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QDear 100 Hour Board, Lately some of my close friends have been drinking Slim Fast as an on campus snack. Their logic is sound (it's filling, nutritious, tasty, not a hassle to warm up or carry around, etc). However, since we're males, we have been crushing these Slim Fast cans. After several crushing competitions (none of which I won) we began wondering why the cans are as thick as they are. Is Slim Fast extra corrosive so as to need a thicker can? Does the Slim Fast Company believe it's target audience to be more careless or aggressive toward their product? Etc? - Hodag P.S. I will understand if HFAC isn't allowed to go MythBusters on a Slim Fast can to see what it takes to blow one up. ADear Hodag, Let's review what we already know and what we have been able to find out: Firstly, Slim Fast comes in thick steel cans, much heavier and denser than typical aluminum soda cans. Secondly, a Hodag is a mythical creature from Wisconsin that according to some is the soul of an ox (possibly Paul Bunyon's blue ox, Babe) which rose from the ashes of the cremated animal and began exuding a foul odor. Thirdly, Slim Fast cans are (or at one point were) primarily manufactured in Huntingdon, Tennessee, population 4,349, a city which has three banks and an average household size of 2.3 people. Second to lastly, in 2000, Slim Fast voluntarily recalled almost 200,000 cans of Slim Fast shakes due to possible contamination with a mildly infectious gastrointestinal bacteria. This preemptive recall was due to a "manufacturing error" (which indicates not an existing contamination of the Slim Fast food product, but rather potential contamination from a flaw of some kind in the Slim Fast, steel can packaging). Lastly, it is a good thing that BYU vending services only sells the milk chocolate flavor of Slim Fast because all other flavors (French vanilla, strawberry cream . . . ok, at least those two) taste horrible, like the foul odor of the soul of a dead ox. While I wasn't able to find any official statement as to exactly why Slim Fast comes in thick steel cans, I think it's safe to surmise that it is a question of avoiding contamination of the skim-milk based product inside. Other milk products (sweetened condensed milk, for example) comes in sealed and treated steel cans, so it makes sense that Slim Fast, which can be stored for relatively long periods of time, should be packaged in a similar way. - Rating Pending (who couldn't find a way to mention that the Hodag is also the mascot of the fine University of Wisconsin-Madison men's Ultimate team, which won its first national championship in 2003. Go fightin' Hodags!) ADear Hodag, Another possibility is that they are made outside of the United States. Appearently in some countries up to 90% of beverage cans are made of steel, whereas according to Wikipedia (they have a reference for it, but Í’ll leave looking that up as an exercise for the reader) all bevereage containers made in the USA are made of aluminium. The way in its passage through the mouth is without flavor. It cannot be seen, It cannot be heard, Yet it cannot be exhausted by use. (XXXV, 7-10) -Tao Back |
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