Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Beets.

; )

head cheese. that ain't cheese, people!!

Nabisco soft batch cookies (they have latex in them), Oreos, Fig Newtons, fish sticks, frozen pizza, frozen totinos, Hagen-Das ice cream, margarine, saccharin, ninety-percent of the sliced bread sold in stores, soda water, most boxed mixes, tilapia (double blech), pre-cut and frozen fries, tater-tots, canned hash, Vienna sausage, canned pork & beans, most canned soups, canned stock, spam and cheap cold cuts.

I stopped because the list was getting too long. I dislike this stuff mostly because it lacks flavor, has a bad flavor or is a complete waste of money. What freaks me out about is that people are stupid enough to buy it.

Lipton Sidekicks scare the shit out of me. Their smell makes me nauseous. Also, mock chicken meat loaf has to be the most offensive deli meat known to man.

@ meat guy, people do to. double gross.

Pre-packaged cheese singles; Huitlacoche (moldy fungus-infected corn); Spam; Canned Chicken; Canned Shrimp; Fake-meat products (like fakon, "meat" crumbles, etc)...the list goes on.
Most of this stuff freaks me out b/c it's processed beyond belief. The Huitlacoche..I just want to know who the hell was hungry enough to eat THAT? haha

Artificial sweeteners and artificial fats. If it was created in a lab, I don't want to eat it. If it was naturally created and then modified in a lab (like hydrogenated oils), I'll avoid eating it. If it's all natural but from a creepy plant, animal, yeast, or bacteria, it's not nearly as spooky.

Any ingredient that doesn't occur in its form in nature, that is packaged to be sold as food. Especially any ingredient that makes you feel weird after, ie, MSG or aspartame.

Sugarfree candy. Some of you may know what I mean.

Kids foods that are neon colors.

Fast food.

Sunny Delight.

Canned/jarred gravy.

Those damn PBJ pockets. It's been bothering me for days.

Yeeeech.

Truthfully, I think some genetically modified food will be necessary as a way of guarding against world hunger and food shortages, to ensure better disease resistance and durability. It doesn't freak me out.

@Grumpy--I don't eat that stuff anymore, but I would be lying if I said Oreos 'freaked me out' @beth1--I love smacking those exploding cans, even though I don't eat biscuits from a can either.

However, the words : "anal seepage" on olestra-based products and the words "excessive consumption can cause a laxative effect" on sugar free candy do freak me out. Any products with words about a room in the house other than the kitchen are a no-no in my grocery cart.

I'm not easily scared by food, but a dessert made with fat free Cool Whip (served by my friend) freaked me out a bit. I ate it, though.

In defense of GMOs, I'd rather have my vegetable defend itself than spraying chemical pesticide or the "natural" insect-killing bacteria that is super closely related to Bacillus anthracis. Yep, the one that makes anthrax toxin, and the toxin proteins are not even encoded in its genomic DNA- it's on a mobile piece of DNA and Bacillus species are super competent (meaning they take up DNA from outside very easily). I think the B. thuringiensis powder is sold as an "organic" pesticide, ironically.

Miracle Whip freaks me out.

On the topic of GM foods, in theory I think they could be really great (i.e. provide more nutrients, disease resistance, etc). However in reality, the most common application of genetic engineering to foods is in Monsanto's "Round-ready" crops. Basically what they do is engineer the food to be resistant to pesticides so the farmer can blanket their entire farm with chemicals instead of just spraying the areas where there is a problem. Of course the same company (Monsanto) sells the Roundup-ready seeds and the pesticide sprays. Pretty much all the conventional corn, soybeans, and sugar beets in the US are grown this way. Sick.

Forgot -- also can't understand Jello molds made with fruit or other foods, or aspic. My in-laws make chicken aspic for major holidays, and, just ewwww. I can't even bring myself to taste it.

ohh i know. that 'browning liquid' for roux cheaters. my stepdad, who died a few weeks ago, and I had many, many arguments about this. as coasties, to me its use in gumbo was wayyy unacceptable. ( i dont care if it's concentrated food color)

anything blue.

i kid you not, i have not eaten anything blue since like 7th grade. It all started with blue M&M's. The color just wireds me out for some reason

Unless you are talking Andrew Zimmern territory absolutely nothing freaks me out.

Anyone else remember the green ketchup Heinz came out with a few years back? I just wouldn't put it in my mouth, it freaked me out too much. Hot Pockets kind of bother me too.

I am like @finsbigfan in that not much freaks me out. I grew up without a lot and my parents fried Spam and Vienna sausages with vinegar and onions were a treat. We couldn't wait until our friends parents would butcher the hogs so we could have fresh scrapple/maple syrup. Now mind you I would not eat this now since I know how bad all of this is for you, but then it was sustenance. A pile of tomatoes was fried tomato gravy and I can still hear the sizzle when my mom made the meal that I thought was heaven. Because of our poverty there was no money for canned soup or Fruit Loops. I never developed a taste for fast food and I will never like Wonder Bread.

When I married I had never had a filet mignon and thought it was a pot roast. Glad my MIL saved that meal. My husband balked when I bought parsnips home-his privileged life left him too well fed and with a dearth of food experiences. Persimmon pudding rules in the south! He never knew.

I think you are all on the right track regarding processed food, but I wonder if some of you might starve during a famine. I can't wait to find out what meat glue is @bess four. I am amazed at what I discover on this site!!

Mayo.

So wrong on so many levels.

Never walk off into a dark place without your lantern. You will almost certainly be attacked by a slavering meat grue.

Anything modified from its most traditional form freaks me out...spray cheese, Splenda, and powdered egg whites, for a start. I think the fact that people are getting more obese and getting cancer more and more should be a wake up call to America to go back to eating pure food. In my mother's generation (1940's and 50's) they ate three square meals a day and drank whole milk and nobody weighed 400 pounds. I think the difference is mostly in the quality of food.

Spray cheese.

Not to stick up for Monsanto or anything but the purpose of Roundup resistant crops is to make them resistant to Roundup, which is an herbicide, not a pesticide. That way farmers can control weeds with roundup, which is probably less toxic than lots of other things they could use.

@RegrettableFoodie- whoops you are right, it is an herbicide. Still not a fan though. especially since it rips off struggling small farmers who now have to buy enough Roundup to spray their entire farm instead of doing spot applications where there is a weed problem.

lol
@fuuchan, it's a miracle people eat it!!!!

Food doesn't freak me out, its the people that eat the things that makes me want to go apeshit. I saw a product in a Kroger that was a self-stable bagged waffle that claimed it was ready because you don't add syrup. It looks like food, feels like food(kinda), maybe tastes like food, but don't forget that you can buy toilet cleaner, dog collars and tampons in a Supermarket--just being there doesn't make it food!