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Alicorn comments on Learned Blankness - Less Wrong
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There are lots of reasons for it to taste worse than real food. The companies that make and sell these things have to make them able to withstand conditions that normal food can't. They have to add preservatives, freeze and possibly even refreeze the food, swap out really delicate ingredients for alternatives that lack flavor but have shelf-stability, and endure breakdown of the compounds that make real food good.
We will be able to overcome all of this with effective nanotech, of course. Right now instant foods are inferior because the companies aren't selecting for taste, they're selecting for cheapness of production and handling. Taste suffers, and they put enough effort into it to be 'good enough' and no more.
I probably do have biases regarding the issue, but I have more objective reasons as well.
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Most normal food can actually take freezing pretty well, and freezing should obviate the need for preservatives... what frozen foods are you thinking of that have preservatives in them?
Most frozen pizza does, I believe. I seem to remember ice cream having preservatives too. I think that preservatives are more likely to be in frozen food as the number of processing steps that it's been through increase.
I'll check later today on the pizza and ice cream, it's been long enough that I don't have a clear memory.
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I bet that's googleable.
You're right! http://www.redbaron.com/pan-pizza.aspx -- The dough contains TBHQ. That's the only one, so it's relatively reasonable as far as preservatives go.
I looked at several varieties of ice cream, and none that I found had preservatives. Lots and lots of emulsifiers, but no preservatives.
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