Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (57 page)

220
The entry rules for this group
Richard Mattes, “Is There a Fatty Acid Taste?”
Annual Review of Nutrition
29 (2009): 305–327; Jean-Pierre Montmayeur and Johannes Le Coutre,
Fat Detection: Taste, Texture, and Post-Ingestive Effects
(Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010).

221
results from an experiment
Ivan Araujo and Edmund Rolls, “Representation in the Human Brain of Food Texture and Oral Fat,”
Journal of Neuroscience
24 (2004): 3086–3093.

222
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Gene-Jack Wang et al., “Enhanced Resting Activity of the Oral Somatosensory Cortex in Obese Subjects,”
NeuroReport
13, no. 9 (2002); Gene-Jack Wang et al., “Exposure to Appetitive
Food Stimuli Markedly Activates the Human Brain,”
Neuro-Image
21 (2004): 1790–1797; Gene-Jack Wang et al., “Imaging of Brain Dopamine Pathways: Implications for Understanding Obesity,”
Journal of Addiction Medicine
3, no. 1 (2009): 8–18; Gene-Jack Wang et al., “Brain Dopamine and Obesity,”
The Lancet
357 (2001): 354–357.

223
He recruited a dozen
Araujo and Rolls, “Representation in the Human Brain.”

224
“Fat and sugar both produce”
Edmund Rolls correspondence with author.

225
described its operations
Francis McGlone to author.

226
“I went there to build”
Ibid.

227
role that odor plays
Dana Small et al. “Separable Substrates for Anticipatory and Consummatory Chemosensation,”
Neuron
57, no. 5 (2008): 786–797.

228
the power of hearing
Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence, “The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispiness and Staleness of Potato Chips,”
Journal of Sensory Studies
19, no. 5 (2004): 347–363.

229
McGlone had a conversation
Francis McGlone to author.

230
too many variables
McGlone posted a description of the experiment on his website, NeuroSci, entitled “Ice Cream Makes You Happy.”

231
“Just one spoonful”
“Ice Cream Makes You Happy, Say Unilever Scientists,”
FoodNavigator
, May 4, 2005.

232
Cargill is one of the world’s largest
“An Unmatched Breadth of Ingredients for Creating Superior Products: Ingredient Portfolio,” Cargill, 2007.

233
Consumer groups who urge
See especially the Center for Science in
the Public Interest, “Promoting Consumption of Low-Fat Milk: The 1% or Less Social Marketing Campaign,” Center for Health Improvement.

234
describe the textures
Alina Szczesniak et al., “Consumer Texture Profile Technique,”
Journal of Food Science
40 (1970): 1253–1256.

235
long list of terms
Ibid.

236
“We were always trying”
Steve Witherly to author.

237
showed them pictures
Montmayeur and Le Coutre,
Fat Detection
.

238
“Why is fat so tasty?”
Ibid.

239
“I want to know”
Adam Drewnowski to author.

240
devised an experiment
Adam Drewnowski and M. R. C. Greenwood, “Cream and Sugar: Human Preferences for High-Fat Foods,”
Physiology and Behavior
30 (1983): 629–633.

241
published his study
A. Drewnowski and M. Schwartz, “Invisible Fats: Sensory Assessment of Sugar/Fat Mixtures,”
Appetite
14 (1990): 203–217.

242
“A dish or a drink”
Adam Drewnowski to author.

243
“We used it on toast”
Dean Southworth to author.

244
something of a horror
The online guide to nutrition in grocery products, Calorie Count, a division of
The New York Times
, awards nutrition grades to products on a scale of A to F. The “original” version of Cheez Whiz was graded a D; other versions ranged between C and F, with one version, a “light” version, scoring a B.

245
“Cheese treats QUICK”
Bucher and Villines,
Greatest Thing Since Sliced Cheese
.

246
“We made adjustments”
Kraft correspondence with author.

247
“I imagine it’s a marketing”
Dean Southworth to author.

248
Day in and day out
Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010
, U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, 2010.

249
found his calling
Bucher and Villines,
Greatest Thing Since Sliced Cheese
. See also James Kraft’s patent, no. 1,186,524.

250
“Made up loss-and-gain account”
Ibid.

