Food & Drink 1 min Read

14 Bizarre Ingredients Hidden in Your Food Labels

L-cysteine is an amino acid used in the baking industry which is most often derived from human hair!

Bizarre Food Ingredients
Fact Checked Human Written Verified Sources Regularly Updated

We all love ice cream! Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, beaver, beetle… Wait, what?

Well, many of those food labels that decorate food packaging have pretty bizarre secrets hidden in them.

Food labels contain so many different information – from calorie count, nutritional information to ingredients.

So what is the secret? Well, some of the ingredients that we consume daily in our favorite food come from the strangest places.

For example, bread contains an ingredient that is derived from human hair. Yuck!

Our favorite colorful M&M’s glaze is made out of shellac, an ingredient that originates from secretions of a bug that lives in India and Thailand.

You might want to think twice the next time you make microwave popcorn, because it has an ingredient called diacetyl that can damage your lungs if inhaled!

Oh yeah, we all reached for that energy drink when we needed a bit of an energy boost, but did you know that the main ingredient in energy drinks is taurine, originally found in bulls bile?

All this and many more bizarre but interesting food facts can be found in this colorful infographic.

So, next time you go to the supermarket for your weekly grocery shopping, take a closer look at those food labels

Bizarre Ingredients Hidden in Food Labels

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About The Author

Luke Ward
Owner

Luke Ward is the owner of The Fact Site. He has over 14 years of experience in researching, informative writing, fact-checking, SEO & web design. In his spare time, he loves to explore the world, drink coffee & attend trivia nights.

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