used to make the soft-serve was most certainly refrigerated. Logically though, refrigeration based transport is not a concern for any fast food company. They use ingredients that absolutely must be transported cold, thus the cost of adding another menu item that must be shipped cold to that list is immaterial (even at scale).
wahern 6y ago
"The future is plastics!" I'm not a chemist but I've recently come to realize that the meaning of the term in the popular psyche has probably changed over the decades, taking on largely negative connotations, because of its association with a small subset of materials (albeit large by volume), most of which are either toxic, a pollution problem, or both. AFAIU, in industry "plastics" is just a blanket term for moldable organic materials that chemists are constantly inventing. They're not necessarily sourced from petroleum, nor necessarily toxic. It's a ridiculously huge category of material, and plastics really were and probably always will figure prominently in our future. And I would assume that some traditional, even edible materials have been subsumed into the plastics category given the general scope of the term and the industry itself.
- kortex 6y ago
  Former chemist, yeah this always bugs me. Laypeople use "plastic" to refer to mostly inexpensive injection molded parts, but it really includes everything from LDPE bags to glass fibre reinforced nylon powertools to Rayon fibers to thermoplastic elastomers.

by d23 6y ago

fossuser 6y ago

Maybe you mean McFlurry (Blizzards were Dairy Queen). Basically the same thing, but not sure if whoever said that was specifically talking about Blizzards.

d23 6y ago
Ah yes, McFlurries. Got my wires crossed.

jonny_eh 6y ago

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-fair-shake/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-fair-shake/ Mcflurry ingredients: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-oreo-cookies.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore... (no mention of plastic)

shakna 6y ago
> Mcflurry ingredients: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore... (no mention of plastic) That's actually incorrect, they list two plastics there. It's just that "plastic" isn't something that is actually necessarily toxic, and the media misuse the terminology all the time. The two are: > Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum

Judgmentality 6y ago

Not the same, but plastic-y chemicals have been used in fast food before. https://www.eater.com/2016/8/8/12403338/subway-yoga-mat-chemical-mcdonalds-burger-king-wendys https://www.eater.com/2016/8/8/12403338/subway-yoga-mat-chem... https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/06/286886095/almost-500-foods-contain-the-yoga-mat-compound-should-we-care-keep https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/06/286886095/al...

DerekL 6y ago
Yeah! Whatever you do, never eat pretzels! They dip them in oven cleaner before baking, then they sprinkle them with those crystals they use for removing ice from roads!
- Bjartr 6y ago
  And dihydrogen-monixide figures heavily in their production. Nearly everyone that's ever died had consumed DHMO in the 24 hours leading up to their death!
  - hibbelig 6y ago
    DHMO is a very dangerous substance. For example, in gaseous state it causes skin irritation, severe burns even.
  - nsxwolf 6y ago
    I prefer "oxidane" for this joke, as most people haven't heard it, sounds poisonous, and dihydrogen monoxide is not wrong but it is irregular.
    - bloaf 6y ago
      Can also try out "hydranol" or "dihydral ether".
- surbas 6y ago
  Lye dipped pretzels are a thing! I didn’t know that thanks!

pbhjpbhj 6y ago

Not my field, but edible gums (guar gum, or xanthan gum for example) is "plastic" (adj.). Gums are used more and more, AFAICT as a consumer; presumably to allow products to be bulked out with air. Basically take anything homogeneous, add gum, add air, create a foam. Basically like an Aero bar but with way smaller bubbles. You just cut a quarter (I'm guessing on this figure) off your ice-cream ingredients by weight and you can now advertise "scoops from the freezer"! It's genius but just a more complex version of putting all the pizza toppings in the little window, or having the coleslaw tub be much wider at the top, or putting everything in a wide plastic skirt so the box is 20% bigger than it needs to be, ... packaged food sellers are scumbags.

jbverschoor 6y ago
I saw these yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3Z028prSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3Z028prSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8t7u5mupS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8t7u5mupS4 I don't think I'd want to eat that
- lhoff 6y ago
  What the hell There is no way i would eat something linke that.
LeifCarrotson 6y ago
This 'bulking up with air' is most evident if you go to the yogurt or cream cheese section and look for the Yoplait Whips or Philadelphia Whipped containers. It's the same product, just as a foam, and seems to be marketed as a healthier alternative where users choose a satisfactory portion by volume, not by calories or weight. And while I think the whipped foods are stupid, I don't think that packaged food sellers are necessarily scumbags. They're merely people responding to incentives, just like everyone else. The food market has razor-thin margins and consumers are ill-informed. Neither consumers (who are hard to inform) nor regulators (who are captive to the multinational conglomerates) have been able to push back more strongly than the profit incentive, so the so dark patterns like those you describe are inevitable.

balls187 6y ago

Speaking about BK, the liquid they used to make the soft-serve was most certainly refrigerated. Logically though, refrigeration based transport is not a concern for any fast food company. They use ingredients that absolutely must be transported cold, thus the cost of adding another menu item that must be shipped cold to that list is immaterial (even at scale).

wahern 6y ago

"The future is plastics!" I'm not a chemist but I've recently come to realize that the meaning of the term in the popular psyche has probably changed over the decades, taking on largely negative connotations, because of its association with a small subset of materials (albeit large by volume), most of which are either toxic, a pollution problem, or both. AFAIU, in industry "plastics" is just a blanket term for moldable organic materials that chemists are constantly inventing. They're not necessarily sourced from petroleum, nor necessarily toxic. It's a ridiculously huge category of material, and plastics really were and probably always will figure prominently in our future. And I would assume that some traditional, even edible materials have been subsumed into the plastics category given the general scope of the term and the industry itself.

kortex 6y ago
Former chemist, yeah this always bugs me. Laypeople use "plastic" to refer to mostly inexpensive injection molded parts, but it really includes everything from LDPE bags to glass fibre reinforced nylon powertools to Rayon fibers to thermoplastic elastomers.