251
caustic descriptors
Curt Wohleber, “From Cheese to Cheese Food: Kraft Persuaded Americans to Accept Cheese by Divorcing It from Its Microbe-laden Origins,”
Invention and Technology
17, no. 1 (2001).

252
replaced by sodium phosphate
In 2009, Kraft said the emulsifying salts sodium phosphate and sodium citrate were added “to create texture of melt properties of process cheese” and represented 40% to 45% of the sodium in processed cheese. Todd Abraham, “Sodium Reduction: Opportunities and Challenges,” Kraft Foods, March 30, 2009.

253
“Forget about the way”
Bucher and Villines,
Greatest Thing Since Sliced Cheese
.

254
“Milk in, cheese out”
Ibid.

255
In the old days
Don Blayney, “The Changing Landscape of U.S. Milk Production,” Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2002; Carl Coppock, “Selected Features of the U.S. Dairy Industry from 1900 to 2000,” Coppock Nutritional Services, San Antonio, Texas; Carl Coppock to author; Comptroller General, “Effects and Administration of the 1984 Milk Diversion Program,” U.S. General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C., 1985; Alden Manchester and Don Blayney, “Milk Pricing in the United States,” Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2001; Charles Nicholson and Mark Stephenson,
“Analysis of Proposed Programs to Mitigate Price Volatility in the U.S. Dairy Industry,” Unpublished report to a consortium of dairy industry organizations, with author affiliation with California Polytechnic State University and the University of Wisconsin, 2010; “Overview of the United States Dairy Industry,” National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA, September 22, 2010; John Brouillette et al., “Cow Comfort and the Effects on Productivity and Profitability,”
Hudson Valley Agricultural Newsletter
.

256
“Deep beneath the ground”
Ward Sinclair, “Under Missouri: A Monument to the Output of the American Cow,”
The Washington Post
, December 21, 1981.

257
discovered the cheese vaults
John Block to author.

258
“Some of us were aggravated”
Sinclair, “Under Missouri.”

259
to make less milk
Comptroller General, “Effects and Administration.”

260
“They made everything cheaper”
Ulfert Broockmann to author.

261
made three hundred thousand pounds
Kraft presentation on Philadelphia Cream Cheese to the Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, June 1989, in LT.

262
“The introduction of new forms”
Ibid.

263
“Now, I don’t mean to pick”
Philip Morris Product Development Symposium, December 5, 1990, in LT.

264
“Media selection will be skewed”
Kraft presentation on Crockery Spreadable Cheese Snack to the Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, June 1989, in LT.

265
“There exists an opportunity”
“Natural and Specialty Cheeses: The U.S. Market and a Global Perspective,” Packaged Facts, 2010.

266
“Competition is intensifying”
“Kraft USA 1993 Strategic Plan,” in LT. At the same time, Kraft recognized the nutritional and other concerns
about cheese, and in its public statements the company emphasized that it was laboring hard to produce numerous low-fat varieties. In an internal report entitled “Contents for Briefing Book Annual Meeting 1992,” Kraft anticipated a number of questions about cheese from stockholders: “Is Kraft worried about cholesterol in its cheese products? While dairy products contain both fat and cholesterol, eating them as part of a balanced diet remains a good practice for the vast majority of consumers. Do artificial foods like Velveeta hurt the sales of our other products? The texture and flavor of these products meet unique consumer needs and have generated sizable businesses for Kraft.”

267
kept a close watch on cheese
See consumption data, Economic Research Service, USDA.

268
“We couldn’t win”
Kraft submission to the Effie Awards.

269
“was happy to be”
Ibid.

270
Every week for four months
Ibid.

271
Sales of Philadelphia Cream Cheese surged
Ibid.

272
“We don’t have to eliminate”
Walter Willett to author. In response to my questions about its efforts to increase the consumption of cheese, the company said, “Kraft believes that eating the foods you love and living a healthier lifestyle can, and should, co-exist. Cheese eaten in moderation can be part of a healthy lifestyle. We provide clear, consistent information so consumers can make informed choices as part of a balanced lifestyle. Kraft is proud to market many of which are lower in fat. We also offer Light, Reduced Fat, and Fat Free varieties of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kraft Singles and many of the other brands in our portfolio.”

