Gummed Up
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post describes the spectacle of the Sudanese ambassador to the United States holding up a bottle of Coca-Cola to illustrate how dependent the American food industry is on gum arabic.
Alas, the problem with the illustration is that Coca-Cola does not have enough gum arabic in it to list on its ingredient label. (Some descriptions of the natural flavors in Coca-cola describe gum arabic as an emulsifying component therein.)
Of course, showing Mentos and gumdrops at a press conference would look silly. And so would the spectacle of American reporters actually doing research to test the claims mentioned in their reports.
Labels: gum arabic, Stupid reporting tricks, Sudan
