Wendyl wants to know: Added flavours, salt dull crust's appeal

Lots of effort gone into emulating flavour of something that's more delicious in its original form - and almost as easy to use

Coating chicken or fish with breadcrumbs is a great way to add flavour to your dinner. This packet is a ready-made mix which you can use to add some parmesan flavour. But wouldn't you rather add real parmesan instead?

Breadcrumbs
[wheat flour (gluten), water, yeast, salt, palm oil, emulsifier (472e), colour (160b), acidity regulator (262)]

This tells us that flour, water, yeast and salt - which makes bread - are in this mix. But there is also palm oil, which many people avoid. Some palm oil is now produced from renewable sources but three-quarters of all palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia where rainforests - housing the Bornean and Sumatran orang-utans and other flora and fauna - are being destroyed. Some people like to avoid eating it and so listing it here allows them that choice.

There is also the emulsifier fatty acid esters of glycerol (472e) and annatto (160b) for colouring which is made from the seed coat of the tropical annatto tree. Some people have allergic reactions to this but it is natural.

It also contains the acidity regulator sodium acetate (262).

Cheese powder
[milk solids, cheese (milk, salt, starter culture, rennet), salt]

These are the usual ingredients for cheese.

Salt
This is a high-salt product, giving you 600mg of sodium per 14g serving.

Spices
You can clearly see little flecks of what look like herbs in here.

Dehydrated capsicum
Sugar
Not a lot of sugar at 1.5g per 14g serving.

Yeast extract
This will be in here to provide flavour.

Parmesan flavouring
This is a worry - who ever heard of parmesan flavouring? If I was optimistic I would say that this is just parmesan cheese put in here as a flavouring but then a more realistic name would be "parmesan cheese". So I'm going to take it at face value and call it an artificial flavouring.

Spice extracts
Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein
(soy, wheat)
This is soy and wheat which has been broken down chemically to release the protein. This ingredient is commonly used in processed foods as a flavour enhancer.

Flavour enhancers
(627, 631)
These are disodium guanylate (627) and disodium inosinate (631). Both are used in processed foods to enhance the flavour of a food.

My recommendations
This is a case of too many flavour enhancers spoil the pot.

If you want breadcrumbs with parmesan cheese then make some breadcrumbs by toasting some bread and processing it in the food processor. Then grate some parmesan and add that and you have a parmesan crust.

This uses added colour, several flavour enhancers, sugar, salt and parmesan flavouring to achieve the same result.

Highlights
• Uses parmesan flavouring.
• Has colouring added.
• High in salt.