Fake-food scandal: Third of products are mislabelled and many contain banned additives - Polidicks

[quote] Consumers are being sold food including mozzarella that is less than half real cheese, ham on pizzas that is either poultry or "meat emulsion", and frozen prawns that are 50% water, according to tests by a public laboratory. The checks on hundreds of food samples, which were taken in West Yorkshire, revealed that more than a third were not what they claimed to be, or were mislabelled in some way. Their results have been shared with the Guardian. Testers also discovered beef mince adulterated with pork or poultry, and even a herbal slimming tea that was neither herb nor tea but glucose powder laced with a withdrawn prescription drug for obesity at 13 times the normal dose. A third of fruit juices sampled were not what they claimed or had labelling errors. Two contained additives that are not permitted in the EU, including brominated vegetable oil, which is designed for use in flame retardants and linked to behavioural problems in rats at high doses. Experts said they fear the alarming findings from 38% of 900 sample tests by West Yorkshire councils were representative of the picture nationally, with the public at increasing risk as budgets to detect fake or mislabelled foods plummet. [/quote] [url]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/07/fake-food-scandal-revealed-tests-products-mislabelled[/url]

First the horse, now its fake, you Europeans are really getting fuck with your food. I bet if you tested it, it would be the same as American food at this rate.

Damn this makes me scared for the food that I'm eating.

I was going to point out a specific example as particularly heinous and be like 'wow really' but every example in the article is equally terrible.

[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;43827700]First the horse, now its fake, you Europeans are really getting fuck with your food. I bet if you tested it, it would be the same as American food at this rate.[/QUOTE] Seems like it iss the same as American food. Brominated vegetable oil, as mentioned in the article, is apparently banned in Europe and some Asian countries, but allowed in North America.

That is not good

I guess I'll never eat anything I didn't make myself ever again.

It looks like I might as well start a farm if I ever want to truly know what I'm eating

[QUOTE=PN_Redux;43827733]Damn this makes me scared for the food that I'm eating.[/QUOTE] I worked in a meat packaging plant, they inject chicken breasts with water to add to the weight of them

[QUOTE=PN_Redux;43827733]Damn this makes me scared for the food that I'm eating.[/QUOTE] an example would be that white looking asian noodles with red lettering on the bag is actually made with plastics

[QUOTE=confinedUser;43827808]an example would be that white looking asian noodles with red lettering on the bag is actually made with plastics[/QUOTE] That explains why I tried that shit and said 'this shit tastes/looks like plastic'

Are they allowed to publish which companies/products there were discrepancies with, or is there a law against that?

[QUOTE=viperfan7;43827807]I worked in a meat packaging plant, they inject chicken breasts with water to add to the weight of them[/QUOTE] To be honest, I get those plain frozen chicken breasts, save about a quid per pack compared to fresh and I'd only be freezing the fresh breasts anyway. Tend to get 500g of frozen chicken + water against 400g of fresh chicken breast, and either the 500g or 750g frozen packs are near always on sale. They're good enough quality that the flavour of the meal isn't massively affected, I prefer sauces to meat itself tbh, excluding a good steak. (which is fucking divine, rare or medium rare please) They're nice and blatant about the added water anyway, brand I get sticks it right on the packet "Chicken breasts with added water", they're actually near indistinguishable from fresh breasts if you defrost them properly first. If I was to mix them up, I probably couldn't tell the difference after cooking. [QUOTE=wooletang;43827859]Are they allowed to publish which companies/products there were discrepancies with, or is there a law against that?[/QUOTE] I believe it is legal, but you would want to have concrete proof in case said company decides to try for libel. Same reason papers call people "tired and emotional" instead of drunk and whatnot which could be taken as calling them a drunk - a defamation of character. Of course, once they are certain, you can pull out all stops and call a fraud a fraud. As for this though, it's pretty damn enraging. I don't normally go for processed foods, but when I want to treat myself to a nice frozen pizza, I fucking expect that pizza to be a pizza, with all of the associated toppings that one would normally expect to be - and are claimed to be - on top of that pizza. And no fucking pineapple.

