So What Really Is In A McDonald's Chicken McNugget?
Let's take a look from the book entitled The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polla (38 ingredients in all)
1. corn-fed chicken
2. modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat);
3. mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating);
4. dextrose;
5. lecithin (another emulsifier);
6. chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out);
7. yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter);
8. cornstarch (a filler);
9. vegetable shortening;
10. partially hydrogenated corn oil;
11. citric acid as a preservative
12. sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid.
13. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid)
Think again on your next trip to the fast food chain...