The word clean, as in clean food, has taken on a whole new life as a buzzword describing food free of artificial ingredients, preservatives, or added color. A restaurant chain now boasts clean sandwiches, and the topic is now covered by the magazine Clean Eating. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Clean Food Buzzword”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. In a sandwich shop the other day, I saw a menu that made me do a double take. Right at the top in great big letters, it said, clean sandwiches. What does that mean?
That’s what I was thinking. And what have I been eating everywhere else?
I know, right? Did they finally start washing the lettuce? I don’t get it.
I kind of like the slugs in my lettuce, but okay.
A little extra protein, right?
Yeah, I couldn’t figure it out.
I mean, it really made me think.
And I was thinking, well, maybe a clean sandwich is a sandwich that doesn’t have mayo or mustard.
Oh, okay. Sure, I could see that, right?
It’s kind of like jargon that we weren’t aware of about food prep.
Right, but it’s different jargon.
Is it the name of the family that owns the place, the Cleans?
Mr. Clean?
Mr. Clean.
No, no, clean is now a buzzword in the food industry.
And clean refers to food that has no flavors, colors, or sweeteners, or preservatives that are artificial.
Okay.
This actually is being used more and more.
There’s a magazine called Clean Eating.
And I swear that this menu said clean sandwiches.
And you’re just supposed to know.
Yeah.
If you’re one of their people, then you know what you’re getting.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I read a whole article about how this is proliferating.
And it seems to me that, you know, remember the discussion that we’ve had about what’s natural?
What food is natural, I would expect that eventually this word is going to get so diluted.
We’re going to have to wonder what clean really means.
Yeah.
I mean, ordering clean pizza.
I washed the knife.
Right.
Right.
But all these companies now are lining up to produce clean food.
I mean, in a few years, we’re going to be able to eat clean Pop-Tarts.
Kellogg’s has lined up to make clean food.
Okay.
Yeah.
So keep an eye out for the word clean.
Isn’t that weird?
It is weird.
You know, it’s not as weird as the sub sandwich shop that’s near San Diego State University where all the food is named after marijuana varieties.
Oh, really?
So you can get a kush and, yeah, it’s crazy and things are dank.
You can get a clean kush now, right?
You can get a clean kush, I guess, right?
A clean Colombian kush?
I don’t have any idea.
But keep an ear out and an eye out.
Okay, clean food.
Yeah.
That sounds like a good idea.
I’m not sure I’m 100% behind the jargon, but.
Yeah, I don’t know.
I think it’s like the word green or clean.
I mean, we’ve had clean energy for a while.
It’s funny how much we talk about on this show, you and me and our callers, where we just happen to see something and it sparks a language question.
That’s the stuff we love to talk about.
If you’ve got something that you saw that just sparked a language question, let us know.
We’ll hash it out, 877-929-9673.
Or send the whole thing an email to words@waywordradio.org.
Grant, do you know what a Beijing bikini is?
Yes, but I can’t say it on the air.
This is a thing that you see in Beijing when it’s really, really hot.
I’ve seen several articles about this.
It’s guys who roll up their shirts and expose their bellies.
Oh, okay.
Usually a belly.
To cool off.
You know.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah, it’s called the Beijing Bikini.
That’s cool.
Yeah, where’d you find that?
It’s Kooling.
Kooling.
Well, there was a piece in the New York Times, and then from there I just started looking all over the Internet, and there are all kinds of pictures and videos of the Beijing Bikini.
That’s cool.
