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60 Minutes celebrates Thanksgiving

The super-tasters of flavors
Reporting on the multibillion dollar food flavoring industry 13:58

Late 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer reported on the multibillion-dollar flavor industry, where flavorists, chemists and product developers create secret formulas to make "food carnivals" in the minds of consumers. Safer interviewed a chemist at Givaudan, the largest flavoring company in the world, who showed him 750 different types of orange, tangerine and mandarin flavors.  The story not only focused on the process of creating these artificial and addictive flavors, but also the impact that taste has on the American population. 

"We're eating fat on fat on sugar on fat with flavor," Kessler told 60 Minutes. "And much of what we're eating with these flavors, you have to ask yourself, is it really food?"

Pardon me Mr. President 02:15

From carving turkeys himself, to reporting on an infamous presidential pardon of a turkey, 60 Minutes' Andy Rooney helps us celebrate Thanksgiving through time from his unique and sometimes outspoken perspective.

Andy Rooney's "lost" Thanksgiving 03:45

In the video below, Rooney makes the case for a more traditionally prepared Thanksgiving dinner. "To begin with, we should go back to fixing Thanksgiving dinner the old fashion way -- no mixes, no frozen food, nothing canned," said Rooney. "Frozen turkey isn't bad, it's just not as good as a fresh-killed turkey."

Andy Rooney's homemade Thanksgiving feast 02:19

Finally, Rooney defends Thanksgiving, a holiday squeezed out by businesses that "sell-a-brate" Christmas a bit too soon for his liking. "It ought to be against the law to start Christmas before December," barked Rooney.

Christmas before Thanksgiving 02:28
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