Jollibee refuses to release their Ingredients List
Have you heard of Jollibee? It’s a popular Filipino fast food restaurant in the California bay area and many other locations around the globe. When I first ran across one of these restaurants I actually thought it was a joke. The mascot is a giant cartoonish looking bee, something you would imagine a trendy Japanese teen hanging out at (bring your Hello Kitty purse and DOMO backpack).
Jollibee Yum! Burger
Just peering in through the window I could see the food on the menu, Jollibee Yum Burger, Jollibee ChickenJoy, Jollibee Spaghetti, BurgerSteak with Rice, JollyHotdog, Macaroni & Cheese Soup and Tuna Pie, yes, seriously, you read that right TUNA PIE!
To me, none of the food looks appealing in any way what-so-ever. When watching people actually eating this stuff, it looks like it’s microwaved GMO plastic food with likely tons of MSG to doll it up taste-wise just as one would put lipstick and a skirt on a pig. Now I didn’t want to immediately start ripping on this place until I had proof of MSG but I needed to do some investigating regardless.
A while back I wrote Jollibee to see if I could get a copy of their ingredients list for their menu items (you know how I do). The following is the email exchange:
Hi Jollibee,
Hi, I was looking around and I can’t find any nutrition facts for your food on your website. Do you have nutrition facts and an ingredients list available? Thank you.
-Mike
Response:
Dear Mike,
I would like to acknowledge your e-mail dated December 7. Thank you for taking the time to write to Jollibee.
Jollibee Tuna Pie
In response to your query, we regret to inform you that we do not have the data of nutritional content of each product that Jollibee has. But rest assured that we serve the highest quality products that provide basic nutritional value through a variety of food choices depending on customer needs.
Nevertheless, I have forwarded your concerns to our Research and Development Department.
Hope I was able to address your needs. Again, thank you for keeping Jollibee in mind.
Best regards,
Kathy Manganti
Customer Care
My response:
Hi Kathy,
Thank you for the prompt reply. Could you at least tell me if there is MSG (monosodium glutamate) in any of your products? Thank you.
-Mike
No reply back to date.
2 weeks later I write another email to Jollibee:
Hi Jollibee,
I wrote back on December 9th inquiring if your food contains monosodium glutamate (MSG) but I haven’t received a reply regarding this issue. I understand you don’t release your nutrition or ingredient facts, that’s okay, but as a person that has a sensitivity for MSG I really need to know if you add it to your food. If you could please reply back it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
-Mike
It’s been 6 months and I’ve never received a response back other than their initial blanket statement of just “trust us” we use the highest quality of ingredients, oh but don’t ask us about MSG, we won’t answer questions on that.
If a company didn’t use MSG and added glutamates in their food they should have no problem at all clearly stating so. At the very least they could release their ingredient list so that their patrons could know what in the hell they are eating. In my opinion, this practice doesn’t sound very honest to me. We are living in an increasingly health conscious world so it’s natural that folks are going to ask “what’s in your food, dude?”
In my opinion, I can speculate that there are several things that will most definitely contain MSG: Gravy/Mushroom Sauce, the crispy coating on the Chicken, the meat on the burgers, virtually any sauce they use and possibly the tuna pie (can we say yuck?). And you can be assured that just about everything is going to be genetically modified with gobs of preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial colors/flavors, thickeners (probably Carrageenan) and other assorted hydrogenated oils/trans fats etc. Who wants to eat all of that garbage anyways? This is fast food!
This of course is all my own speculation based on my research and experience with MSG. But believe me, I’m right.
And to throw another bit to your speculation: I was living in a really small rural town a short while ago (population: 12000, including the pop. of 3 prisons) where people trust each other, don’t really lock their doors, and the worst crimes you see in the paper is domestic disturbances and petty thefts (who wants to rob a house when you know they all have guns and have been hunting since 7yrs old). Anyway, the people of the town know & trust each other. 3 Chinese restaurants, all who cook and prepare food where you can watch. And ALL 3 had bowls, bigger than my head, FULL of RAW MSG to cook with! That’s right, you can watch your food be contaminated right before your eyes, isn’t that sweet! Every single one, when asked, said that they only used a SPRINKLE of MSG for Flavor Enhancement. But, if you just sit & watch them, they’ll throw HANDFULLS of that shit on everything. HANDFULLS!! It’s really a staple for that kind of restaurant, unfortunately. Good part, I could request none, and they would use none. But, can you say in any larger town you’ll get the same treatment? Chances are they’d tell you to bite their chopstick! Chinese restaurants, especially chains, just use it, ALOT! It enhances flavor, & addicts consumers, so, why wouldn’t they? Yum Yum Dim Sum!!
Blog entries like these are horrible. Do you have any evidence that Jollibee uses MSG in their products at all? You’re incriminating this corporation using mere speculation. I’ve never actually seen a Jollibee in real life nor have I heard of it until reading this, but the basis you’re providing for these claims is ridiculous. You literally want people to “believe you, you’re right”?
MSG was ban in Canada maybe 25 years ago …so easy a solution when you care about people. Profit can be made on quality food.
@AnonymPK
Hi, they’ve shown they are capable of replying to a previous inquiry. However, once a question about MSG was asked, they did not respond. That’s pretty solid circumstantial evidence to me, and as such I’d conclude “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Jollibee does use MSG.
we need to know the nutritional facts of all jollibee foods in the philippines