Scandals In The Food Industry

Let's see if we can make a  list of scandals in the food industry, globally.


1. The horsemeat saga - gross !!!
There are worse things than horsemeat, it did not kill anyone,  but the point is the brassneck cheek and deception of the people who sneaked cheap horsemeat into recipes and passed it off as beef. A massive breach of the huge trust we put in food manufacturing & processing industry.

2. The babymilk saga in China which killed infants and eventually saw two people executed. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/24/china-executes-milk-scandal-pair


3. Genetically tampering with wheat, which ultimately finds its way into most things we eat.


4. Unnecessary suffering of animals being slaughtered.

If you know of any scandals or malpractices, post them here. Let's pool our knowledge so that we can protest, and vote with our feet (so to speak) through informal boycotts.

you can no longer trust the food chain...

which is why I tend to hunt/fish and forage/grow my own and/or trade what I hunt/fish with folks who grow their own

Lord Foul wrote:you can no longer trust the food chain...

which is why I tend to hunt/fish and forage/grow my own  and/or  trade what I hunt/fish with folks who grow their own

Hi LF ! Sounds like a charmed life. I hope you realise how lucky you are.
But of course free range food is only as 'pure' and safe as its habitat.
If there are noxious chemicals of any description in the air, or leached into the rivers ......

Jules wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:you can no longer trust the food chain...

which is why I tend to hunt/fish and forage/grow my own  and/or  trade what I hunt/fish with folks who grow their own

Hi LF !    Sounds like a charmed life. I hope you realise how lucky you are.
But of course free range food  is only as 'pure' and safe as its habitat.
If there are noxious chemicals of any description in the air, or leached into the rivers ......

true...one needs to be choosy as to where one accepts invites and permission to hunt/fish. Inevitably there are trace amounts of agri chemicals in almost EVERYTHING these days, but with care these can be kept to a minimum...and certainly can be kept below the level of "E" numbers surreptitiously added to food.....
Give the location of our wood land (and the surrounding umpteen acres of farmland (over which the farmer has kindly given me permission to pest control)) we are fairly free from "rubbish" he runs mainly sheep with a few cattle, and doesnt use hormones (at all) or antibiotis to excess. And only rarely puts any fertilizers down and no herbicides.... And the river that borders it (where again I have the local fishing rights owners permission to fish for trout and river salmon....) is clean and hardly polluted.....

As it happens I have just finished scoffing a tasty rabbit casserole...with the rabbit from our wood and all the veggies from my BIL's garden....and the herbs from the planter in my backyard....

YUM

Jules wrote:Let's see if we can make a  list of scandals in the food industry, globally.


1. The horsemeat saga - gross !!!
There are worse things than horsemeat, it did not kill anyone,  but the point is the brassneck cheek and deception of the people who sneaked cheap horsemeat into recipes and passed it off as beef. A massive breach of the huge trust we put in food manufacturing & processing industry.

2. The babymilk saga in China which killed infants and eventually saw two people executed. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/24/china-executes-milk-scandal-pair


3. Genetically tampering with wheat, which ultimately finds its way into most things we eat.


4. Unnecessary suffering of animals being slaughtered.

If you know of any scandals or malpractices, post them here. Let's pool our knowledge so that we can protest, and vote with our feet (so to speak) through informal boycotts.

Good thread. I feel quite passionately about the food industry and how it's probably been one of the worst things to happen to us all.

We are what we eat.

You know, Paris has legally banned all supermarkets from the city in order that local artisan shops can create and sell their wares. How wonderful is that?

I have found that fruit is mass-produced shit with no flavour anymore. Even organic fruit isn't much better.

I really try not to touch wheat either, though bread is a weakness of mine...

AUSTRALIA and NZ  went through a long period of a lot of of bland, tasteless and poor quality fruit snd vege's during the 1980s and '90s...

