UNTIL the great cyclamate furor bubbled over this fall, few Americans paid much heed to the minute lettering on their cakes and candy bars, diet drinks and instant dinners. Even a magnifying glass was little help in explaining those obscure polysyllables: propylene glycol, calcium silicate, butylated hydroxyanisole, sorbitan monostearate, methylparaben. Today, the portmanteau word for such substances is "additives"—which translates into myriad chemicals that have made even bread a laboratory product and the cheese spread to put on it a test-tube concoction.
For many reasons, laboratory technicians and manufacturers have had to...
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