It’s no doubt happened to you.
You head off to a movie, Church, or an evening show of some kind and make your way to your seat. As you settle in, you quickly notice that a person sitting nearby, or worse, right next to you is reeking of cologne, perfume, or some other strong-smelling personal care product.
As much as you want to get away from this overpowering smell, you realize with dismay that you have nowhere to go. All the other seats are filled. Besides, it would be so rude to move!
Your hopes for an enjoyable event are dashed as the synthetic smells you are forced to inhale start to give you a nasty headache or worse, breathing problems.
Even if someone does not have an allergic reaction to synthetic aromas, the assault on one’s nostrils is still avoided by many who seek to limit chemical exposures of all kinds. I myself avoid going near Subway or the bakery of a Walmart, for example, as the fake food aromas wafting forth from the chemical infused bread, cakes and cookies that are baking are absolutely nauseating.
Chemical sensitivity to fragrances used by retailers is fairly common.
Chemical Fragrances to be Used in Food Packaging
Avoiding synthetic smells is about to get a whole lot trickier.
More chemical smells are on the way harnessed via an “invisible technology” which food and beverage companies hope will tantalize your nostrils as you shop, enticing you to buy, buy, BUY!
Steven Landau, Chief Technological Officer for ScentSational Technologies said:
“… the sense of smell has been the most neglected sense in brand marketing strategies. Of the five senses, smell is the most powerful in driving consumer preference, conjuring up memories and creating purchase intent. As a result, our customers [food and beverage companies] have been asking for a low cost technology to deliver aroma from the shelf.”
The fake food aromas are delivered to the potential consumer whenever a product is handled through a coating that adheres to the product packaging.
This patent-pending technology called “Encapscent” is applied as a microencapsulated coating (MEC) to the outside of the food or drug packaging. The custom flavored, FDA approved “food grade” coatings are protected by microscopic cells that are ruptured when the product is touched or picked up. The scent can be released over and over again as millions of these cells are applied to each and every package.
Mr. Landau insists the coating is in compliance with food packaging regulations and is safe for use with beverage, food and pharmaceutical packaging as it does not come into contact with the food or drug itself.
What about a child riding in a grocery cart who picks up a box of cookies, sniffs the box and then sucks his thumb?
Bet that hasn’t been tested, has it? No worries. By the time the general public figures out the likely health hazards from these deliciously aromatic yet completely synthetic coatings, all the people involved in the development of this “invisible technology” will most likely be long gone and relaxing in Dubai, courtesy of a very lucrative and ScentSational IPO.
So now our children are to be guinea pigs not only for the artificial ingredients inside the package but also the artificial flavors engineered for release into the air and no doubt onto your hands via the outside of the package?
It seems that taking your child shopping will be getting a whole lot more dangerous. Looks like it won’t just be the folks in the deli section who are wearing latex gloves.
And, as the lady in the picture is demonstrating, a surgical mask would probably be a good idea too.
Sources
ScentSational packaging coating delivers food or drink aroma
Here is a YouTube video: http://youtu.be/HaHaiOArGYc
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-pact-pepsico-senomyx.html
Another thing they haven’t thought of is the effects it will have on people like myself that will handle these products for hours on end at work! I don’t have problems with synthetic fragrances, but if I did it could make work very miserable. I am sure just smelling it will be an annoyance though.
I was just thinking about this! Too bad workers’ organizations are probably not strong enough to take on such an awful violation of workplace health…
What about what happens to all of us once you buy the package? As you unload your groceries at home, the chemicals will be given off. As you move the package in the cabinet to reach something behind it or beside it, more chemicals will be given off. You discard the packaging into your garbage and each time another piece of garbage lands on it more scent will be given off. Our homes will be filled with these scents.
Wow! and think of the poor grocery clerks and baggers who will be subjected to these mulitple scents all day long at their jobs as they scan and bag our groceries.
Another place I can’t stand going into are the convenience stores at gas stations. If I decide to pay cash I have to go give them my money before pumping the gas, and standing in line is unbearable because of all the scents and all the plastic package offgassing.
Ohhhh very good point made. It’s all so very very sad . But what to do? How far will ‘they’ go ? And what can we as consumers do about this?
Don’t buy their products and buy as much as you can from small businesses that won’t stock their products and local farmers. NOTHING speaks as loudly as a consumers shunning a product line and spending their money elsewhere.
I have been sensitive to smells for a lot of years now …. Just last week my son and family and i walkied into a Home Depot and almost got knocked over by the smell of fertlizer. I actually put my hand over my mouth and nose. That is one smell that really gets to me and my son. And perfumes. So yet another thing on the shelves to get to our senses. And into our bodies. My mom used to say many many years ago ‘it’s all about the almighty dollar’. She was so right and that was like 50 years ago . It truly is all about the money.
The smell of fertilizer is just sickening. I always think of RoundUp in HomeDepot, Menards, and other such stores. I usually comment really loud to my husband that we need some poison for our food…
I honestly didn’t think there were this many people as sensitive to smells as me. I’m kind of happy to read all of this . I cleaned at our church and before i was even done I started feeling really unwell . And then the rest of the day I felt bad. It only took a short while before I realized it was the air freseners and the horrible chemicals they had me use to clean. I didn’t feel good until the next day. I cannot stand toilet bowl cleaner or things like Comet. So i started taking my own white vinegar and baking soda . It wasn’t too long until i noticed the air fresheners were all gone though. So someone must have complained and now I no longer clean that church . But going into someone’s home that burns candles really makes me not feel well .
Actually, the smell of fiberboard was giving me asthma attacks. I didn’t realize it at first.
