“How much sawdust can you put in a Rice Krispy treat before people notice?”
Answer: As much as they can legally get away with. If you’ve ever eated grated Parmesan cheese from the store, you’ve eaten sawdust. They list it on the can as “cellulose.”
Sawdust is not (just) cellulose and cannot be listed as such on nutrition labels. Sawdust, i.e., wood shavings, contains many other compounds, especially lignin. Wood is refined by e.g. the Kraft process to separate the lignin from the cellulose, giving a suspension of cellulose fibers in water called “wood pulp.” I didn’t look, but I would imagine that calling wood pulp “cellulose” on a nutrition label is fine, 'cause that’s what it is.
Now, none of this invalidates the crux of your argument that cellulose can be used as a cheap filler, such as in cheap “Parmesan cheese,” and no disagreement here that that shit is scummy af. However, there are some legitimate uses for smaller amounts in foods, such as anti-caking, thickening, and literal dietary fiber.
wtf, how can they get away with that
It’s all about companies putting things on the label that are technically true but deliberately misleading. For years, Kraft sold “100% Grated Parmesean cheese” that was nearly 8% cellulose. I assume their excuse if they got caught would be, “Well, our cheese is ‘100% Grated’ just like it says on the label.” Meaning, everything in the can WAS “100% grated” but it was NOT 100% cheese. The first reports on this were around 2015, but it looks like their more recent containers don’t have the word “100%” anymore. They’re constantly playing these stupid little word games with their customers.
I had an internet discussion with someone who believed that all regulations are bad. I don’t think s/he’s a troll, but tried as I might I couldn’t get this person to agree that at least some regulations might be good.
Can’t remember off the top of my head, but one argument was that even for major safety violations, the market would put them out of business, and other companies won’t do it. I said that this would be after the damage is done and people/environment are hurt, but the person said that regulations are reactive anyway and companies would just stop doing it. It was very frustrating trying to get this person to agree that maybe some regulations can be good.
The free market will regulate this since at some point, saw dust will become rare
Or humans become scarce.
Is this real in any way or purely satire?
It’s at least partially satire, because libertarians oppose the existence of “corporations” (in particular, llcs) in the modern sense. Corporations are antithetical to personal liberty.
