I still remember eating my first Slim Jim, at the age of 5, purchased from the concession stand at my neighbor Mitch Mitchell’s softball game. In the three decades since, I’ve probably consumed enough of the salty meat-like sticks to feed a small island nation for a few weeks, but I’ve never once wanted to know what goes into making one of them.

Thanks then to the folks at Wired, who put together the below animated video detailing the various ingredients — mechanically separated meats, salt, grain and soy products, salt, chemicals, and salt — that go into the slender, edible cylinder and keep it from turning into a rotten gray mess.

It’s actually much more informative than it is shocking or surprising, and worth a watch for anyone curious about packaged foods.

[via Eater]

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