What makes bb kingsford briquettes or comparable unnatural?

[lehmeow]

I have been reading and watching videos about the ingredients in kingsford original briquettes and wondering the specific ingredients that makes them unnatural? I see sodium nitrate and borax but I believe these are from the earth ingredients unless they are being man-made.

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[joe black]

Natural refers to naturally ground wood particles. There are binders and other ingredients used to form and hold the briquettes together. These ingredients impart a very pungent odor when lighted and produces a lot of ash that will clog the charcoal basket and deprive the fire of much-needed air intake. On the other hand, a good lump charcoal like Royal Oak is all wood that has been reduced to charcoal and is an all natural product. It burns cleaner, hotter and with much less ash.

 

[lehmeow]

I did email kingsford and answered me that it's a proprietary blend. Here's the ingredients I've seen posted and my question is which of these are unnatural or is there something else not listed?

Wood char: a wood by-product that is used as a heat source.
Mineral char: a form of coal also used as a heat source
Mineral carbon: an almost pure-carbon coal that helps heat up the briquette
Limestone : a sedimentary rock that makes the resultant briquette ash look nicer when its released
Starch: holds the briquette together on the grill
Borax: in small quantities, it’s a nontoxic mineral used to separate briquettes from their commercially made molds.
Sodium nitrate: used as a starter for briquettes
Sawdust: also a starter

 

[joe black]

I will agree that limestone, starch, borax, and sodium nitrate are things that are found naturally in our earth, but I really don't want to cook with any combination of them. Hydrogen, nitrogen, magnesium and phosphorus are also natural things, but I'm not going to fire off my cooker with a load of them.

A lot of folks use briquettes and a lot of those use KBB. Make no mistake, Kingsford sells a hell of a lot of product. I do use a small amount of RO briqs in my chimney to light my lump. I use briqs to light the lump, lump for a good bed of coals and wood to cook with. Just my preference, but I am not going to cook with briqs and especially not with KBB.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

 

[lehmeow]

I like it and have a similar mindset about it. I'm trying out ro briquettes now but of course probably the same ingredients. I have to get some more lump and also want to try stubbs and kingsford comp briquettes since their sold locally here.

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