Nothing to do with "mass production", and everything to do with supermarket demands for the growers to supply them with consistant grades of product that stand up better to transport and storeage and with longer "shelf life"..

And the the usurious supermarket chains have the hide to claim they only give the shoppers "what they want !"  --  though, notice that you will never find anyone who has actually been "asked" what they want by those supermarkets..        

Often, it seems that a lot of the excessive fertiliser and pesticide use, and often unnecessary hormones and drugs in livestock production, comes down to uncaring, ill-educated, lazy and/or greedy "farmers" taking the easy way out --  and often showing a "if a little is good, a lot must be better !" attitude towards using fertisers and pesticides...

AS FOR the boutique and "artisan" food markets in big cosmopolitan cities like Paris -- that is definitely a Western hemisphere/'rich man's' pastime,  where the shoppers are willing to pay double, triple, even a lot more, the going market prices for their foodstuffs..        

eddie wrote:I have found that fruit is mass-produced shit with no flavour anymore. Even organic fruit isn't much better.

I really try not to touch wheat either, though bread is a weakness of mine...

If you knew what went into commercial bread, you wouldn't eat it.

In 1961 the British Baking Industries Research Association in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, devised a bread-making method using lower-protein wheat, an assortment of additives and high-speed mixing. Over 80 per cent of all UK bread is now made using this method and most of the rest uses a process called 'activated dough development' (ADD), which involves a similar range of additives. So, apart from a tiny percentage of bread, this is what we eat today.

The Chorleywood Bread Process (CBP) produces bread of phenomenal volume and lightness, with great labour efficiency and at low apparent cost. It isn't promoted by name. You won't see it mentioned on any labels. But you can't miss it. From the clammy sides of your chilled wedge sandwich to the flabby roll astride every franchised burger, the stuff is there, with a soft, squishy texture that lasts for many days until the preservatives can hold back the mould no longer. If bread forms a ball that sticks to the roof of your mouth as you chew, thank the Chorleywood Bread Process - but don't dwell on what it will shortly be doing to your guts.

This is Britain's bread: a technological marvel combining production efficiency with a compelling appeal to the lowest common denominator of taste. It is the very embodiment of the modern age.

Below is a breakdown of the additional ingredients - aside from flour, water, salt and yeast - in a typical CBP loaf. Bread made with just these four ingredients was the basis of my bakery business for 25 years. Even yeast (as an added ingredient) is unnecessary with natural leavens or sourdoughs. So it is reasonable to ask: are these ingredients necessary? And, if not, what are they doing in our bread?

Enzymes are modern baking's big secret. A loophole classifies them as 'processing aids', which need not be declared on product labels. Additives, on the other hand, must be listed. Not surprisingly, most people have no idea that their bread contains added enzymes.

An enzyme is a protein that speeds up a metabolic reaction, and are extracted from plant, animal, fungal and bacterial sources. Chymosin, for example, is the enzyme used to curdle milk for cheese-making. It is either derived from rennet from a calf's stomach or synthesised by genetic engineering.

A whole host of enzymes are used in baking. Their status as processing aids is based on the assumption that they are 'used up' in the production process and are therefore not really present in the final product. This is a deception that allows the food industry to manipulate what we eat without telling us. In their own trade literature, enzyme manufacturers extol the 'thermostability' of this or that product; in other words its ability to have a lasting effect on the baked bread.

Manufacturers have developed enzymes with two main objectives: to make dough hold more gas (making lighter bread) and to make bread stay softer for longer after baking. Many bakery enzymes are derived from substances that are not part of a normal human diet. Even if such enzymes are chemically the same as some of those naturally found in flour or bread dough, they are added in larger amounts than would ever be encountered in ordinary bread.

And now the safety of bakery enzymes has been radically challenged by the discovery that the enzyme transglutaminase, used to make dough stretchier in croissants and some breads, may turn part of the wheat protein toxic to people with a severe gluten intolerance. This development is important because it suggests that adding enzymes to bread dough may have unintended and damaging consequences. Surely no one can seriously suggest that bakery enzymes should be omitted from bread labels.

