Bizarre: Oreo cookies are black thanks to large quantities of environmentally polluting ammonia
We love Oreos. We prefer to eat them straight from the pack, but we also effortlessly tuck into Oreo donuts and muffins and ice cream cake with Oreos. But something very bizarre has now come to light about the famous black cookie with white crème. Cocoa factory Olam has apparently been mixing large quantities of toxic ammonia with ground cocoa beans for years, so that the Oreo cookies become black. WTF…
Even more bizarre: the factory kept this secret from the general public for years, even though the government knew about it.
Annoyance over substantial ammonia emissions
Olam’s ammonia emissions have been causing enormous annoyance among local residents, environmental groups and the government for years. The fact that it now turns out that they had been concealing all this time that they were artificially adding large quantities of ammonia to our favorite cookie naturally makes the situation blow up completely.
Bizarre revelations
So the government knew about all of this. In fact, the environmental agency kept the addition of those tens of thousands of kilos of ammonia hidden at the request of the cocoa factory. On top of that, Olam itself misled local residents, competitors and politicians by providing incorrect information about the cause of the enormous ammonia emissions. It really couldn’t get any crazier…
Reactions from Olam and Mondelez, the Oreo maker
Olam director Eric Nederhand admits that ammonia is mixed with cocoa powders at his factory to adjust the color and flavor of Oreos. But according to him, none or almost none of it remains in the final product—the cookie that we ultimately put in our mouths. Mondelez, the Oreo cookie maker, is aware of the use of ammonia in the cocoa powder they purchase from Olam. You can also see it listed on the packaging of your Oreos: ammonium carbonate.
According to Mondelez too, we have nothing to worry about: using ammonium carbonate does not affect the quality or safety of Oreos. So we can simply continue eating our favorite cookies, but honestly: they do have a slightly strange aftertaste now.
Source: De Telegraaf
