An Unanswered Letter to Thomas English Muffins

Christopher L. Jorgensen
P.O. Box 546
Ames, IA 50010

September 27, 2010

S. B. Thomas
Bimbo Bakeries USA
Consumer Relations Department
P.O. Box 976
Horsham, PA 19044

Dear Thomas English Muffins,

You make a tasty english muffin, but my mother always told me I shouldn’t eat anything I can’t pronounce, which caused me to learn the proper way to say “monosodium glutamate” at an early age. I have to admit I am having difficulty with “azodicarbonamide,” so I decided to look it up in the New Oxford American Dictionary. Guess what? It’s not there! You should write them a letter and get them to put it in.

But guess what? Wikipedia has an entry for “azodicarbonamide,” but they say all kinds of bad things about it. It causes asthma, people can be allergic to it, azodicarbonamide (however you say it) worsens existing allergies, and it’s banned in a bunch of countries. The cool thing about wikis though is you can change them! You should have someone log in and change all the above to read “is used to make things taste yummy!”

Azodicarbonamide is used to make plastics, faux leather, and styrofoam! I don’t want that in my food. This seems as bad melamine!

I am left with a few questions:

1. How do you pronounce azodicarbonamide?
2. Why do you cook with it?
3. Can you stop putting it in your whole wheat english muffins?

I’m trying to eat a bit healthier and this is confusing me. I wouldn’t care so much if you wanted to put it in the plain ones (as long as you take it out of the wheat ones).

Sincerely,

Christopher L. Jorgensen