Why are they lying about food ?

[shootthebandit]

snip

Try finding a local honey maker. Chances are itll be so fresh itll even have a few dead bees in it

 

[MorphingDragon]

I don't get annoyed by the obviously fake products than I do with the fact the most governments don't force companies to list all their ingredients.

I don't care if it's a "trade secret", if its going into my body I want to know what's in it.

 

[Gavmando]

Has anyone seen any preservatives in their honey? (Labeling.) It shouldnt, because honey never goes off. You can still eat honey found in Pharaohs tombs. We dont have it in our honey in Australia, though we do heat our honey which destroys some of the good stuff in it, but makes it easier to pour into jars.

Different flowers do result in different tasting honey.

This. I went to a local honey farm a few years back, bought a set of 8 different types of honey. They all taste quite different.
And it is very possible to get real honey from a supermarket around here too. I live in Australia, and at least where I live honey is real.

I'm pretty sure due to our food labeling laws that they cant call something honey when it's not actually honey. But I can see why they would in the rest of the world.
With the bee population in drastic decline around the world, then they're bound to have shortages in supplies. Yet another reason for our tough customs laws.
And if we didnt have bees, the world would be pretty much fucked.


There's a lot of info out there that says that things like *artificial sweeteners and *flavour enhancers are quite bad for you. There's also a lot of info that says that they're perfectly safe for you.
Words with a "*" can be replaced by other words like; vaccination, global warming, and more. You can get a study to say pretty much anything you want it to say.
You get the idea.
I know that from my own personal experiences, msg makes my face go very flushed, I get jittery, my concentration gets bad, and then i'll get a headache as it wears off. Also, Aspartamine gives me the jitters, and my heart beats faster because of it.

At the end of the day, not putting these chemicals into your body can only be a good thing. They may be harmless, but then again, they may not be. Only time will tell. (See also vaccination, global warming, etc...) You can live without these chemicals. Trust me. I do it every day.

Here's a simple way to think about it:
If it grew in nature, then eat it. If it grew in a lab, then dont eat it.

 

[Kirke]

One of the advantages of living in the EU is that food regulations are very tight. I did hear something about some imported honey actually not being honey, but it was recalled and I think the police are after the ones responsible. So usually, it doesn't happen here.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

I don't know why some places and people get away with lying about what food contains, but the general rule of thumb should ALWAYS be simply, "check the packaging."

A few/many years ago I encountered a type of chocolate product that I enjoyed quite a bit. Then 1 day I checked the ingrediants and was quite astonished to find titanium dioxide as one of them. A quick google search reveals that this stuff is generally used in paints, and that in dust form, if inhaled, could be carcinogenic. As in causes cancer. It is quite often used as a food colouring even today under E number E171.

So yeah, check the fucking packaging guys, there's some dodgy shit in a lot of your food.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I'm fairly sure that if it comes from the UK it is required to actually be honey if it says so on the jar/bottle. I watched a program about fake foods a few weeks ago where a cheapo supermarket was selling honey from outside the EU which turned out to be sugar syrup with colourings in it, the shop had their entire stock of it seized by the food standards people. Obviously a lot of things will slip through, but the general rule is that if you are paying next to nothing for something chances are you are getting next to nothing of what you think it is.

Honey is pretty expensive, but I'd rather spend a little more for the good stuff and use it a bit sparingly. I'd love to keep my own bees but I'd rather not risk a flying cloud of death killing me in my own garden one day.

 

[Escapee8]

We are living in a world where the United States got the government to state that "Pizza" is a vegetable.

Something made entirely out of cheese, wheat and bacon can be called a "vegetable". I wouldn't trust the ingredients list when that's a standard of classification.

Sorry about slightly going OT but had to register to say that if in US pizzas are "made entirely out of cheese, wheat and bacon" you're doing it absolutely wrong.

The standard Pizza (Margherita) is made of mainly wheat for the dough (plus oil, yeast, and other stuff in lower quantities), while the topping is tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and basil.

While I do love bacon I cringe at the idea of it being a standard ingredient in any pizza as you seem to point out.

So not sure if this food lie was made up by you or is the general rule in the US, but to an Italian it's dreadful

 

[Blaster395]

A few/many years ago I encountered a type of chocolate product that I enjoyed quite a bit. Then 1 day I checked the ingrediants and was quite astonished to find titanium dioxide as one of them. A quick google search reveals that this stuff is generally used in paints, and that in dust form, if inhaled, could be carcinogenic. As in causes cancer. It is quite often used as a food colouring even today under E number E171.