We had moved into a home with a lack of built in closets, so we went out and bought a ton of fiberboard, but put the pieces here and there, not all in one room. And I started going through a frightful asthmatic period. One day I puledl out a dresser drawer, put on a sweater……and noticed myself seizing up immediately!
We threw out all this noxious stuff………and went to Office Depot to order metal cabinets. I was ordering FIVE at a time, and I said to the saleman, “I bet you’re wondering why I’m ordering so much at a time?” And I went on to tell him my story of an allergic asthma reaction to the fiberboard.
He didn’t take an extra second and said, “We have people like you coming in here all the time ordering metal furnature!”
Not too long ago, I picked up an IKEA catalog………and page after page, NO MENTION of fiberboard being listed as what their furnature is made from. They know the writing is on the wall. I was so miffed, I had to call them…..but no # on their catalog. So I called locally to point it out to the staff………YAWN!
Go and look at your IKEA catalog – if not listing fiberboard is TELLING????
I read somewhere that the glue in fiberboard emits formaldehyde into the air for a LONG time (I think it was years). And that just can’t be good for anybody!
people can’t get away from me fast enough, I reek of patchouli, but at least it is not synthetic.
Tee-Hee!
This is sickening. Once again, we and our children will be exposed to untested chemicals which humans have never been exposed to, so our senses and brains will be tricked into wanting a crap product. This is deception, plain and simple, and should be allowed. Where are the government agencies that are supposed to protect consumers from deception?
My solution is to never touch a food or beverage package, unless it is glass. If the product is so revolting that they have to resort to chemical trickery to get people to buy it, who needs it?
Unfortunately, the plot thickens and is more evil than anyone can imagine. The alliance between Pepsi and Senomyx is only one disgusting example. Senomyx, a company who has decided to use the kidney and liver cells of aborted babies to test flavorings for our food. http://www.pepsico.com/PressRelease/PepsiCo-and-Senomyx-Enter-Into-Collaboration-to-Discover-Develop-and-Commerciali08172010.html
Pepsi has claimed that they have pulled out of this alliance, not because it’s wrong, but because the research was not producing “fruits” fast enough. But Senomyx continues forward with their tests on aborted children for the good of the consumer!
Rosalinda,
I have become increasingly disturbed by this issue. Its hard to sort through all the stuff on the internet. If you have more links I would greatly appreciate it, specifically if there is reference to testing on the cells of aborted babies. I have also heard about fetal tissue and collagen being used in cosmetics….sacrificing babies in the name of VANITY!!!! SICK.
Here is a link with info:
http://www.cogforlife.org/
And this radio interview:
.
If the shows don’t list search “Immunizations & Autism” and “Abortion & Immunizations.”
I don’t know anything about the Legacy Institute, but the doctor interviewed is local to my area, and she is very well respected. Her main focus in the interviews is the correlation between vaxes using aborted fetal cells and the increase in autism but she talks a bit about the flavor enhancers too.
It took them way too long to figure out the scent thing. As we step away from processed foods, I find that it takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish when grocery shopping. That includes walking into the store, picking up butter and produce and then checking out. When we used to eat lots of processed foods it took me over 2 hours to go shopping for the week.
If they start putting scents on the natural skins of fruits and veggies…we’re in trouble.
Instead of “Encapscent” it should be called “Entrapment” 😉
Wow! What will they think of next?! I used to wonder if the physical repulsion I felt when I smelled and ate “fake” foods was all in my head! Since I’ve switched to whole foods I have never felt better and can now easily tell the difference between the good and the bad. You truly are what you eat! News like this is disturbing to me because again it shows that food manufacturers can’t be trusted and that’s truly scary.
theyve thought of everything.every single way on the face of the planet to manipulate every sense and brain function in existence.every psychological trick,every subliminal manipulation,all of it..theyre even drugging the packaging. now…unbelievable.i wish i could say i have now heard it all,but,im sure there will be more to come tomaro,or even tonight.boy,when they said this was the time of great revealing,they were hardly exagerating.and,by the way,i have come to find that if they are releasing information on “new technologies to be used”,it usually means theyve been using them on you for years,without your knowledge or consent.and if they say its safe,you best do the research yourself because those in the know are out for one thing only:profit…at any expense
oh my. 🙁
I am glad you brought this to my attention. I am definitely sensitive to fragrances. I’ve been avoiding synthetic fragrance in personal care products and laundry detergent for 13 or 14 years already. Sadly the more I avoid them the more the world keeps trying to make them unavoidable (and also stronger and stronger smelling).
This is one of the reasons I haven’t been trying as hard to get back to Disney World, which kind of breaks my heart, but when I was there in 2006 they were shooting fragrances at people in rides, in shops, in hotel lobbies… it was just all over the place. My sensitivity isn’t so bad that I couldn’t find a way to enjoy a trip there, but do I really want to have to carry and sometimes where a mask? and seriously, even as our world gets to that extreme, not just any mask works to keep smells out of your nose and mouth; this is no easy quick fix even after you get past the “weird factor”.
I already avoid certain grocery aisles as well as getting anywhere near the front door of certain mall stores. I already have my food sourcing habits moved in a direction that puts a lot fewer of my food dollars into my local grocery store. One more reason to get further in this direction.*shakes head*
Don’t feel too bad about Disney World or Land; I read a very telling book about this industry and they have their own set of deceptive problems.. think the name was “The Mouse Revealed” or something to that effect, but I had already heard some things that would shock a lot of folks. We are living in a “Buyer Beware” culture and even tho I am sad for that, it helps me navigate daily to protect my family. Just tiring…..