advertising household poisons

From the latest on the poisoned pet food, we have the quote of the day:

The recall of wet and dry pet foods contaminated with a chemical found in plastics and pesticides expanded Saturday to include a new brand even as investigators were puzzled by why the substance would kill dogs and cats.

What did they think happens when you eat a pesticide and plastics component? That you get chemical sensitivities?

And, apropos of nothing in that quote, why are we importing wheat products from China? We can't make our own wheat now?

Anyway, still generally on the topic of better living through chemistry, I saw some ads this morning while watching Animal Planet. Apparently Animal Planet viewers are perceived as having smell issues, so I learned that Lysol thinks its 'sanitizer' thingy is better than Oust and that Glade and that other one I can't remember the name of looked pretty interchangeable. And everybody needs some Velveeta, which I finally had to look up.

Velveeta is made of cheese parts, water, something extracted from seaweed, assorted colors, and:

• sodium phosphate, which Wikipedia says is the same as TSP, everybody's favorite phosphorus-containing cleaner and degreaser, and drugs.com says is good for enemas,
• sodium citrate, which Wikipedia says is also an anticoagulant, and
• benzoate, so you won't decompose when you die*.

So what I learned here is that science fiction food has been around for a while now - you can make something that looks kinda like cheese out of seaweed.


* Ingredient list for entertainment purposes only; not meant to imply that Velveeta will be the cause of death**.
** Cause of death will likely be prescription drugs advertised on tv.