Oct 16, 2008 11:48 pm US/Eastern
Health Alert: Controversial Soup Ingredient
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
On the health alert -
do you know what's in your favorite soup? There's a controversial ingredient
that's ignited a soup war.
Its back to basics for Campbell's with its new
Select Harvest soups. M'm' good now comes MSG free.
"I really don't
know much about it, but I heard its bad I'm not sure though,said Shy Booker,
shopper.
MSG is monosodium
glutamate .. a flavor enhancer put in many foods, most notorious in Chinese
dishes.
"I kinda try to
stay away from it whenever I can," said Janice Taylor, shopper.
Now MSG is the focus of
an advertising war. Campbell's, based in Camden, fired the first
shot against it's rival, Progresso pointing out their added MSG.
"This is a common
advertising technique, you take a point of difference for your product and you
use that maybe against an inferiority in your competitors products," said
Anthony Sanzio, Campbell's
Soup.
Progresso says Campbell's advertising has
been disingenuous and misleading. Progresso,
which also has MSG free soups,
fired back highlighting all the Campbell's
soups that still contain MSG.
MSG is safe according
to the FDA which investigated reports that it caused adverse reactions like
headaches and heart palpitations.
"It's more of a
side effect or a sensitivity, so it's not an unsafe additive," said
dietician Flavia Herzog.
Flavia herzog a
registered dietician,
says MSG has
gotten a bad rap and that the soup companies are using scare tactics
capitalizing on confusion about MSG.
"It's all about
the dollar who can actually make a product seem less healthy," said
Herzog. "And make people feel like it's really a negative when in fact the
average population is not affected by MSG at all," she continued.
Still Progresso says it
will remove MSG from all its soup. Campbell's
doesn't reveal it's future recipes.
By the way doctors say
sodium in soup is probably more dangerous than MSG.
RELATED LINKS:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdacmsg.html
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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