I think we should be suspicious of bakery enzymes for four additional reasons:

Enzymes can be allergens and should be identified on labels in the same way as the major allergen groups.

Failure to label enzymes prevents people from making informed choices about their diet.

There is a fundamental dishonesty in treating enzymes as though they had no effect on baked bread when this is patently why they are used.

Judgements about ingredients should take into account the whole food; an enzyme may be harmless in itself but may be used to make an undesirable product.

Modern baking is schizophrenic about time, on the one hand wanting to reduce it to nothing, on the other trying to extend it indefinitely. And it is also in two minds about its raw materials, torn between the desire to remove things that get in the way and the impulse to add things that will make the bread easier (for machine production), bigger, softer, cheaper, longer-lasting or more apparently healthy.

Baking technologists just can't leave well alone. There's always some functional advantage to be pursued, some marginal value to be prised from dumb nature, as if the human race had never quite mastered this business of bread.

We have evolved an industrial bread-making system that, in a variety of ways we can no longer ignore, produces bread that more and more people cannot and should not eat. Some would say that the pappy, bland nature of CBP bread is reason enough to consign it to the compost heap of food history. But these qualities are ultimately matters of personal preference. The use of additives, on the other hand, especially those whose provenance or purpose is not apparent to the consumer, raises serious questions of accountability and trust. Above all, the baking industry must respond to the growing body of research that is charting the profound unhealthiness of making bread quickly. From wheat to finished loaf, industrial baking needs to be reconstructed from first principles, of which the most important is a proper respect for time.

If you are dismayed at the covert corruption of our daily food, you may agree with me that bread matters too much to be left to the industrial bakers. More and more people are taking control over their lives and health by making their own bread - bread you can trust and believe in.

What's in our bread

FAT
Hard fats improve loaf volume, crumb softness and help it to last longer. Hydrogenated fats have commonly been used, though large bakers are phasing them out, possibly replacing them with fractionated fats. These don't contain or produce transfats, which have been associated with heart disease.

FLOUR TREATMENT AGENT
L-ascorbic acid (E300) can be added to flour by the miller, or at the baking stage. It acts as an oxidant, helping to retain gas in the dough, which makes the loaf rise more and gives a false impression of value. It is not permitted in wholemeal flour, but permitted in wholemeal bread.

BLEACH
Chlorine dioxide gas is used by millers and makes white flour whiter. It has some "improving" effect on the flour - bleaches have been used as a substitute for the natural ageing of flour.

REDUCING AGENT
Used as L-cysteine hydrochloride (E920), cysteine is a naturally occurring amino acid used in baking to create stretchier doughs, especially for burger buns and French sticks. It may be derived from animal hair and feathers.

SOYA FLOUR
Widely used in bread "improvers", soya flour has a bleaching effect on flour, and assists the machinability of dough and the volume and softness of bread, enabling more water to be added to the dough.

EMULSIFIERS
Widely used in bread improvers to control the size of gas bubbles, emulsifiers enable the dough to hold more gas and therefore grow bigger and make the crumb softer. Emulsifiers also reduce the rate at which the bread goes stale.

PRESERVATIVES
Calcium propionate is widely used, as is vinegar (acetic acid). Preservatives are only necessary for prolonged shelf life - home freezing is a chemical-free alternative.

RECIPES

BASIC BREAD
This is the simplest possible yeasted dough. It can be worked into all kinds of shapes or augmented with other ingredients to produce different flavours and textures.

Makes 1 large or 2 small loaves

600g stoneground strong wholemeal flour
5g sea salt
400g water
8g fresh yeast
Flour or seeds for the top

Weigh the flour and salt into a bowl. Measure the total amount of water and pour about a quarter of it into a small jug or bowl. Dissolve the yeast in this water by stirring it gently with your fingers. Pour the yeasty water into the bowl with the flour and salt and add the rest of the water. Use one hand to hold the bowl and the other to begin mixing the dough (you could use a wooden spoon but it's just another thing to wash up, and hands are more effective).

