Knowledge Issue: Why McDonald's French Fries Taste So Good

1. Describe/summarize the content of the article/video.

This article is an excerpt from Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation. The article first discusses the evolution of McDonald’s french fries from fresh cut food into a heavily processed food commodity and why they became so popular. It goes on to explain that the oil the fries are cooked in determines the taste, and how the oils McDonald’s has used in earlier years have been traded for flavors manufactured in factories and laboratories such as IFF. The article also explains that these flavors are created by manipulating volatile chemicals that stimulate the olfactory system. In fact, completely different tastes can work together to achieve one cohesive taste. The article then explains how the olfactory system works, and how memory, visual perception, and other psychological aspects affect how taste is perceived. Another important aspect of the article is that it explains the similarity between natural and artificial flavors – both are manmade.

2. List the different perspectives/sides presented in the article and briefly summarize their view (including your own).
An important argument the article makes is that natural and artificial flavors are not very different – both are manmade. According to a professor at Cornell University "[natural flavor] is a flavor that's been derived with an out-of-date technology." The article also explains how natural flavors are not always more healthy than artificial flavors. For example, “when almond flavor -- benzaldehyde -- is derived from natural sources… it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison.” This evidence seems sound, and I feel that the advertisement of natural flavor is not what it appears to be.

3. List the AOK/WOK involved.

An area of knowledge involved in this article is the natural sciences. The sensory perception (a way of knowing) of taste, which is a very important topic in this article, is highly affected by the way chemicals react with the body.

4. What issues or ideas are related to the Situation or PT?

An idea from this article that surprised me was the fact that completely different flavors can combine to make one cohesive flavor. For example, when the author went to tour IFF, he was asked to smell several different test strips that all had a distinct smell. When he smelled all of the strips together, he reported that he smelled a hamburger. The scent was so realistic that when he closed his eyes, he thought a hamburger could have been right in front of him, when in reality, it was only a strip of paper dipped in chemicals.

5. Summarize one of the knowledge problems brought up in the article/video

When the author had his eyes closed, he thought there was a hamburger in front of him. When he opened his eyes, he saw that it was just a test strip. In this example, his sensory perceptions of eyesight and smell were conflicting. This shows that we cannot rely on only one of our senses to give us an accurate picture of reality.

6. State a Knowledge Issue related to a knowledge problem.

To what extent do our different sensory perceptions (such as sight, taste, hearing, etc.) conflict with each other?

Fast Food Nation was adapted to film in 2006. Like Schlosser’s book, it examines the health risks and the environmental and social consequences involved in the fast food industry. Parts of the trailor, in a way, help depict Schlosser's experience at IFF as described in this article.