Interesting. I would think breakfast cereal would be right up there too. One thing I've never trusted are 'fortified' or 'enriched'. It's basically chemically extracted vitamins reinserted into another food. Watch Food Inc sometime. They show a scientist that's just giddy over how many things that can be extracted from corn. That's why everything processed has some component from corn in it.
And frozen pizza? It should be bread, tomato sauce and cheese, plus whatever toppings. But of course not. Just glanced at a Red Baron box and then grabbed this from their website;
ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, LOW MOISTURE PART SKIM MOZZARELLA CHEESE (CULTURED PASTEURIZED PART SKIM MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), PEPPERONI MADE WITH PORK, CHICKEN, AND BEEF (PORK, MECHANICALLY SEPARATED CHICKEN, BEEF, SALT, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF SPICES, DEXTROSE, LACTIC ACID STARTER CULTURE, SODIUM ASCORBATE, SMOKE FLAVORING, FLAVORING, SODIUM NITRITE, BHA, BHT, CITRIC ACID, CONTAINS ONE OR MORE OF: WATER, GARLIC POWDER, PAPRIKA, OLEORESIN OF PAPRIKA), TOMATO PASTE, PALM OIL, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN AND/OR CANOLA OIL), SUGAR, NONFAT MILK, SALT, YEAST, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SPICE, MALTODEXTRIN, DRIED GARLIC, HYDROLYZED SOY AND CORN PROTEIN, PAPRIKA, DRIED ONION, NATURAL FLAVOR, WHEAT STARCH, DEFATTED SOY FLOUR, L-CYSTEINE HYDROCHLORIDE, AMMONIUM SULFATE, SOY LECITHIN, ANNATTO (COLOR), ASCORBIC ACID (DOUGH CONDITIONER). CONTAINS: WHEAT, MILK AND SOY.
What's missing that is on the box is; (Contains bioengineered food ingredients) GMO corn and soy most likely.
Good gawd; (Ammonium sulfate is made by treating ammonia with sulfuric acid) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_sulfate Fertilizer, water treatment, vax ingredient, wood preservative, used in pesticides - herbicides - fungicides, flame retardant, AND FOOD.
As a food additive, ammonium sulfate is considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
[sarc]Well that makes me feel much better.[/sarc]
Those ingredient lists are always astonishing, aren’t they?
I love the universal catch-all ingredients: FLAVORING and SPICE. That narrows it right down!
Like you, I was surprised to see that breakfast cereal wasn’t at the top of the processed foods list. They are probably the worst offenders! I generally eat whole grain breakfast cereals without a lot of preservatives or weird ingredients, but now and then I break down and enjoy a bowl of Captain Crunch or Frosted Flakes.
Nitrates, nitrites and caffeine send my hypoglycemia into the red zone.