Reading food labels and trying to do the “right” thing for our families is not always easy and sometimes is totally frustrating . . at least that’s how I feel about it.
My beef or chicken flavoring of choice has been Better than Bouillon for several years, ever since a reader told me about it. I used to always keep the dried cubes around too, but have been out for a while. I like the dried cubes for long term storage and for making “kits”. When I go to MO, I have been preparing some kits that contain everything so I can bring ingredients from home, where I have everything I need. If I buy jars of beef and chicken Better than Bouillon when I’m there, I either give them to Chad & Nicole when I leave MO, or bring them home because I don’t leave the fridge on when I’m not there but anything shelf stable can stay behind til my next trip.
Vince reacts to MSG so I try not to use it. Even on the Better than Bouillon page, I’m not 100% sure there’s no MSG. It appears there’s no added MSG and Vince hasn’t reacted to it and I use it often so I’ll keep using it.
While at Walmart yesterday, I began looking for bouillon cubes. I haven’t had any in the house in months. All the ones they had at Walmart list MSG as an ingredient near the top of the ingredient list.
Aldi had this one, which doesn’t list MSG as an ingredient but does list disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate. According to Food Renegade, these ingredients do contain MSG, and they were specifically referencing Better than Bouillon.
There is a chicken bouillon, probably granules, by Knorr, that supposedly doesn’t contain MSG but it may or may not contain the above listed ingredients. I couldn’t get my hands on it. Our Walmart is out. The ad at Amazon says “no added MSG”. The problem is (1) the cost at Walmart is less than $5; the cost at Amazon is over $11.
For now, for my dry food “kits”, I’ll use the one from Aldi since Better than Bouillon apparently has the same basic ingredients, and it hasn’t caused any problems. At home, I’ll continue to use Better than Bouillon.
Reading food labels and trying to figure out what you’re getting should not be confusing or frustrating.
Nelle Coursey says
A friend of mine likes the Swiss Miss k-cups. She ordered some from Amazon two weeks ago and it never came. She called them and they told her they were made in China and they were inspecting them to make sure there was no Coronavirus associated with them. She asked them if she could just cancel her order and they said yes. She was thankful they were honest with her!
Susan Nixon says
That was the original point of labeling everything wasn’t it? But half of it is still Latin to me.