The recent horsemeat scandal confirms we don’t always know what’s in our food. But no matter how many labels we read, we could be consuming things we didn’t even know.

According to the Food Standards Agency, seahorse was found in Findus’s fish fingers, three months ago. Yuck! But for Gurdeep Hundal, the frightening exposure is what companies are intentionally putting into our diet.

Here’s 10 revolting things you didn’t even know, you were consuming.

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1. Hairs in your bread

Fancy a slice of toast? Well, you might want to check the label first. Chances are you might be eating hairy bread. Yuck!

Many commercial breads use L-Cysteine, an amino acid made from human hair to soften bread. It’s found in pizza dough, bread rolls and pastries. McDonalds and Burger King too, all use this as an additive.

Other sources of L-cysteine include chicken feathers, cow horns, and petroleum byproducts.

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2. Antibiotics in your Poultry

Bad news for chicken lovers: your bird may be sicker than you are. Chickens are stuffed with over-the-counter antibiotics, which is ka ka crazy!

Just like humans, chickens suffer with sneezing, coughing, running noses, and diarrhoea. Farmers use cheap medicines to control this.

If you’re looking for a healthier option, go organic.

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3. Ice-Cream: Anal Glands of Beaver 

The next time you put vanilla, strawberry or raspberry ice cream in your mouth, think of anal glands. Yes, anal glands of a beaver.

This delicious treat is enhanced by castoreum, which comes from the caster sacs of male and female beavers. Yum!

It’s been approved by The FDA and is categorized under ‘natural flavouring.’

It’s also found in perfume!

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4. Sugar: Bone Char

Lovers of refined sugar, beware. Nearly every grain of sugar you sip away – may be filtered through animal bone charcoal.

Most manufacturers in the UK are free of animal substances. But Silver Spoon can’t guarantee their brown sugars are – since their suppliers might be using some charcoal.

Other uses of bone char include removing fluoride from water and aquarium tanks.

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5. Sawdust in your Shredded Cheese 

Love your shredded cheese? Well, this might put you off. These pre-packaged clumps contain cellulose, another term for sawdust! Yuck!

Cellulose is listed as a fibrous plant material made from wood pulp. It’s cheap. It helps to stabilize food and lowers fat content. Feast your eyes on that.

Time to grate your own cheese? I agree.

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6. Fish bladders in your beer

Before you drink a pint of beer, you might want to learn what’s in your glass. Chances are you might be drinking fishy beer! Blergh!

Many beer companies use Isinglass, a form of collagen culled from a fish’s swim bladder. It’s used to remove unwanted leftovers from the brewing process. Poor Nemo!

All you vegetarians or vegans out there – you might want to skip Guinness or any type of beer, completely.

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7. Wood Pulp in your Cereal

Cereal addicts. You might want to skip this one. For every spoon of fibre you ate this morning, you were also eating wood pulp! Yummy!

Cellulose is fibrous and appears in many health snacks and cereal bars. Stay clear from cereals containing microcrystalline cellulose (MMC) and gum, and carboxymethyl cellulose.

It’s also found in salad dressings and ice cream – to thicken them up.  

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 8. Candy Bugs

Love your hard candy? Me too. Did you know that your favourite candy is made from bug secretions? Yes, that’s right. You’re licking beetle juice called Shellac. Yuck!

Shellac is a shiny coating used in sprinkles and candies. It’s found in jelly beans, skittles and starbursts, and it’s difficult to remove, so you’ll need to scrub it.

It can be found in pill coatings, coffee beans, and waxy sheens on fruits and vegetables. 

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9. Carton juice: it’s not fresh

Drinking some juice right now? Spit it out. It’s not fresh. It’s not 100% orange juice either. Baffled? I would be. Surely, making orange juice should be simple – wrong!

For manufacturers, once the oranges are squeezed – the juice is stored in gigantic tanks to remove the oxygen. This allows the liquid to be used up to a year – but then the juice is stripped off all its flavouring.

Fragrance companies are then engineered to bring the flavours back into the juice – making it taste fresh. Yuck!

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10. Sheep Oil in your Gum

Hate to burst your bubble, but you’re probably chewing sheep oil. Yes, sheep oil.

These packets contain lanolin, a softener for chewing gum. Bahaha!

Lanolin – is a goopy, oily secretion found in sheep’s wool. Manufacturers don’t have to expand on the ingredient list beyond that.

It’s also found in cosmetics, sunscreen, hair and baby products.