# Ingredient lists that don't really tell you much. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771 "2012-08-27T00:27:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/21 "2012-08-28T03:24:31Z")
Can’t they use nitrogen? Spring water sprays do. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/22 "2012-08-28T05:08:57Z")
> [@Michael63129](#): > > Not shampoo, but I have always wondered what is used as the propellant inside of [Airwick air freshener](http://www.airwick.us/instant-sprays-air-freshener.php), which claims to use “fresh air” as a propellant, which is impossible because you can’t [compress air to a liquid](http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/critical-point-d_997.html) at room temperature, or even well below, which is necessary if you want constant pressure with use; CO2 might work, but barely, and needs very high pressure (72.9 atm and 304.2 K / 88 F, which is below the 120 F maximum usually stated on aerosol cans). Nonsense. You don’t to reach the critical point of the propellant, just enough pressure to condense some of the propellant. While performance may not be as wonderful as hydrocarbon or fluorocarbon propellants, high quality cans and fillers like [this](http://www.ranr.co.uk/aerosol-handling/) can produce perfectly respectable aerosols with compressed air alone. The ingredients list for a typical Air Wick aerosol is [here](http://www.rbnainfo.com/productpro/ProductSearch.do?brandId=2&productLineId=707&searchType=PL&template=1), and lists Water, Ethanol, Trideceth-9, Compressed Air, Sodium Borate, Fragrance, and Benzisothiazolinone (a preservative). The MSDS lists 3 - 7% ethanol. **mnemosyne** , you left out cocobetaine! ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/23 "2012-08-28T10:31:14Z")
From some sort of snack (chocolate bar? - I forget) I had in India: Content: 5 % calcium, 95 % other important ingredients ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/24 "2012-08-28T10:39:33Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Natural = biological sources > Artificial = non-biological sources > > Which causes the eco-friendly, organic crowd to say that natural is awesome and artificial is bad, and assume the former means that strawberry flavor made from strawberries, cherry flavor from cherries, and snozzberry flavor for snozzberries. Not always. Bacteria is a biological source. So are the [scrapings of an animal’s anal glands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum#Food_use). There’s also “nature-identical”, which means the flavouring chemical is the same one as that found in natural snozzberry, but it’s been artificially synthesised. This has two benefits: it’s usually cheaper than the natural thing, and it’s also usually purer. Of course, people being people, they think that a molecule of β-snozzolactone extracted from a snozzberry (probably using all manner of solvents etc) is somehow much superior to a molecule of β-snozzolactone produced in the lab, even though they are totally indistinguishable. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/25 "2012-08-28T14:08:13Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > Since you ask, a pH modifier is a strong acid or base to adjust pH, Not necessarily a “strong acid or base”: it’s used to adjust pH but it can be an acid, base or tamponated solution (a solution whose pH will remain stable when mixed with other things, unless you add a real big amount of these other things). A tamponated solution usually contains a salt formed by a weak acid plus a strong base (for example, sodium acetate) or conversely a salt formed by a weak base plus a strong acid (for example, ammonia salts). An acid or base used to adjust pH may be strong or not: ammonia, citric acid and acetic acid are all weak and all commonly used to adjust pH. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/26 "2012-08-28T14:21:18Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Not necessarily a “strong acid or base”: it’s used to adjust pH but it can be an acid, base or tamponated solution (a solution whose pH will remain stable when mixed with other things, unless you add a real big amount of these other things). A tamponated solution usually contains a salt formed by a weak acid plus a strong base (for example, sodium acetate) or conversely a salt formed by a weak base plus a strong acid (for example, ammonia salts). An acid or base used to adjust pH may be strong or not: ammonia, citric acid and acetic acid are all weak and all commonly used to adjust pH. The more usual name in English is a “buffer solution”. “Tamponated solution” sounds much less pleasant. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/27 "2012-08-28T15:33:56Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Foods do this too, by saying “may contain …” and list 2 or 3 different types of oils. My favourite was from an [Eat-More](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat-More) candy bar – “May contain cherries”. The idea that they sometimes toss some cherries into the mix struck me as odd. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/28 "2012-08-28T15:41:29Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My favourite was from an [Eat-More](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat-More) candy bar – “May contain cherries”. The idea that they sometimes toss some cherries into the mix struck me as odd. That sounds more like something to cover their arse over allergies (are people allergic to cherries?) Probably they make some cherry candy on the same production line, so they have to warn people that the occasional rogue remnant of cherry might be found, if they didn’t clean the line properly between batches. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771/29 "2012-08-28T15:48:47Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My favourite was from an [Eat-More](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat-More) candy bar – “May contain cherries”. The idea that they sometimes toss some cherries into the mix struck me as odd. I often see “Made in a factory which processes gluten, peanuts, tree nuts, etc…” even if it doesn’t contain those, as a CYA statement. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ingredient-lists-that-dont-really-tell-you-much/632771.md?page=1)