Imitation crab meat – scary!

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I noticed my son’s cheeks were red when he got home from Whole Foods, but I hoped it was just from being in a warm car. He announced that he got sushi with shrimp in it, but when I checked the remaining rolls, the innards looked like fake crab meat to me. Drat, the label was torn off!

My husband confirmed a few minutes later that he’d purchased a standard California roll, something I never get (and with white rice, no less!) I thought I had explained to him that fake crab meat has wheat in it (not to mention the fact that it’s a processed food!)

But I couldn’t recall where I’d read that, so I went on a search and came up with some information that makes me even more committed to staying away from this manufactured “food,” which is essentially pollock or some other fish with a bunch of ingredients you don’t want in your body having gone through an intense process. I couldn’t find the ingredients on the Whole Foods website, but you’ll get the picture from the links below.

After my son went to bed, I replaced the “crab” with some real shrimp we had in the freezer so he could have the rest of his sushi for lunch the next day. Let’s hope red cheeks were the worst of the effects on his body.

At Gluten-Free Living , imitation crab meat is listed simply under the “NO” heading.

Yahoo! answers says that “Sugar, sorbitol, wheat or tapioca starch, egg whites, and vegetable or soybean oil” are added to help with the form of the product.

There is a whole lot of scary information about the process at Gale-Edit, where it is said “starch, salt, natural crab meat, egg white, and flavors” help form the paste, and Wikipedia describes the process of making this meat paste called surimi without mention of wheat, but the other details are gross enough.

There is a discussion board at Celiac.com that links to another page with two gluten-free products, but I’ll take a real fish any day!