The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago recently released a new game designed to promote awareness of the ingredients in common foods. Would You Eat That? presents a food and a list of ten ingredients that you might not expect to find in that food. To play the game you have to correctly identify which four of those ten ingredients is in your food. When I tried the game with a packet of hot cocoa and a bag of dog food, I was surprised at a couple of the ingredients.

Applications for Education
Playing Would You Eat That? brought to mind Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. While the ingredients in the foods in Would You Eat That? aren’t as disturbing as what Sinclair discovered, there are still some surprises. Playing the game could teach students about ingredients and what function they perform in creating a tasty food.

And click here if you would like a digital copy of The Jungle as well as one of Sinclair’s letters to President Theodore Roosevelt.