Friday, April 10, 2009

Kosher for Passoveriness (updated)

I made Manischewitz Blueberry Muffin mix this morning and I have 3 things to say. First of all, they were quite edible, at least when they were right out of the oven. Second, I think we have a real spirit versus letter of the law thing happening when you have a mix that says to mix and then wait 10 minutes. I know that in this case it's just for the liquid to soak into the matzo meal, but it doesn't seem fitting with the whole "no time for bread to rise" thing. Finally, I want everyone who has this mix at home to find the word "blueberry" in the ingredients. It says on the label, "artificially flavored blueberry bits." So I was curious why they had to artificially flavor the blueberry bits, since they are blueberry muffins and the language is quite clear that there are, in fact, blueberry bits.

I'll give you a couple of minutes. The type is small and has a lot of long words in it.

Found it? Okay, on the 7th line starts an ingredient called (and note the sight difference in construction) blueberry flavored bits. Next comes a parentheses, which in label language means that all the substances listed in the parentheses make up the item before the parentheses, (ingredients of the ingredients, if you will, with the largest ingredients by law listed first). Here goes: Alginate, propylene glycol, potassium sorbate, natural and artificial flavoring, artificial color.

Anything missing? I had slight hopes that alginate came from blueberries and not from what it sounds like, but my suspicions were correct. According to Wikipedia, alginate is a viscous gum that is abundant in the cell walls of brown algae. I'm sure there was plenty of that stuff in the Sea of Reeds. I know for a fact that blueberries can be dried and put in muffins, so there's no excuse aside from trying to extract maximum profits out of a $4.49 box of muffin mix. Ugh.

Update
Just checked the Apple Cinnamon muffins and they contain something called apple flavored bits with no ingredients in parentheses. What exactly is a bit? I don't think Alpha Bits are Kp. Computer bits wouldn't be very filling, and the horse kind are tough to chew. It doesn't look very promising. I'm making my muffins from scratch next year.

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