Kraft: Do They Create Addictive Food?
Every time I drive past my local KFC outlet, I always joke about how they must have huge fans installed. How else do they pump that distinctive and addictive aroma out into the neighborhood? Thanks to some research by the Chicago Tribune, maybe these kind of conspiracy theories aren't so improbable.
In fact, Kraft Foods Inc. and Philip Morris USA have pooled expertise in search of making more-alluring foods and cigarettes since the dawn of their corporate pairing two decades ago, a Tribune examination of tobacco-lawsuit documents has found.
Apparently one particular memo from 1998 suggested:
...that Kraft, Philip Morris and Miller Brewing, which were corporate siblings at the time, collaborate on foods and drinks "engineered to influence" a customer's mood or sense of fullness. It is unclear from the documents whether those companies acted on that suggestion.Kraft responded (in the manner of all large companies) with deniability:
"We do not conduct or fund any research aimed at creating dependency upon any of our products, or limiting consumers' ability to control their eating behaviors,"Seems odd coming from someone whose sister company is a cigarette maker. Both Philip Morris and Kraft are part of the Altria Group. See the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
Is Altria just another drug company - using food and cigarettes as the medium?
Written By J. Foster
"Both Philip Morris and Kraft are part of the Altria Group. "
Which is why I haven't bought a single Kraft product (or Bocca and others) in more than three years.
Also, for those of you that boycott Heinz for it's connections to Theresa Heinz-Kerry and the Dim'o'craps...you should know that Weight Watchers is part of the Heinz group these days! :-(
ReplyKraft food products are gross. Everything is processed and is not very healthy. Stick with real food.
ReplyUmmm...Dim'o'craps violates the request to be respectful.
ReplySpeaking of boycotting certian companies for their affiliations... I am sure that many people would be surprised to realize how many companies out there are paired, such as Kraft and Phillip Morris. It often is not advertised, and I myself have come across this information inadvertantly. At times I have found that I used a product of a company that I liked, then later found they were connected to some company that I have chosen not to use for whatever reason. I think it is virtually inevitable to avoid these situations. Welcome to Corporate America, whatever makes a profit!
ReplyKraft, Post, and Nabisco are owned by Philip Morris, which changed its name to the Altria Group as a PR move. They're not "sister" companies, they're owned by a huge cigarette conglomerate. Philip Morris also owns Breyers, General Foods International Coffees, Gevalia, Maxwell House, Sanka, Altoids, Toblerone, and a lot of other foods you may have considered independent or foreign. I'm not kidding. It's all branding.
ReplyWow. Thanks for clearing that up.
ReplyIt is so true, so just think about it the next time your enjoying something from a company you think you love... they may be owned by someone you despise. In America it is just that, companies, in most cases love to be bougth out by bigger ones for the payout, yet they are usually those that have little moral/ethical values accept the bottom lines (dollars). Just look at ENRON, they did whatever it took to keep stockholders buying for high dollar stocks. This is America and if it means blowing fumes of fried foods (KFC, McDonalds), which you know smells good when your driving by then they will, and I am sure with all denial that they do not...
ReplyWow thanks
ReplyYeah I know what you mean about those addictive-smelling fumes of fried food. I read in the South Beach Diet book that it's the enormous amount of carbs and sugar that's in the stuff which makes it so addictive. The more "sugar" you consume, the more hooked your body is to it.
Well, these days, it's trans fat that is the big bad wolf in heart disease and obesity. Check out the furore about KFC's finger lickin' chicken:
Business Week’s How KFC Went Trans-Fat Free
A class action information directory that has good links on the KFC suit
Fox News article Trans Fat Lawsuit Against KFC Based on Thin Science
ReplyTell me if it is addictive or not god man i can be better than you.
ReplyI like eating Toblerone bars but hey, I can live without Toberlone bars, anyone can live without processed foods.
Reply