273
Dutch researchers conducted
Mirre Viskaale-van Dongen, “Hidden Fat Facilitates Passive Overconsumption,”
Journal of Nutrition
139 (2009): 394–399.

274
“The products we used”
Mirre Viskaal-van Dongen to author.

275
where 1,800 workers
Joe Jerzewski, president and business manager of United Food and Commerce Local 536 to author.

276
Behind the workers
Photographs of assembly line taken on or near the first day’s run.

277
dubbed the “Food Playground”
Stephen Quickert and Donna Rentschler, “Developing and Optimizing the Lunchables Concept,” Philip Morris Product Development Symposium, December 5, 1990, in LT.

278
In the great churn
Estimates from various grocery retailing experts.

279
hitting $217 million
Bob Drane to author.

280
A net loss of $20 million
Ibid.

281
walked Maxwell through
With Bob Drane at this meeting was Jim McVey, CEO of the Oscar Mayer unit, who shared his recollections with me. “The nice thing about working with Philip Morris is, if you had something that had real potential, they were glad to take funds from their other products and put it behind the product that was moving,” McVey told me.

282
Maxwell turned to Drane
Jim McVey and Bob Drane to author.

283
The founders were two Bavarian
“Oscar Mayer Foods Co.,”
International Directory of Company Histories
, vol. 12, St. James Press, 1996; Bucher and Villines,
Greatest Thing Since Sliced Cheese
.

284
horrors that were later exposed
Upton Sinclair,
The Jungle
(New York: Doubleday, 1906).

285
has 3.5 grams of saturated fat
Data from Calorie Count.

286
red meat consumption fell
Oscar Mayer to Philip Morris, 1991, in LT.

287
“From 1986 to 1988”
Philip Morris Product Development Symposium, December 5, 1990, in LT.

288
On a scale of 1 to 10
Bob Eckert, president of the Oscar Mayer unit, to Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, October 20, 1995, in LT.

289
“Talent Search”
Ibid.

290
“We completed over”
Ibid.

291
To keep their discussions lively
Bob Drane, “Developing and Optimizing the Lunchables Concept,” project presentation, Oscar Mayer.

292
puns and catchwords
Ibid.

293
Philip Morris had all but cornered
Richard Kluger,
Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris
(New York: Knopf, 1996).

294
“a lovely business”
Ibid.

295
One Kraft executive
John Ruff to author.

296
But it had paid dearly
Stuart,
Kraft General Foods
.

297
“Hamish Maxwell was a brilliant”
Geoffrey Bible to author.

298
“I never really worried”
Ibid.

299
Philip Morris didn’t accomplish this
John Tindall to Philip Morris Product Development Symposium, December 5, 1990, in LT.

300
“Suddenly, because of the smoking”
Ibid.

301
“Obviously, there was concern”
Ibid.

302
“which I fought like crazy”
Bob Drane to author.

303
“Lunchables with Dessert”
Clark Murray, senior product manager, to Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, January 24, 1991, in LT.

304
“Our processed meat categories”
Bob Eckert to Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, October 20, 1995, in LT.

305
“You bet”
Geoffrey Bible to author.

306
“People could point to these things”
Ibid.

307
“Bob was very keen”
Ibid.

308
experimented with fresh carrots
Bob Drane to author.

309
“This is not some big”
Los Angeles Times
, February 8, 1994.

310
“We went through”
Bob Drane to author.

311
“The box was there”
Ibid.

312
“Lunchables aren’t about lunch”
Transcript of Bob Eckert, CEO of Kraft, to Business Week, in LT.

313
“Kids like to build things”
Bob Drane to author.

314
The group, called the Cancer Project, that examined
“The Five Worst Packaged Lunchbox Meals,” the Cancer Project, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Spring 2009.

315
Under pressure from attacks
“Oscar Mayer Lunchables Lunch Combinations Expand Wholesome Product Line,” Kraft, August 16, 2010.

316
“All things started to become clear”
Bob Drane to author.

317
“People who work”
Ibid.

318
Drane has also prepared
Bob Drane, “What Role Can the Food Industry Play in Addressing Obesity?” unpublished manuscript.

319
“Plenty of guilt”
Ibid.