This one's very common, and you may be thinking, 'OK, human hair one I get, but alcohol? Non-Muslims drink that fresh from the bottle all the time!' Fast food chains are the least likely to dish out a dime for higher quality L-cysteine, especially not when they can just leave their cheap version of the ingredients list so you can easily block it out of your mind. Of course, there are synthetic and microbial (read: not-human-hair-version) of L-cysteine available as well, but they're pricey and not many peasants like us common folk can afford. Since L-cysteine is considered a 'reaction flavor,' the Federal Department of Agriculture (F DA) does not require it to be present on ingredients lists if it has been used to create the final product, like with pizza kits. If it's any comfort, know that the hog hair is only swirled into the mix if there isn't enough dark hair and duck feathers to go around - not that you would really taste the difference. And not just human hair but also duck feathers (specifically Chinese and Indian ducks, oddly enough) and hog hair. But what's the secret to that elasticity? Not weaves - oh no, we want to keep this organic as possible, with real human hair. L-cysteine helps make dough stretchy and workable, like pizza dough and bagels.
