Sir, – Rose Costello states that the list of ingredients in McVities Milk Chocolate and similar "digestive" biscuits from other brands is "off-putting" ("What's really in your chocolate digestive biscuit?", Health + Family, June 12th).
What I find off-putting is the implication that manufacturers are adding unnecessary substances to our food. Each and every ingredient represents a cost to the manufacturer and are added for a specific purpose. The fact that shea is used as a skin moisturiser, or that whey used to be a waste product, or that land is cleared to grow oil palm trees (and presumably give employment) is of little importance, as it is economics that determines how and where foodstuffs are produced.
If the “natural flavouring” component is a mystery, then so be it. I am still happy to eat these biscuits! – Yours, etc,
GEORGE REYNOLDS,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.