As summer approaches and grilling season nears, TikToker Stacy Nazarene (@blessedstacy2) warns against Walmart’s Angus Beef burgers in a recent viral video.
She shares that a neighbor recommended these burgers and that they are the “best tasting burgers” she has ever had, but after looking at the ingredients, she has second thoughts.
“Walmart, you got some explaining to do,” she demands.
Revealing the surprise ingredients
“I don’t know what possessed me to look at the ingredients on my Angus beef steak burgers,” she explains. She reveals what she finds: “Guess what the ingredients are? Ground beef and natural flavoring.”
“When you see natural flavorings, that does not mean natural. They are made in a lab,” she claims.
What are natural flavors?
Healthline explains that natural flavors “are flavoring agents that food manufacturers add to their products to enhance the taste.” They “extract these flavors from plants and animals to create flavor enhancers used in processed foods.”
Manufacturers can call these flavors “natural” because their original source is a plant or animal. However, they are also complex mixtures that specially trained food chemists, known as flavorists, create, often containing chemicals.
Healthline argues that natural flavors “enhance flavor, not necessarily contribute nutritional value to a food or beverage.”
Is the marketing behind natural flavors in beef deceptive?
Nazarene notes, “They are made in a lab. They are a very deceptive marketing practice by corporations, and they are not required to disclose what is in their natural flavorings.”
Because natural flavors stem from a natural original source, the FDA doesn’t require companies to list what makes up that flavor mixture.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “FDA allows natural flavors to be derived from any natural substance but does not require companies to name that substance. Because of this, in some instances, ‘natural beef flavor’ may be derived from plants, where ‘beef’ describes the taste and not the source material.”
Nazarene emphasizes this further, adding, “I don’t eat pork. It could have pork in it. This could include fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, meat, seafood, or dairy.”
The label shock
She continues, “The term is broad and does not guarantee that the final product is free from chemical processing or hidden additives.”
She shares that she always tries to avoid natural flavorings, but she asks, “Who would think to look at a hamburger to see if there’s natural flavoring?”
“When I tell you I have found that in even cans of corn. This is disgusting. I’m gonna actually show you the label,” she stresses, before showing it to viewers. The label reads, “ground beef, natural flavorings.”
MSG v Natural Flavorings
She argues, “Now, in my personal opinion, this is a deceptive marketing practice to get us. Natural flavorings work on your brain, like MSG, and make you crave more and more of the product.”
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of the common amino acid glutamic acid. Glutamic acid is naturally present in our bodies, and in many foods and food additives.”
MSG and natural flavoring are two different things. MSG is a specific flavor enhancer, while natural flavoring is a broad term for many lab-made compounds that come from natural sources.
The FDA requires foods with added MSG to list it clearly on the ingredient label. In contrast, companies don’t have to name what’s in “natural flavoring.”
While some natural flavors are made to boost taste, they don’t work the same way as MSG, and the FDA doesn’t treat them the same.
However, CNN has reported that some experts believe artificial and natural flavors may trigger food cravings in some people, similar to MSG.
Nazarene’s frustration is evident, and she lets viewers know she will be returning the burgers.
“These will be going back to Walmart, and I will never be buying these again,” she shares.
Nazarene adds, “I would suggest starting to look at even your meat labels because who knows what they’re feeding us. I’m disgusted with you, Walmart.”
@blessedstacy2 #walmart @Walmart @Whole Foods Market @whole foods ♬ original sound – NazareneStacy
Viewers recommend buying beef locally
The viral video has 74,300 views and thousands of comments, sparking much discourse.
Many viewers shared Nazarene’s frustrations and provided alternatives to buying meat from grocery chains.
“I had to buy my meat from a local butcher, it’s the only way,” one viewer suggested.
“There’s poison in everything now… but I definitely do not buy food from Walmart,” one viewer commented.
Another added, “I buy all my meat from local farmers.”
Others agreed with her insights regarding natural flavors.
“Natural flavors fool people into thinking it’s a natural ingredient, but it’s a chemical to create natural flavor,” one shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Stacy Nazarene via TikTok and Walmart via a contact form for comment.
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