As soon as all the dry flour has become wet and the dough has begun to form, scrape it on to the worktop and begin kneading.

Do not add any flour at this stage, even if the dough seems to you to be rather wet. If it seems too dry, add some more water. As you knead, the flour will absorb the water and the gluten structure should begin to develop. Knead for 10-15 minutes. If you are using a mixer, rather less time will be needed. At the end of the mixing/kneading process, the dough should be soft, slightly silky to the touch and with a definite elasticity that was not there at the beginning.

Make sure the bowl is reasonably clean and put the dough back in it. Cover the bowl with a polythene bag that is big enough not to come into contact with the rising dough. Leave the bowl in a warm place (around 25C). After two hours, the dough should have risen appreciably. If it has grown significantly in less than two hours, you can either "knock it back" by gently folding it over on itself a couple of times and leaving it to rise again, or just progress to the next stage.

Grease one large loaf tin or two small ones with some fat or vegetable oil. Tip the dough on to the worktop again. If you plan to make two small loaves, divide the dough in half. Using the barest flick of flour to prevent the dough sticking to your hands or the worktop, roll it into a sausage about twice as long as the longest side of the tin. Flatten this sausage with your knuckles and then fold it in three. Again, knuckle the dough down until it is a flattish rectangle about two-thirds the length of your tin.

Starting at the edge furthest from you, fold it over and roll it up, trying to keep the dough under some tension but not folding it so tightly that it tears. Finish your roll with the seam underneath and then pick the whole thing up and place it in the tin.

Set your bread to prove in a warm place, covered with a stiff plastic bag or large bowl to stop it drying out too much. It is important not to let the dough touch the cover as it rises otherwise it may stick and damage the loaf structure when the cover is removed.

Preheat the oven to 230C or its hottest setting. When the dough has risen appreciably but still gives some resistance when gently pressed, put the loaf or loaves carefully into the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, turning the heat down to 200C after 10 minutes.

Turn the bread out of the tin and check that it is done. Tap the bottom of the loaf and it should sound hollow. Also, check the "shoulder" - where the side gives way to the domed top of the loaf. This is often the last area of crust to firm up. Gently push your finger into the shoulder - if it feels at all squashy, it needs a bit longer in the oven.

If the bottom seems rather pale, turn the loaf out of its tin and put it on one of the oven's wire shelves to finish baking. When it is done, cool it on a rack to stop the bottom sweating and going soggy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-shocking-truth-about-bread-413156.html

It sounds very nice, but if I had to stand in the kitchen for an hour doing all that i'd fall over before the Yeast rises. I'll just nip to the shop for a medium sliced

Are we allowed to use a breadmaking machine - seems a bit of a chew on otherwise?

HoratioTarr wrote:

eddie wrote:I have found that fruit is mass-produced shit with no flavour anymore. Even organic fruit isn't much better.

I really try not to touch wheat either, though bread is a weakness of mine...

If you knew what went into commercial bread, you wouldn't eat it.

I know what goes into commercial bread but I like it. I know that tobacco is bad but I smoke it occasionally. I know that whisky doesn't solve my problems and give some me a hangover but I drink it.

I cannot live like a food virgin!!!

Whisky makes you frisky?

Ziz wrote:Are we allowed to use a breadmaking machine - seems a bit of a chew on otherwise?

Bread making machines are ok. I make my own bread from time to time. That way I know what goes into it, and it goes stale in a day or two, which is how proper bread should be. Not keeping for a week!

nicko wrote: Whisky makes you frisky?

Oh yeah.

HoratioTarr wrote:

Ziz wrote:Are we allowed to use a breadmaking machine - seems a bit of a chew on otherwise?