It's a good thing that no food contains titanium dioxide in dust form. Many substances are dangerous in dust form. Flour, a common ingredient in everything, is explosive in dust form, to give an example.

Fun fact: Oxygen has an E number, E948

 

[You Can't Take the Sky From Me]

p.s. of course its not only honey,there are also products named "yogurt" that instead of being made by yeast are made with gelatin,etc.

Umm... Yogurt isn't made with yeast, it's actually two different bacteria. One is in the streptococcus family and the other is a lactobacillus. As for your original point I don't think I've ever come across any fake honey, if I did however, I would return it with complaints.

 

[direkiller]

I don't know why some places and people get away with lying about what food contains, but the general rule of thumb should ALWAYS be simply, "check the packaging."

A few/many years ago I encountered a type of chocolate product that I enjoyed quite a bit. Then 1 day I checked the ingrediants and was quite astonished to find titanium dioxide as one of them. A quick google search reveals that this stuff is generally used in paints, and that in dust form, if inhaled, could be carcinogenic. As in causes cancer. It is quite often used as a food colouring even today under E number E171.

So yeah, check the fucking packaging guys, there's some dodgy shit in a lot of your food.

and you still would have been fine
it's a carcinogen in dust form because it is abrasive and will irritate your lung tissue not because it messes with DNA, so eating it will do nothing

Titanium Dioxide is listed as GRAS(generaly regarded as safe), you scared yourself over nothing

 

[Abomination]

We are living in a world where the United States got the government to state that "Pizza" is a vegetable.

Something made entirely out of cheese, wheat and bacon can be called a "vegetable". I wouldn't trust the ingredients list when that's a standard of classification.

Sorry about slightly going OT but had to register to say that if in US pizzas are "made entirely out of cheese, wheat and bacon" you're doing it absolutely wrong.

The standard Pizza (Margherita) is made of mainly wheat for the dough (plus oil, yeast, and other stuff in lower quantities), while the topping is tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and basil.

While I do love bacon I cringe at the idea of it being a standard ingredient in any pizza as you seem to point out.

So not sure if this food lie was made up by you or is the general rule in the US, but to an Italian it's dreadful

I said "can be made out of". Because "pizza" is a vegetable. It can have almost anything on it.

As someone highlighted earlier: tomatoes are a fruit!

 

[theultimateend]

p.s. of course its not only honey,there are also products named "yogurt" that instead of being made by yeast are made with gelatin,etc.

It has to do with a sub section of Americans who are religiously devoted to capitalism.

They believe that the only purpose of a business is to make the most money possible. Period.

Because of this that's how businesses act. Healthcare, food, childcare, etc etc.

So the problem falls upon some folks that personally I just find really morbid. Profit for profit's sake is as creepy to me as just about any horror villain.

I've never seen the yogurt thing but I've seen the "honey" and "Maple Syrup" that are both just HFCS.

Monosodium Glutamate fears are basically the Fan Death of the western world. Don't even bother bringing this up as a health hazard, otherwise I will have to explain even more chemistry to demonstrate that it isn't, and its far too hot here for me to want to do that.

I work at a Korean company. I thought that Fan Death was something people just jokingly thought was real in Korea.

For the most part nobody there believes it but two of our employees were super serious about it.

A marvelous thing. There are a dozen similar fears in the US but I'll skip them because they devolve into flame wars. It is truly a global thing (cultures being scared of the most moronic things while ignoring real dangers). Think MSG is dangerous? How about driving to work at 60 MPH with less than a car length between you and the car in front of you. I'm in California where I see this everyday dozens of times on the 20 minute drive to work.

It is no surprise to me that calling in with "a car accident" is as common here as calling in with a cold was in Washington State.

and you still would have been fine
it's a carcinogen in dust form because it is abrasive and will irritate your lung tissue not because it messes with DNA, so eating it will do nothing

Titanium Dioxide is listed as GRAS(generaly regarded as safe), you scared yourself over nothing

This is a commonly misunderstood truth. That things can be "Dangerous" and "Safe" just by where you put them on your body.

Anyone remember the brain eating amoeba thing from the Neti pots? Its in tons of water supplies but is 100% harmless (afaik) in your stomach. But you shove that bastard in your nose and suddenly we have a potential fatality on our hands.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/rare-infection-prompts-neti-pot-warning/

An easier to grasp example is that your poop doesn't get you sick in your intestine but if you get that junk on just about any other opening on your body you are in for a terrible terrible time.

