I make food for a living. Every Sunday I take one grocery product apart, from what's on the label to how the plant actually makes it.
Labels & Regulation
+1
/
Nov 1, 2026
What a Costco order asks of the plant that fills it, and how to read the back of a Kirkland package
Oct 25, 2026
What cultured celery is, how a smokehouse turns 161 grams of beef into 100 grams of jerky, and the one number USDA deleted last September
+2
Oct 18, 2026
What 6 months in a tank does that a day in a reactor can't, the chemical only one of them makes, and why the brewed bottle barely costs more
+3
Oct 11, 2026
What a flag on a box is allowed to mean, what the die and the dryer actually do, and what the imported box buys you
Oct 4, 2026
Why Ferrero holds the nut where it is, what a jar costs to make, and what the 2025 frost did to it
Cost-outs
Sep 23, 2026
Why canned pumpkin is really squash, how one corner of Illinois packs a year of it in 6 weeks, and what an ounce costs whole, cut and canned
What's in the bottle, how a plant builds a cream substitute out of soybean oil, and why the real thing sells for less
Which tree your cinnamon came from, what happens to the bark on its way into the jar, and the risk actually worth watching
Why parmesan's 10 month clock shapes every canister on the shelf, and what the plant does to the cheese on its way into the shaker
What one word on the tub changes, and where in the plant that change is made
What actually happens to a bag of spring mix between the field and the shelf
