Chemical Cup a Soup

The Unilever chemist (or was it a bio-chemist) who devised Golden Vegetable Cup a Soup must be a genius. He has managed to reduce the food content of this “soup” to only 8%. The remaining 92% (apart from “water” which mysteriously appears in a list of dry ingredients) consists of chemicals. The list includes disodium 5′ ribonucleotides, potassium chloride, tricalcium phosphate, dipotassium phosphate and mono and diglycerides of fatty acids. The 8%, which is vegetables, consists of dried swede, onion, carrot, leeks and peas.

In the real world it isn’t difficult or complex to make a vegetable soup. In this household we make a simple stock using a chicken carcase and add diced vegetables. 

We might add some salt and pepper but we’ve never been tempted to reach into the kitchen cupboard for ribonucleotides or diglycerides of fatty acids. ​Perhaps this is because in our old fashioned world we prefer not to eat anything we can’t pronounce.

The genius of the Cup a Soup chemist is equalled by their marketing people who’ve contrived to sell this cocktail of chemicals as a health product. On the front of the packet they boldly proclaim: “NO ARTIFICIAL COLOURS, NO ARTIFICIAL PRESERVATIVES.” On the rear they say “Low in Fat; Low in Sugar; No Artificial Colours; No Preservatives.”

If this is impressive, they’ve reached even higher peaks of perfection with their Golden Vegetable Slim a Soup. There, they’ve managed to reduce the vegetable content to a miraculous 6%. They’ve done this by removing the peas from the list of ingredients, which in all other respects is identical to the non-slimming variety. Who’d have thought that peas were so fattening.
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In the interests of science I’ve tried the soup. It tastes good and what’s more gives me no less than 1.25 grammes of salt, which is a quarter of my recommended daily allowance (according to the packet). Yes, it’s very healthy.