 

[crazyarms33]

I'm sure Chinese readers will be able to tell everyone more about this, especially if they are honest, but here are a few things you should be aware of before coming to China for vacation or work. This will sound racist, I know, but it is how life is here. It is getting better, but we're not there yet.:

1- Sanitary: Chinese people are generally not clean. Or rather, not clean in the sense most other cultures would agree with. In China, if your hands are not visibly soiled, then they are clean. You go to the bathroom, wipe your ass: hands still white? Clean! The person cooking your food may wash his hands only once a day, after work. This is normal everywhere, including in hospitals regardless of who you are (patient, doctor and so on). They say you are what you eat, but here you are also what is on your chef's hands (and bottom). Also, there is no shame in defecating in public, even between rows of fresh food at a supermarket. Keep this in mind. It is very common for restaurants and even hospitals to NOT have any soap. This also explains why you will see people defecate in public or with the bathroom door open: They think that if they don't touch the door or don't go to the bathroom then it is cleaner for them and therefore they won't get sick or need to wash their hands. Yes.

4- Water: When travelling, it is said you shouldn't drink the local water. In China, nobody drinks the local water - not even the locals. Our water often has "particles" so you have to boil it for 15 minutes or use a water fountain.

5- Cold kills EVERYTHING: Remember what I said about the water? Here, ice cream is pretty popular and here is how it's made: powdered milk, another powder and TAP WATER because: the machine will make the ice cream cold and cold kills bacteria! (It does not). Eating ice cream from street vendors and restaurants will give you a very bad case of diarrhea for this very reason. Also, this is why you will see Chinese people only use cold water to wash their hands: you think they are lazy - they seriously believe the cold water killed the germs and bacteria.

6- Quality control: Forget what you know about quality control and government regulations. Any rule can be broken and any regulator can be bought. My friend who owns his restaurant has a "perfect" score for his restaurant - he just paid for it.

If you got any question about food here or otherwise, reply here or send me a pm. I'll be glad to tell more.

This was...eye opening. How do people survive over there? With the apparent complete lack of sanitation over there, the disease rate must be astronomical! How do they prevent horrific plagues?

 

[Weaver]

I used to buy my honey from a beekeeper!
In Canada we get a lot of fake maple syrup.

 

[floppylobster]

But if everyone found out Honey Bees were dying off their might be panic. Better to sell fake honey so not as many people notice.

 

[Frission]

I liked watching a movie called "Food Inc" about this subject.

 

[Madman123456]

In Germany we have very few outright lies because we have laws for everything. However, if something says "sweetened with honey" that means there is actual honey in there.
On the other hand it may mean that if you picture the daily batch of that product being made in a big vat, one drip of honey goes in there.
"Without additional sugar" means no sugar except the sugar already in the other ingredients of the product. There still might be artificial sweetener.


People are "lying" or "expanding the truth" because it's cheaper. Also People are generally rather stupid.
Certain chemicals are labeled as "chemicals" by the public and then an outcry follows about the quality of our food and how everything is "chemicals" today.
This has lead to some weird actions in the food industry, like replacing certain synthetic chemicals that are actually safer for consumption then their natural counterparts with that counterpart.
Best known example where the "evil chemical" has been replaced with the good all natural and therefore absolutely safe substance: Gluten.

 

[DugMachine]

Diet soda's are, for all dietary purposes, identical to water. The only group that would experience ill effects from drinking them would be people with an extremely rare condition that causes one of the amino acid breakdown products of aspartame to be poisonous, a condition screened at birth in 1st world countries and which prevents you from eating tons of stuff, not just aspartame. Non-dietary reasons to not consume it would be the acidity and it's effect on your teeth.

Could you expand on this a bit? When I started to diet I cut out all sodas for a year and noticed a huge decline in overall bloated look. I don't know what is is about sodas but when I cut them out for awhile I tend to slim down a bit without actually losing weight.

 

[NLS]

It's cheaper to produce, and you chose the cheaper product. You pretty much get what you pay for.
Plus the Greek economy went to hell, and honey bees are dying off, which is why your normal honey is so expensive.

 

[Jmumbler]

The same kind of Sh*t happens in the restaurant business as well, the things we get away with....

Some of it is little fibs (We say we import our fruit, we get it across the street at the super market) To out right lies (We say we make fresh orange juice, we buy it from the store). Having cooked sense I was 15, I prefer to cook my meals at home.