3 ms·
The article definitely conflates these ideas: 1. there are real truffles that in his opinion are much better than the artificial flavor (fair) 2. the food ind
by icambron 4y ago
The article definitely conflates these ideas:
1. there are real truffles that in his opinion are much better than the artificial flavor (fair)
2. the food industry is deceptive about real vs artificial truffle flavor (fair)
3. the artificial flavor is harmful because it is derived from petroleum (silly)
The problem with the article is that 1 is interesting but just, like, your opinion man, and also like a thousand dollars. And 2 is business as usual. So if you want people not to just say “Sure, but I personally really like artificial truffle flavor” (which I did, several times, while reading) you need to convince them there’s something sinister about it that there isn’t about, say, artificial watermelon flavor. But 3 is a huge miss.
- newZWhoDis 4y agoIt’s not silly. The petroleum derived product is probably loaded with carcinogens that they’re failing to detect/filter out.
- thedrbrian 4y agoIf it’s the same chemical how can it be loaded with carcinogens?
- bitcurious 4y agoWater from the pond is the same as water from my tap - they are both H20. Kind of like that, I imagine.
- ch4s3 4y agoWater from a pond and tap water are both heterogeneous mixtures of things dissolved and suspended in H2O, they are in fact very different. A synthesized chemical will be identical to the same chemical produced in a plant. The synthetic counterpart will just be in a mixture with distilled water or a neutral food grade oil.
- newZWhoDis 4y agoIt’s a better analogy than you think. “Petroleum” is very much a hydrocarbon “pond water”. How confident can you be that the end result is filtered appropriately, every time?
- s0rce 4y agoIts not filtered, its the result of chemical reactions and purification steps and you can measure the result. Same reason why your tap water is safe, the resulting product, either water or a purified chemical has impurities monitored by a variety of analytical techniques.
- boudin 4y agoThe petroleum industry is pretty harmful. People caring about where the food they eat come from is far from being a silly thing.
- pastage 4y agoThat no one know how truffles smells and tastes, not even "experts", was the important part of the article. Also informing on how, when and where to get and ask for real truffle. Artificial is bad if served as the real thing, that most certainly is harmful and dishonest.
- photochemsyn 4y agoThe wikipedia article on dithiapentane is amusing: > "2,4-Dithiapentane is the dimethyldithioacetal of formaldehyde. It is prepared by the acid-catalyzed condensation of methyl mercaptan, (the main aromatic compound in both halitosis and foot odor and a secondary compound in flatulence), with formaldehyde." The issues with such synthesis or extraction from petroleum largely revolve around purity; I notice that online sellers describe a '99% pure' product, but what's in that other 1%? Sloppy cheap synthesis produces potentially harmdful side products.
- s0rce 4y agoI'm not familiar with food requirements (although a bit more with medical devices) but if you are selling something as food I assume there are some requirements that your side products and impurities are not harmful or present in sufficiently low amounts to be safe. Seems like GC-MS or something would be relatively straightforward and routine here.