Bread making machines are ok.   I make my own bread from time to time.   That way I know what goes into it, and it goes stale in  a day or two, which is how proper bread should be.   Not keeping for a week!

I had a friend who made wonderful bread - it was something he loved doing. Mrs Ziz and me, on the other hand, have no great talent in the kitchen and consequently our past bread making efforts have not really been a success with or without a breadmaker. I envy those with culinary passion.

Saw this the other day and ...phew...

HoratioTarr wrote:

eddie wrote:I have found that fruit is mass-produced shit with no flavour anymore. Even organic fruit isn't much better.

I really try not to touch wheat either, though bread is a weakness of mine...

If you knew what went into commercial bread, you wouldn't eat it.

There's a little supermarket near me that sells a cut bloomer type loaf that says no artificial flavours/preservatives on it... it says it's Polish bread on the labeling.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

AUSTRALIA and NZ  went through a long period of a lot of of bland, tasteless and poor quality fruit snd vege's during the 1980s and '90s...

Nothing to do with "mass production", and everything to do with supermarket demands for the growers to supply them with consistant grades of product that stand up better to transport and storeage and with longer "shelf life"..

And the the usurious supermarket chains have the hide to claim they only give the shoppers "what they want !"  --  though, notice that you will never find anyone who has actually been "asked" what they want by those supermarkets..        

Often, it seems that a lot of the excessive fertiliser and pesticide use, and often unnecessary hormones and drugs in livestock production, comes down to uncaring, ill-educated, lazy and/or greedy "farmers" taking the easy way out --  and often showing a "if a little is good, a lot must be better !" attitude towards using fertisers and pesticides...

AS FOR the boutique and "artisan" food markets in big cosmopolitan cities like Paris -- that is definitely a Western hemisphere/'rich man's' pastime,  where the shoppers are willing to pay double, triple, even a lot more, the going market prices for their foodstuffs..        

yep the 3 bounce strawberry is famous example of it
Named cause it could be bounced around the back of truck for a week and still look good

bred for looks and logisitcs but lacking in taste it became all that the supermarkets wanted
but the lack of taste meant strawberry consumption fell to he point hey weren't worth stocking.

It is one thing the hipster food movement can be praised for is re-establishing taste as the prime driver for produce.

nicko wrote: Whisky makes you frisky?

Brandy makes me feel randy.
Gin helps it slip in
Rum helps me to cum
Beer just makes me leer
Wine will do just fine

Handy Andy wrote:

nicko wrote: Whisky makes you frisky?

Brandy makes me feel randy.
Gin helps it slip in
Rum helps me to  cum
Beer just makes me leer
Wine will do just fine

Sounds like you ought to lay off the booze for a while.

Ziz wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:

Bread making machines are ok.   I make my own bread from time to time.   That way I know what goes into it, and it goes stale in  a day or two, which is how proper bread should be.   Not keeping for a week!

I had a friend who made wonderful bread - it was something he loved doing. Mrs Ziz and me, on the other hand, have no great talent in the kitchen and consequently our past bread making efforts have not really been a success with or without a breadmaker. I envy those with culinary passion.

I've always made bread Ziz and don't buy shop bought now unless I am really pushed.   Making it by hand means you can vent all your frustrations on the dough.  The madder you are about something, the better the bread lol

Ziz wrote:

Handy Andy wrote:

nicko wrote: Whisky makes you frisky?

Brandy makes me feel randy.
Gin helps it slip in
Rum helps me to  cum
Beer just makes me leer
Wine will do just fine

Sounds like you ought to lay off the booze for a while.

sounds like an inadequate teenager with body image problems if you ask me

Oh shush! He's only saying what we all think

Food industry entrepreneurs use the industry only as a stepping stone to make profits and build up their vast financial empires.  The nutritional value of the food and the health of the customers, these factors are not their priority. Yet the bland generic gruel they serve up to the masses, they would not touch it with a bargepole themselves.

