Random Funky Food Facts We Never Needed To Know (12 items)

(#9) Gummy bear
- Dish
The gelatin used in Jell-O, gummy candies, marshmallows, and any other comparable food usually derives from animal products - specifically the collagen found in the flesh and bones of pigs.
When pigs and the like are slaughtered for meat, the remnants of their bodies are boiled and broken down into a gelatinous substance. This is then flavored, colored, and mixed with sugar, corn starch, and other ingredients to make sweets in various shapes, sizes, and forms.
Non-animal gelatin does exist and derives from vegetable gums and seaweed extract.
In another gummy bear-related revelation, fans of Haribo Goldbears learned that the green bears were strawberry flavored. Contrary to the (intuitive) belief that green would indicate apple, watermelon, or even lime, Haribo flavors the green gummy strawberry. The red ones, on the other hand, are raspberry flavored.
It's unclear if this is only the case in the US but, in the words of one gummy bear eater, “Everything I know is a lie.”
(#7) Peanut butter
- Food
In its guidelines about food defects, the US Food & Drug Administration states that peanut butter can have 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams. Additionally, one rodent hair is acceptable per 100 grams of peanut butter.

A 12-ounce jar is about 340 grams, meaning it can contain as many as three rodent hairs. Purchasing a 40-ounce jar would get you more than 1,100 grams of peanut butter, enough to mix in 11 acceptable rodent hairs.
(#5) Raisins
- Company
It's pretty common knowledge that a raisin is just a dried grape, but exactly how that grape is dried varies. In some instances, it's sun-drying, although the process can be lengthy. Artificial light and added heat often supplement the sun and expedite the drying.

Putting grapes out to dry attracts insects and leaves the fruit exposed to dirt, sand, and other particulates. To combat bugs, many companies use pesticides, but they don't always dissipate or get washed off during processing. According to a report from the US Department of Agriculture in 2020, 99% of raisins sampled and tested were contaminated with two or more pesticides.
(#12) Pringles Ff, Sour Cream And Onion
- Food
Pringles look like potato chips, they smell like potato chips, and even taste like potato chips - but technically, they're not actually chips.

Their recipe includes "dehydrated processed potato" alongside corn, rice, and wheat - with different flavors and products featuring additional additives. Because Pringles seem to lack real potato, the FDA determined in 1975:

Pringle's‐like chips made from dehydrated potatoes must be identified as “potato chips made from dried potatoes” in lettering on the label “not less than one‐half the size of the largest type in which the words ‘potato chips’ appear.”

Pringles don't claim to be potato chips, and argued before a court in 2008 that their "unnatural shape" and unique blend of ingredients weren't found in nature. This was an attempt to escape the value-added tax on food products sold in the UK. At first, the snacks were excluded from the tax, but in 2009, an appeals court decided Pringles were subject to VAT.
(#2) Ranch dressing
- Food
Ranch dressing is popular on salads, buffalo wings, French fries, and numerous other foods. The ingredient that makes ranch dressing white is titanium dioxide, which can also give skin products their white appearance, especially sunscreens. Titanium oxide was first used for white coloring in 1923 and has found use in paint, ceramics, textiles, and personal care products.

While considered to be safe in the US, companies like Dunkin' Donuts took titanium oxide out of their products in 2015. In May 2020, the European Food Safety Authority decided titanium dioxide was no longer safe as a food additive.
(#3) Bananas
- Film (1971)
Many foods are radioactive, but bananas are high on the list due to their abundance of potassium. Bananas contain the radioactive isotope potassium-40, but according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the radiation level is minimal, and it would take an exorbitant number of bananas to cause any harm.

Exposure to radiation is measured in sieverts (Sv), but the presence of radioactive isotopes in bananas has resulted in an informal way to note radiation exposure - the Banana Equivalent Dose. One BED is what you'd take in after eating one banana.

Brazil nuts, butter beans, avocados, and potatoes all fall into the top 10 most naturally radioactive foods.