What's in that? The frozen dinner

By Dan Ferber, Ph.D.

Freaked out by the weird stuff on the label? So were we.

Take a look at the ingredients list on your average frozen dinner and you're bound to feel like a preschooler in an advanced chemistry class. Why must there be so many bizarre additives in a Salisbury steak? For one, they enable your microwave to transform an icy block into something that looks, smells, and tastes relatively similar to fresh food. Some also ensure that a box of spaghetti and meatballs always tastes the same, whether it was made in Nebraska or North Carolina.

While some ingredients sound scary, they've all been deemed safe to eat by the FDA, says Manfred Kroger, Ph.D., professor emeritus of food science at Penn State. To find out exactly what we're eating, we asked a panel of experts to analyze a typical meal of chicken Parm with a side of broccoli and baked apples for dessert. You'll be as shocked as we were to discover that a few of the items lead double lives--as condom lubricants and explosives.

First, what you can see…

Chicken Breast

Unless the box reads chik'n, rest assured it's a real clucker, one that most likely grew up on a U.S. poultry farm. But that's about all you can know for sure. The chicken probably feasted on conventional grains, and unless the label says otherwise, the bird may have been treated with antibiotics to keep it healthy. The breading and batter contain flour, yeast, and oil--nothing unusual so far. Oleoresin paprika (paprika that's oil-soluble and easily dissolves in sauce) adds flavor and color. And while Grandma's recipe calls for dredging your chicken breast in egg to make the breading stick, the food industry uses guar gum instead. (Eggs can become contaminated easily and are more expensive than guar gum.) Made from the guar bean, a major crop in India and Pakistan, it has thickening properties that also help make paper, oil-drilling fluid, and explosives. Bam!

Pasta and Sauce

Just like most pasta, these noodles are made of semolina flour, water, and egg whites. And the sauce contains the usual: diced tomatoes and ­tomato juice, most likely from Ohio, Indiana, or California, where many tomato-processing companies are located.

Broccoli

The veggie's birthplace varies depending on when and where it's in season, freshest, and cheapest--if it's July, it could be Maine; September, California; December, South America. Immediately after harvest, the produce is blanched and flash-frozen, which preserves nutrients.

Apples

Like broccoli, apples come from wherever they're ripe. Because cooked apples turn a nauseating gray or brown color when frozen, they're treated with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and citric acid (the chemical compound that makes a lemon sour). This prevents the apples from reacting with oxygen so they maintain their golden hue.

And now, what you can't…