Any food product of good quality gets a huge premium slapped on it. You have to pay through the nose if you want decent food ie healthy, great tasting fare.

Jules wrote:Food industry entrepreneurs use the industry only as a stepping stone to make profits and build up their vast financial empires.  The nutritional value of the food and the health of the customers, these factors are not their priority. Yet the bland generic gruel they serve up to the masses, they would not touch it with a bargepole themselves.

Any food product of good quality gets a huge premium slapped on it. You have to pay through the nose if you want decent food ie healthy, great tasting fare.

Pleas give accurate example of bland generic gruel and the good quality decent food please? so we can all benefit from your knowledge.

A few weeks back on TV there was a prog about CHICKEN NUGGETZ, absolutely ALL breast meat, I was shocked.

Major wrote:

Jules wrote:Food industry entrepreneurs use the industry only as a stepping stone to make profits and build up their vast financial empires.  The nutritional value of the food and the health of the customers, these factors are not their priority. Yet the bland generic gruel they serve up to the masses, they would not touch it with a bargepole themselves.

Any food product of good quality gets a huge premium slapped on it. You have to pay through the nose if you want decent food ie healthy, great tasting fare.

Pleas give accurate example of bland generic gruel and the good quality decent food please? so we can all benefit from your knowledge.

You may wish to drop the "we" affectation and speak only for yourself. You are not the forum spokesman.

Major wrote: .... so we can all benefit from your knowledge.

I don't particularly want anyone to benefit from my knowledge. Not sharing!

Major wrote:A few weeks back on TV there was a prog about CHICKEN NUGGETZ, absolutely ALL breast meat, I was shocked.

Which brand? They're still full of shit and salty shit. You're better off eating a chicken breast.

eddie wrote:

Major wrote:A few weeks back on TV there was a prog about CHICKEN NUGGETZ, absolutely ALL breast meat, I was shocked.

Which brand? They're still full of shit and salty shit. You're better off eating a chicken breast.

KFC , I gather you did not see it then and have made your comments of nuggets from a few yearz back.
I just luv it when people comment on supposition.

Major wrote:

eddie wrote:

Major wrote:A few weeks back on TV there was a prog about CHICKEN NUGGETZ, absolutely ALL breast meat, I was shocked.

Which brand? They're still full of shit and salty shit. You're better off eating a chicken breast.

KFC , I gather you did not see it then and have made your comments of nuggets from a few yearz back.
I just luv it when people comment on supposition.

KFC? That's your "healthy" chicken? That stuff is just dripping in oil.

Major wrote:

Jules wrote:Food industry entrepreneurs use the industry only as a stepping stone to make profits and build up their vast financial empires.  The nutritional value of the food and the health of the customers, these factors are not their priority. Yet the bland generic gruel they serve up to the masses, they would not touch it with a bargepole themselves.

Any food product of good quality gets a huge premium slapped on it. You have to pay through the nose if you want decent food ie healthy, great tasting fare.

Pleas give accurate example of bland generic gruel and the good quality decent food please? so we can all benefit from your knowledge.

Most processed food is bland and generic.

want healthy chicken...grow feed and wriggle the necks of your own...

that way you know what they have been fed on, know how they have been kept and know that they were dispatched quickly and humanely



NOTE "wriggle its neck" comes from my eldest son, who was under no illusions as to where his meat came from.

whilst out and about he spotted a prize show cockerel, all gorgeous green and bronze. doubless the pride and joy of the farmer...

look at that cockerel says I
mmmmm says he.....shall we wriggle its neck and take it home for gandma to put in the pot for dinner????

he was 4 years old at the time

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/27/three-men-face-fraud-trial-horsemeat-scandal

About time!

Jules wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/27/three-men-face-fraud-trial-horsemeat-scandal

About time!

Absolutely.

eddie wrote:

nicko wrote: Whisky makes you frisky?

Oh yeah.

What duz brandy do????