Saturday, April 19, 2014

I hate my Campbell’s, this soup makes me droop!



From time to time with a new generation, the Topps Company puts out editions of a children’s collector cards and stickers called ‘Wacky Packages.’ These ran first in the 1960s, later in 1970s and also the 1980s, with reprints and unreleased caricatures in the mid 2000s. Three examples of their high jinx of Campbell’s Soups are pictured above.

As a adolescent in the 1980s, I very much liked these spoofs on popular foods and consumer products. It goes without saying that I collected them. But as an adult and food justice advocate, I never thought I would be revisiting these mockeries of popular foods, toiletries, soaps and beauty products. In recent years, however, the multiplication of chemicals, inorganic compounds and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in common foods and care products to increase the shelf life, appearance, taste and performance will, in all likelihood, create unintended illnesses and health problems among the newer generations using them in the long-term. 


Case in point: view the ingredients list for Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup (shown above). Four of the ingredients listed: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Potassium Chloride, Flavoring, and Monopotassium Phosphate are disturbing for various reasons. First, a product derived from hybrids or GMOs, High Fructose Corn Syrup has been linked to various health problems including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and liver diseases. On average, North Americans consume 51 pounds of High Fructose Corn Syrup every year in their diets. It is used in the soup as both a filler and sweetener but this is unnecessary considering that wheat flour is also used here as a filler and tomatoes are naturally sweet. But because it is inexpensive and promoted aggressively by corn growers it becomes a product in many processed foods.

Next, although there is less than 2% of the following, Potassium Sulfate, also known as Potash of Sulfur, is fertilizer. Flavoring, likely used for taste and possibly scent, is an ambiguous term that does not verify whether it is natural or artificial. Such ambiguity can only mean there is something malign about its use. Finally, Monopotassium Phosphate is both a fertilizer and a fungicide. In this case it is used as a food preservative, but the long-term consumption of these and other foods that use chemicals and other compounds are alarming in the long run. 


Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup is used for more than just soup. It is also used in other prepared dishes like meatloaf, stuffed bell peppers, chili and macaroni dishes. It is a brand name that started 145 years ago and is likely found on the shelves of low income and middle class homes. But rest assured the ingredients on today’s label do not reflect the ingredients used in the ascension of Campbell’s as a trusted name for canned soups. What is our society coming to when the apocalyptic visions a jester-card company begins, like Topps, coming true? 

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