Over at How Stuff Works, they came up with an interesting list of the top ten ingredients used at fast food restaurants.
We started with menus from five popular fast-food chains — McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC and Arby’s — did some tallying, then cross-matched our findings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s list of common food ingredients and colors. The result is the top 10 most common ingredients in fast food, organized by the type of ingredient and what it does.
Here are the top ten. Check out the full article to see how they’re used and why they show up so often.
- Citric Acid
- High-fructose Corn Syrup
- Caramel Color
- Salt
- Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
- Niacin
- Soybean Oil
- Mono- and Diglycerides
- Xanthan Gum
- Chicken
