I love tabasco sauce. I use it a great deal. Yummy stuff!
But what’s this…I recently got a new bottle of the stuff, and noticed this on the box:
:eek:
What the…??? Why in the world is there an FDA message on a package of Tabasco sauce? Is there some “dark health risk secret” I should know about Tabasco?
More than one teaspoon will burn a hole in your tie.
The FDA requires the maker to put the nutritional information on the side of the bottle. The data is per “serving”. Because of various manufacturers creating nonsensical serving sizes (2 & 3/8 servings in a can of Diet Coke?) the FDA put its foot down and restricted the different serving sizes a given food could have, based upon the food, what size container it’s in, etc. They tried to make the serving sizes sane, but, I guess, in this instance, they hadn’t really thought about Tabasco sauce.
Write your Congressman! 
Oh great, I use at least 10 drops of the stuff on everything I eat, now what?
Your answer seems reasonibly logical. Thanks…
OTOH I still cannot help but feel the message on the box has a “sinister silent undertone” to it’s wording. Yeah, sure call me paranoid, but it just seems so “out of the ordinary” to see that printed there in such a manner.
Wait a second… I think I figured it out… [Charlton Heston] Tabasco sauce is peeeeeeople!!! [/Charlton Heston]:eek:
I like the warnings on Everclear.
And those are…?
My Tabasco Habenero (from the UK, no less, but made in the US) says the same thing. I’m sure it’s just their standard analysis size, as few could take a teaspoon of that.
[sub]Although, I could…[/sub]
Do not use near open flame. Do not smoke near this product. And for god’s sake, don’t drink it.
That’s if they’re anything like the 151 rum bottles I buy…
Here’s a fun factoid to share at the office today.
http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/cap_od7.html
To address the OP, my guess is going to be:
Tabasco sauce used to be a relatively obscure condiment, but over the last few years I’ve noticed that more and more of those Parade magazine chefs are using it in recipes, especially calling for a “dash” of Tabasco in tomato sauce recipes. So I think it’s getting more mainstream, but the trouble is that Mr. and Mrs. Whitebread America think you use it like soy sauce, in liberal dollops, instead of by the drop. They aren’t helped by seeing recipes like Tabasco Sorbet included on the menus of hotsy-totsy restaurants like this–
http://www.toprestaurants.com/van/Bishop.htm
“Hey, it’s an ice cream flavor!” say Mr. and Mrs. Whitebread America. So they interpret the “dash of Tabasco” called for in a recipe as “a nice big spoonful”, put in way too much, burn their mouths, hate the recipe, swear never to buy Tabasco sauce again, and write nasty letters to the McIlhennys, who respond by clarifying things for these missing-sandwich-picnic people, right on the label.
And because the McIlhennys know exactly who and what they’re dealing with, they invoke the holy name of the Food and Drug AdMINisTRAtion right up front there, so as to better attract the monkeys’ attention to the actual information, which is, “No-no, Cheetah–only a drop.”
I hope misterandmizzwhitbreadamerica are not quite so stupid but I fear they may be. God bless the FDA. Reminds me of the phrase “an overdose of heroin.” Does that imply there is a correct dose? 
Well, an overdose of heroin would be one that poses immediate and acute health risks. I don’t see how its an oxymoron; overdose not need refer to safe and legal drugs.
Also, Tabasco isn’t THAT hot…you can pretty much slather it on stuff like eggs and in soup without too much worry. Plus, the flavor’s great, which is the problem with many of the idiotic sauces which compete in number of Scoville units.
Random interesting information from http://www.tabasco.com:
How many drops are in a bottle of TABASCO® Sauce?
Each 2-ounce bottle of TABASCO® Sauce
contains at least 720 drops. (There are 60
drops per teaspoon; 3 teaspoons per
tablespoon; 2 tablespoons per fluid ounce
and 2 fluid ounces per bottle).