Hot Sauce & Limon Corn Nuts Chips & Junk Food Litigation?
Junk food Nation, I am an….cough…attorney (sometimes). Through this gig, I receive a number of publications. One caught my eye this morning:
Processed foods that contain high sugar and fat and little in the way of nutrients could be changing the brain in a way that resembles addiction, some researchers believe.
The findings are leading Yale psychology and public health professor Kelly Brownell to suggest food companies could face lawsuits similar to those against the tobacco industry, Bloomberg News reports. “This could change the legal landscape,” Brownell tells the publication. “People knew for a long time cigarettes were killing people, but it was only later they learned about nicotine and the intentional manipulation of it.”
Junk food litigation coming, like tobacco litigation??? Really? I’ll let you read the rest of the article here, but let’s discuss this for one second. Are the comparisons legitimate? It’s an interesting debate. One could argue that the processed fats inside some junk foods are akin to the addictive poison that is nicotine. And the flip side argument which is always used is that this country is about choice – it is up to people to regulate what they put in their bodies and not the companies’ responsibility at all.
In the end, the real question is whether the “poison” in junk food is so bad that knowing sale of it on the market constitutes a bad act on the part of these junk food companies. What do you think?
While you’re thinking that over, today’s Junk Food is: Hot Sauce & Limon Corn Nuts Chips! Thanks to my sister for this treat!
The Money Shot
Since 1936 Corn Nuts have been breaking teeth all over the nation, and Planters has decided to step it up a notch with their Corn Nuts Chips.
You know, I can’t remember the first time I saw Corn Nut Chips. But I remember thinking, “but, Corn Nuts are so perfect on their own – why flatten them into chips?” And because I thought this, I’ve actually never cracked into a bag of corn Nuts Chips. This will be an exclusive first for me.
Corn Nuts...Chips?
Hot Sauce & Limon Corn Nuts Chips have a very sophisticated access point – just tear off the friggin’ corner.
Wait, but hot sauce isn't natural...is it?
Hot Sauce & Limon is a great flavor; reminds me of my review of the Frito-Lay Tapatio line of snacks. Pretty clear what the flavor is going to be from this drawing – lots of hot and lots of lime. Spicy and sour. Nom Nom Nom.
Little thumb tacks of spice
Having not ever had Corn Nuts chips before, I must admit, I was not sure what to expect. Certainly not this – I mean, true, these things are NOT Corn Nuts, and they ARE chips…but each is like the size of an M&M! I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was surprised to see they were so little!
Notice, by the way, I did not follow the bag tearing convention that Corn Nuts suggested. Yep, I’m a rebel.
Spicy M&Ms!
One thing cannot be denied, however – these things were absolutely BLASTED with powder, holy cow. They couldn’t BE more red. I decided to eat these just like how I eat normal Corn Nuts – by dumping them into my mouth directly from the bag while leaning over the sink. Yep, I’m an adult.
Spicy powder blasted!
Hot Sauce & Limon Corn Nuts Chips…VERY interesting. Here are my initial reactions: Very crunchy. To be expected when you’re talking about Corn Nuts, and, I guess, Corn Nut Chips. The lime flavor is the first thing I tasted, and it was really strong. To be honest, the Corn Nut Chip tasted so sweet at first it sort of reminded me of a sugar cereal – no joke, almost like Fruit Loops. Sort of off-putting at first…until the huge rush of spice kicked in.
The spice was a good hot sauce flavor, but more along the lines of Tapatio rather than Frank’s Red Hot. That is to say, the hot was just HOT. Made my mouth and throat burn…but I’m not sure if it added any real savoriness besides the spice itself.
All in all, a cool snack – crunchy, spicy, sour, sweet. Definitely a party in my mouth. I could see eating these again, even if they weren’t at the top of my list, simply because I like spicy. Given the choice, however between these and, say, Buffalo Wing Pretzel Pieces or Chorizo Corn Nuts, I’d go buffalo and chorizo. Sorry Corn Nuts. You know I love ya – but not really, this time.
Any thoughts? Tell me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.
Discuss - 2 Comments
“In the end, the real question is whether the “poison” in junk food is so bad that knowing sale of it on the market constitutes a bad act on the part of these junk food companies.”
You’re pointing the argument squarely toward strict liability, which is a tactic that has generally failed in cigarette cases. For all the laypersons out there, strict liability is basically saying that due to a baseline defect in design, a product is unreasonably and unconscionably dangerous from the start. While tobacco products are not healthy for you, and courts have admitted as much, courts have (as far as I can tell from a quick sweep of google, google scholar, and Wikipedia) refrained from holding tobacco companies strictly liable.
Instead, smokers have won on the grounds that tobacco companies fraudulently withheld information that would factor into informed choice. The tobacco companies tend to argue volenti non fit injuria, that injury does not befall a willing person. That key point of the will of a consumer fails when a company fraudulently conceals the danger and prevents the consumer from making informed decisions. So consumers won against cigarette companies on the basis of fradulent deception, not on a theory of strict liability.
By contrast, junk food has labels with ingredients, calorie counts, and serving sizes. You’ll get no argument from me if you dispute the overall effectiveness of serving size and calorie count labels in curtailing overindulgence, but I cannot say that we consumers are fraudulently mislead that a BK triple-stacker with bacon is high in fat and salt or about the ingredients (we are, however, fraudulently mislead that BK triple-stackers with bacon are delicious – they’re really not). As such, I disagree that we will be seeing the same results in fast or junk food litigation than we saw in the tobacco cases, especially when companies are increasingly being required by state or local governments to disclose calorie counts on food.
@Shorneys – nerd 😉