Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser [183]
It costs about $1,500 an acre: Interview with Paul Patterson.
118 needs to receive about $5 per hundredweight: Ibid.
as low as $1.50 per hundredweight: Ibid.
Idaho has lost about half: Interview with Bert Moulton.
the amount of land devoted to potatoes: Idaho Agricultural Statistics Service.
119 roughly 1,100 potato farmers: Bert Moulton estimates there are between 1,000 and 1,200; Don Gehrhardt, at the Idaho Agricultural Statistics Service, believes there are about 1,100.
120 America’s agricultural economy now resembles: See Heffernan, “Consolidation in the Food and Agricultural System,” p. 1.
The taste of McDonald’s french fries: Since the publication of Fast Food Nation, the McDonald’s Corporation has been more forthcoming about the ingredients in their fries. For the origins of the new policy, see pages 278–80 of the Afterword.
James Beard loved McDonald’s fries: See Elizabeth Mehren, “From Whisks to Molds, James Beard’s Personal Possessions to Be Auctioned,” Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1985.
The taste of a fast food fry is largely determined: See Olivia Wu, “Fats and Oils in a New Light,” Restaurants and Institutions, January 15, 1997; and Candy Sagon, “Fry, Fry Again: The Secret of Great French Fries? Frying and more Frying,” Washington Post, July 9, 1997.
more saturated beef fat per ounce: A small McDonald’s hamburger weighed 102 grams and had 3.6 grams of saturated fat; a small order of fries weighed 68 grams and had 5.05 grams of saturated fat. See “Where’s the Fat,” USA Today, April 5, 1990; Marian Burros, “The Slimming of Fat Fast Food,” New York Times, July 25, 1990; and Michael F. Jacobson and Sarah Fritscher, The Completely Revised and Updated Fast-Food Guide (New York: Workman Publishing, 1991).
A look at the ingredients now used: See “McDonald’s Nutrition Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, July 1997.
About 90 percent of the money that Americans spend on food: See “Personal Consumption Expenditures Table, 1999,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.
the area produces about two-thirds of the flavor additives: Cited in Joyce Jones, “Labs Conjure Up Fragrances and Flavors to Add Allure,” New York Times, December 26, 1993.
122 six of the ten best-selling fine perfumes… the smell of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful: Interview with Nancy Ciancaglini, International Flavors & Fragrances.
The aroma of a food can be responsible: Cited in Ruth Sambrook, “Do You Smell What I Smell? The Science of Smell and Taste,” Institute of Food Research, March 1999.
123 a rich and full sense of deliciousness: See Marilynn Larkin, “Truncated Glutamate Receptor Holds Key to the Fifth Primary Taste,” Lancet, January 29, 2000; and Andy Coghlan, “In Good Taste,” New Scientist, January 29, 2000.
Babies like sweet tastes: See Julie A. Mennella and Gary K. Beauchamp, “Early Flavor Experiences: When Do They Start?” Nutrition Today, September 1994.
like those of the chain’s “heavy users”: See Jennifer Ordonez, “Hamburger Joints Call Them ‘Heavy Users’ — But Not to Their Faces,” Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2000.
124 annual revenues of about $1.4 billion: Interview with Nancy Ciancaglini.
Approximately ten thousand new processed food products: Cited in Susan Carroll, “Flavors Market Is Poised for Recovery This Year,” Chemical Market Report, July 19, 1999.
And about nine out of every ten… fail: Cited in Andrew Bary, “Take a Whiff: Why International Flavors & Fragrances Looks Tempting Right Now,” Barron’s, July 20, 1998.
125 Its annual revenues have grown almost fifteenfold: IFF’s sales were about $103 million in 1970 and about $1.4 billion in 1999. The first figure comes from “Company History,” IFF Advertising and Public Relations. The second is cited in Catherine Curan, “Perfume Company Banks on CEO’s Nose for Business,” Crain’s NY Business, June 26, 2000.
the dominant flavor of bell pepper: The chemical is isobutylmethoxy pyrazine. Its minute taste recognition threshold is noted in “Flavor Chemistry Seminar,” International Flavors & Fragrances.