Homework #5

This weeks homework assignment was to pick a food that you like, or that is interesting and do research about it. What exactly are the ingredients, who grew them/where'd they come from, is it environmentally friendly, what are the health impacts, etc.

I chose something that I love to snack on, and have so far convinced myself is a healthier version then what you would find at a big name food store chain... Is it really? We will find out! I chose, drum roll please, Trader Joe's "Joe-Joe's"!

For those of you who have never had them before, they are Trader Joe's version of Oreo's made with "No hydrogenated oils" and "All natural flavors". The ingredients are as follows:
Dried Cane Syrup (sugar)
Enriched Wheat Flour
     Flour
     Niacin (B3 an essential human nutrient)
     Reduced Iron
     Thiamine Mononitrate (B1 an essential human nutrient)
     Riboflavin (B2 an essential human nutrient)
     Folic Acid
Palm oil
Expeller Pressed Soybean Oil
Cocoa Processed with Alkali
Tapioca Starch
Natural Vanilla Flavor
Natural Flavors
Cane Syrup
Baking Soda
Salt
Soy Lecithin
Vanilla Been Seeds

A word real quick about the enriched flour, from what I canfind the reason that the flour is enriched with different vitamin B's, is because it is required here in the United States and that is because the flour looses a lot of its natural nutrients during processing. As for "natural flavors" this could mean anything, seriously! According to an article on http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/4676616/ns/today-food/t/food-qa-just-what-natural-flavoring/#.UHXnJpG9KSM
              The definition of natural flavor under the Code of Federal Regulations is: “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional” (21CFR101.22).
Basically I would need to get the information straight from the source, I have sent an e-mail to Trader Joe's and hope to hear back soon on just what the natural flavor in these cookies are. 

The one thing that does make me happy is Trader Joe's promises on their website that all foods sold there have:
No genetically modified ingredients
No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives 
No MSG (which is an addictive flavor enhancer)
No added trans fat

Unfortunately for right now I have not heard back from Trader Joe's and have not found any information on where and how the ingredients for this food was/is grown. 
As for Heath impact, now it may seem as though they're are a lot of ingredients to these cookies and you may be thinking, wow these aren't heathy for me at all!  But let's try comparing them to their rivals the Oreo shall we?
Sugar
Enriched Flour (same as above)
High Oleic canola oil and/or palm oil and/or canola oil and/or soybean oil
Cocoa (also processed with alkali)
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Cornstarch 
Leavening (baking soda and/or calcium phosphate)
Salt
Soy Lecithin (emulsifier)
Vanillin (an artificial flavor)
Chocolate

Based on this information, you can see that Joe Joe's have more natural ingredients than Oreo's and their ingridient list is much more straighter forward, not all of these and/or's like they can't make up their mind on what's in their product (which seems fishy to me). Anyway because of this I would venture to say that while any processed cookies or snacks are probably not very healthy for you, Joe Joe's are a much better alternative to Oreo's when you just need cream-filled cookie!

So for now, until I hear back from Trader Joe's, that is all the info I have collected on Joe Joe's.