The "bliss point" is a precisely engineered target, not an accident

Moss describes how food scientists use consumer panels, sensory testing, and in some cases direct measurement of physiological responses to calculate the exact concentration of sugar, salt, or fat that produces maximum enjoyment in a given product, a threshold beyond which additional sweetness or saltiness actually reduces pleasure rather than increasing it. Companies devote significant research budgets to locating this point for each individual product and then re-testing it as recipes or formulations change.

This isn't guesswork refined through trial and error at the level of a home cook; it's systematic, quantified optimization performed by trained food scientists using specialized methodology developed specifically for this purpose. Moss describes visiting research facilities where scientists calibrate the sugar content of products as varied as yogurt, pasta sauce, and breakfast cereal down to precise percentages.

The implication is that consumers experiencing certain processed foods as unusually hard to resist are not imagining it or lacking discipline — the products were engineered by professionals specifically to produce that response.

Takeaway: when a snack feels impossible to stop eating, that's often not a personal failing but the product working exactly as designed.