Spray-on Flavor


USA Today profiles spray-on flavors, offering a look at some of the 150 squirtable food additives you might find at your local store.

The pump bottles are aimed primarily at dieters who want to add flavor without calories (because herbs and spices are hard to find?), but you’ll soon see candy-flavored sprays to make veggies more appealing, and even organic Pam, the archetypal cooking spray.

Anyone who’s read Fast Food Nation knows that most of the flavor in processed food comes from potent chemical flavorings that the producers add back in, so perhaps this spray-on trend isn’t all that surprising. Why not have broccoli that tastes like Sweet Tarts? Woe betide the pampered kid who then tries to eat broccoli anywhere else. Maybe s/he can carry a little spray pump to flavor the food, sort of the way some gourmets tote their own salt into restaurants.

I personally find these appalling, but isn’t this just the modern form of cooking greens in bacon grease?



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June 21st, 2006
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
cookiecrumb
Posted on:
June 22, 2006 at 9:33 am

It boggles my mind that, at the same instant in time when so many of us are rediscovering real, honest, true foods without additives or unnecessary tweaks, the Food Industry is diverging into fantasyland with frankenflavors and mouth-foolers and utter fabrication.
Like there’s been this massive bifurcation in the evolution of eating, and I fall on the back-to-the-caveman side. I’m tapping on the window that divides me from the bozos in the cage on the other side: “Yoo-hoo! It doesn’t have to be like that!” And they’re throwing SweeTart-sprayed banana peels at me.
Excuse me, I’ve got to go shell some peas now for lunch. I might flavor them with butter.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Derrick Schneider
Posted on:
June 22, 2006 at 9:56 am

I’d say there’s a similar bifurcation at the high-end levels as well. On one side you have the Chez Panisses–traditional food simply prepared–and on the other you have the El Bullies–high-tech techniques applied to break free of tradition altogether.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
cookiecrumb
Posted on:
June 22, 2006 at 3:51 pm

Yes. That would explain why I don’t own a foamer. That might also explain why, as much as I love Chez Panisse, it somehow irks me to be served a plate of good, fresh tomatoes when I could have had a plate of good, fresh tomatoes at home…
Interestingly, I am, um (I did not major in writing) “interested” in El Bulli-type food — although less so in El Bulli wannabes. I’m vastly amused by (and curiously not turned off by) that kind of inventiveness at the high end. Who ever said accidentally dropping mastodon chunks into the campfire was the be-all, end-all of cuisine? Not this caveman! :D

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
MysTerry
Posted on:
December 14, 2006 at 5:33 am

I love the idea of spray on flavorings. I would buy them because I would like to be able to whip out a little vanilla/cinnamon and spritz it on a sweet roll or in coffee, or add a little pep to some french fries or vegies with a light tabasco spray. I think it is a great idea for anytime eating. A portable .5 to ounce size non-leaking spritzer would be ideal for that side pocket on the bag or briefcase for quick snacks that otherwise aren’t that appetizing. Makes sense to me.