Dom

Reese's Pieces have no chocolate in them. The peanuts had their oil pressed out and a cheaper fat put back in. Sugar is first, then partially defatted peanuts, then hydrogenated palm kernel and soybean oil, then corn syrup solids. Everything after that is 2% or less, and it's the dyes, the glaze, some vanillin and a little milk. There's no cocoa anywhere. Partially defatted just means the peanuts went through a press. The peanut oil comes out one side and gets sold as peanut oil. What's left is a dry peanut flour, and that's what the center is made from, because flour holds a shape in a panning drum and doesn't go rancid. Then they put fat back in, and the fat they picked is hydrogenated palm kernel oil, which is solid at room temperature and costs less than peanut oil. You can see the swap on the panel. 38 pieces have 6 g of fat and all 6 are saturated. Peanut oil is mostly unsaturated, so that number isn't the peanut. The shell is sugar with 4 dyes and a coat of shellac.

The scrambled eggs at a hotel breakfast are 19% water, and they're dyed. A lot of hotels and cafeterias pour them from a carton of Papetti's Breakfast Blend. The spec sheet reads whole eggs, 19% water, then under 2% of salt, xanthan gum, citric acid, annatto color and natural butter flavor. Papetti's is part of Michael Foods, one of the biggest egg processors in the country. Every ingredient has a job on a steam table. Xanthan gum holds the added water in the egg so it doesn't weep into the pan. Citric acid keeps the eggs from turning gray or green under a heat lamp. Annatto puts back the yolk color the water washed out. The butter flavor is there because nobody is going to add butter. The carton keeps for 98 days in the cooler. The plain version from the same company is whole eggs, whey, skim milk, xanthan and citric acid, with almost no added water and half the sodium.