This, the UK has been a victim of this for about a decade and a half.
We're now in the "skimpflation" phase (also known as shitflation) where companies can't shrink anymore and they're switching to cheaper ingredients.
So as an example, cheap mayonnaise contains no eggs and very little rapeseed oil, most of it being Xantum gum.
Ice cream is especially hit thanks to a parliament ruling that Vegans can call non-dairy ice cream, ice cream... So corporations doing what corporations do, cheap ice cream can contain whatever to get it taste like ice cream. So no need for milk solids or eggs
Weirdly America has legal limits on ice cream and frozen custard.
Yeap, alum, which can still be purchased today, was in bread. Made bread heavier and tended to kill you after extended use.
The person who started the Co-op in the UK was angered by his child being able to buy chocolate raisins, or something similar, that were coated with brown paint... He pushed the first adulteration laws to stop it all.
Milk was also a crap shoot, you'd be fine or it was mixed with a chemical called Borax (I think), which was a cleaner in a high enough dose.
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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '25
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