Its outrageous seeing how expensive food is in this country. [editline]7th February 2014[/editline] Look at this; [quote]West Yorkshire's public analyst, Dr Duncan Campbell, said of the findings: "We are routinely finding problems with more than a third of samples, which is disturbing at a time when the budget for food standards inspection and analysis is being cut."[/quote] I can guarantee you they're lobbying people in government to cut this sector so we do not find out more about it, cutting the budget to stop investigation into their manufacturing processes.

Makes me wonder if they're doing that here, time to go to local farmers, screw grocery stores.

[QUOTE=lolo;43828247]Makes me wonder if they're doing that here, time to go to local farmers, screw grocery stores.[/QUOTE] Some supermarkets actually do shop locally - I know for a fact that Aldi get their fruit and veg from the same supplier that the local greengrocer does, if we can ignore some of the exotic ones. It's just the processed foods where the manufacturers seem to be trying their luck.

Brominated vegetable oil is an ingredient of Mountain Dew here in the States. Makes me wonder what it actually does for the drink itself if it's not in the European version.

[QUOTE=Kalamadea;43828335]Brominated vegetable oil is an ingredient of Mountain Dew here in the States. Makes me wonder what it actually does for the drink itself if it's not in the European version.[/QUOTE] Stabilises citrus-y drinks. Take some of it, mix with the citrus flavourings, it'll keep the flavour more evenly distributed in the drink, rather than floating at a certain layer (flavouring has a lower density, so you balance it with the oil). I think we use carobin or some wood resin extract in the EU instead.

[QUOTE=Kalamadea;43828335]Brominated vegetable oil is an ingredient of Mountain Dew here in the States. Makes me wonder what it actually does for the drink itself if it's not in the European version.[/QUOTE] Apparently this makes it so that drinking too much Mountain Dew can paralyze you and blind you...

[QUOTE=viperfan7;43827807]I worked in a meat packaging plant, I injected chicken breasts with water to add to the weight of them[/QUOTE] FTFY [sp]sorry, don't get angry :V[/sp]

This reminds me of what my Soccer Coach told us when I was about 13: "Fast-food is not real food." He cooked some great burgers.

We were forced to deal with this sort of shit in India for the longest time and we still are. The fellows who do this, be it in whichever country, don't really care about anything more than making more money.

Imagine if we lived in a libertarian paradise where there were no regulations and all of the consumers were brilliant people who could keep track of every single food item purchased.

[QUOTE=Rangergxi;43831944]Imagine if we lived in a libertarian paradise where there were no regulations and all of the consumers were brilliant people who could keep track of every single food item purchased.[/QUOTE] While it isnt impossible, it is quite unreachable though.

[QUOTE=Rangergxi;43828515]Apparently this makes it so that drinking too much Mountain Dew can paralyze you and blind you...[/QUOTE] The dangers of BVO are exaggerated, you'd need to drink a shitload of Panther Piss(what Dew tastes like) to get sick from it. The cloudy look of drinks with it certainly don't make them much easier to drink though and it gives a much sharper citrus flavor, to the point of being horrible.

The thing is: Don´t over-consume and you will be fine anyway.

On a personal note, we don't rely much on stuff that comes in packages and jars, and we prefer to buy fresh produce from the wholesale markets. We also get our own meat and poultry from local butchers as well, so it's something. There are ways of making things that don't involve shady manufacturing processes, like hot dogs, burgers, pizzas, and the like, and the results are often better than your average fast food chains. Of course, artisanal places which make their own variants with fresh ingredients can equal this.

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;43831984]On a personal note, we don't rely much on stuff that comes in packages and jars, and we prefer to buy fresh produce from the wholesale markets. We also get our own meat and poultry from local butchers as well, so it's something. There are ways of making things that don't involve shady manufacturing processes, like hot dogs, burgers, pizzas, and the like, and the results are often better than your average fast food chains. Of course, artisanal places which make their own variants with fresh ingredients can equal this.[/QUOTE] The downside is you have to not be lazy and be willing to pay quite a bit more, and most people aren't :v:

[QUOTE=TurbisV2;43827766]I guess I'll never eat anything I didn't make myself ever again.[/QUOTE] Have fun growing chickens. :downs:

[QUOTE=jetboy;43832274]Have fun growing chickens. :downs:[/QUOTE] *raising. chickens aren't vegetables.