Eric Schlosser is an American journalist known for his investigative journalism. He has written many books like "Fast Food Nation 2001" and "Reefer Madness 2003"
Schlosser´s purpose in listing all the ingredients in a typical artificial strawberry flavor like the kind we find in the fast food industry (McDonald's, Burger King) is to make people especially young adults aware of the cocktail of chemical ingredients contained in the food served at fast food restaurants. They are very harmful to our health. Nevertheless, people continue to consume these products for the simple fact that they taste good. According to Schlosser, we must read the list of ingredients contained in these foods which are detrimental to our health.
Schlosser wants to show readers how we are often unaware of the things we consume. We often think that we have a generally good idea as to the things that we are eating and drinking. However, most of the time we know very little about them unless we read the ingredients list. He lists all the chemical ingredients in a typical artificial strawberry milkshake in order to show us how long the list is, and how little we know about these ingredients. He hopes that this realization will encourage people to be more careful about the things that they consume.
