Every year, Rob makes eggnog. It is an amazing, amazing eggnog. This year, he was checking it as he added ingredients and got a funny look on his face. A moment later, he picked up the carton of half and half he’d just added and the look changed to disbelief.
“The half-and-half is sweetened.”
I had a moment of horror. Had I accidentally purchased a sweetened creamer like hazelnut or something? “Really? What did I buy?”
“Low-fat half & half. It has corn syrup.”
Yep. Corn syrup. That is nowhere on the front of the carton, by the way. Apparently, it has more corn syrup than cream… Note, too, that the list of ingredients has an asterisk next to “artificial color” and “Vitamin A palmitate” to indicate that these are “not in regular half & half.”
I hate to point this out to you, Southern Home, but corn syrup is also not a usual ingredient in half and half. I think that is what really disturbs me about the way this is packaged. Like, they are trying to sell the idea that corn syrup is just a normal thing in dairy products.
Now, I’ll admit that I didn’t check the ingredients when I picked this up. I thought “low-fat” would mean that the milk half was skim not that you had added corn syrup. Of course, if the front of the carton had said, “Low-fat and pre-sweetened!” then that might have occurred to me.
Meanwhile, the eggnog turned out okay, although it did form a weird skin on top, which we think was from the carrageenan. Next year, I’ll know better and will avoid the Southern Home half & half or at least know that I need to read the ingredients…
Yes, that’s the standard way that “low-fat” products are made palatable. I avoid them like the plague.
Just the other day I ran across a low fat variety of a famous pancake syrup, which had “No High Fructose Corn Syrup!” splashed across the front. On the ingredients label, though, the first item was “Corn Syrup”.
That’s just not right.
Why is that not right? Pancake syrup has been mostly corn syrup forever except for people who can afford pure maple syrup.
Because it said that there was “No High Fructose Corn Syrup!” which most people would interpret as meaning that there was no corn syrup in it, even though there was.
“Low-” or “Reduced-” fat products are often not so bad. “Fat-free” alternatives (as opposed to things that are already fat-free, like the “Fat-free Honey” I saw the other day) almost always have nasty stuff in them.
Yeah, it’s not just the Southern Home brand. AFAIK, all “Fat Free” half & half have similar ingredients. It’s false labelling IMO because it’s not really half & half anymore AND it does contain a “trivial” amount of fat.
@Danny Adams, there is a difference between corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup…high fructose corn syrup goes through about a dozen additional processing steps. Regular corn syrup has been a stabilizer in candy making for about a century. HFCS has only really been used in food for about the last 25 years.
I share your ingredient-based horror. In my experience, all “low-fat” processed milk products (as opposed to skim milk and 2%) use gums and other nasty things to make up the difference. Look at the ingredients of “Low-fat sour cream” some time.
This has not been my experience. It might be the difference between organic and… whatever this is.
The corn syrup may be there to add texture, not flavor, if it’s the
second ingredient listed. Especially since the cream “adds a trivial amounf of fat.” What you’re getting is half milk, half syrup, and cream as a flavoring.
Be happy they’re not using that applesauce-based fat substitute that came out a few years ago.
Fat-free usually means “we added sugar”.
Noted. I will say that I thought this was low-fat, not fat-free.
Have to make sure to get the “regular” half&half next time! This is part of why I buy organic milk, cream, eggs, and meat. Otherwise, I have no idea what’s in there…
Me too! We’re visiting family though and I went to the closest store. Will not do that again.
There was a time in American history when it would have been illegal to sell this abomination as a dairy product. Now is not that time, alas.
I guess it was not so much “half and half” as it was “1/3 and 2/9 and 3/18 and… etc”
My favorite flavor of Nantucket Nectar is the lemon-aid/ice tea flavor which is called “Half & Half”. The phrase “Half & Half” does not specify what each half is, just that it is half one thing and half another.
Get the real stuff, that ain’t it. If it has more than milk, cream, and possibly added vitamins, it’s not the actual stuff. Also, there is no regulation of the content of any milk that’s less than whole — it can be reconstituted dried milk, and I think that’s bad for one. My LDL was high until I switched from reduced fat to whole milk. Counterintuitive, no?