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How we're scammed into eating phony food

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Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#201

Post by Shivetya »

ddebernardy wrote: post #191
adrr wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU laws aren't being enforced. All the fake olive oil is coming out of Italy. If you want real virgin olive oil in the US, you have to buy the California ones. It was also reported that Kobe beef was being sold at European restaurants even when Europe had a ban on Japanese meats during the Mad Cow Scare. Those are things just off the top of my head, i bet if you actually dug in, Europe has many examples of where fake…

> EU laws aren't being enforced. All the fake olive oil is coming out of Italy. Not seeing how the two sentences follow. Why should the EU be enforcing its laws on food packaged there, if the latter is destined for shipment to the US where pretty much anything goes?

well for one thing wouldn't the EU want to be known as providing good food? The EU should simply not allow the products that are not true to be sourced from a EU country.

Your values aren't worth squat if they aren't applied to all you do. This just means that if you are willing to sell shit labeled as flowers to a foreign nation it will happen at home too

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#202

Post by teolemon »

jjcm wrote: post #15

Is there an app or a site that tracks brands and tests their claims of what's in their food? I'm always curious especially when buying olive oil if what I'm buying is actually real. I think the biggest issue is consumers have no way of knowing what's actually in the food they eat. If the information were readily available it'd be much harder to push food substitutes.

YES :-) Open Food Facts is an open, collaborative effort to try to make more sense of food and food packagings. A bit like Wikipedia, but for food. Using smartphones, you can scan any food item and get detailed info about what you're about to buy/eat. If it's not yet in the database, you can help by taking a picture

Since we collect all claims and labels, and nutrition info, we can see if your cheese is actually low fat cheese, or just in the average. You can - compare between countries, brands, whatever you like… - easily create comparison charts - much much more

Web: http://world.openfoodfacts.org Android: (http://android.openfoodfacts.org) iPhone: (http://ios.openfoodfacts.org) Windows Phone: (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/openfoodfacts/9nb...)

We're looking for volunteer contributors and developers from all over the world to: - translate it to more languages - add food from your fridge - enhance the apps and web version

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#203

Post by jinglebells »

mac01021 wrote: post #157
Dutchie wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this particular case, as with the Champagne example, the name of the product indicates its origin. Bleu d'Auvergne means "Blue from Auvergne" (a region in France), where blue is short for "blue cheese". If someone outside of France (Auvergne, more specifically) can concoct a product with similar quality, let them label and market it under their own name. If you fork an open source project, wouldn't it be convenien…

But presumably there is more than one brand of Blue d'Avergne? I'm not suggesting one should be able to steal the trademarks of any of those brands. And if someone from a different place makes a product that is compositionally identical then probably their ability to market it will depend on the customer's recognition that it is exactly the same thing.

You're confusing brand/trademark with origin labelling. A farmers market will inevitably have multiple cheeses created by different producers, all of which may be labelled "Blue d'Avergne".

Yeah, brands do happen, I bought a cheese labelled "Blue style cheese" the other day because it was cheaper and may have been made in Poland to the same process.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#204

Post by segmondy »

coreyp_1 wrote: post #2

Wow! Can I blame this for my obesity?

Nah, blame your diet and caloric intake. You can however possibly blame your allergy! My allergy flares up when I eat out often, haven't been able to isolate it. When I eat at home for long and only home cooked meal, it clears up!

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#205

Post by sampo »

CalRobert wrote: post #129
ptaipale wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is fine (I say as European). Requiring GMO labeling is is about as sensible as requiring DHMO labeling - it's scaremongering not based on science.

Perhaps I choose not to buy GMO's because I find the notion of patenting the mechanics of life philosophically troubling. We're not all a bunch of anti-science luddites, you know.

If you think only GMO varieties are patented, you are very ill informed. For example, google 'BASF clearfield'.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#206

Post by ricksplat »

stephenr wrote: post #198
ricksplat wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can say that just because rules are being broken, that is a case for them being repealed.

It's the default American approach to assume that a failed implementation equals a failure of a concept.

To be fair to our American friends it's not solely their bias; a lot of the pro-Brexit voters have a similar feeling about the EU.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#207

Post by pbhjpbhj »

mac01021 wrote: post #121
Dutchie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not just protectionism. If I buy Bleu d'Auvergne (it's a French cheese) in the Netherlands, I want to be sure I get the real deal, as a consumer.

But what if someone outside France is able to produce equivalent cheese using the same formula? Why do you care where it's from?

They can label it as made the same way. They can do comparative marketing - 'we use the same techniques but better ingredients, our product is better'.

What they can't do is pretend their product is the actual traditional product from some other geographical location.

There seems like no possible way that can be detrimental to consumers?

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#208

Post by lsc »

lazyjones wrote: post #176
lsc wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm not confident that is the case. It sounds wrong to me because although I accept that our grandparents were far more physically active than we are it is known that exercise burns calories at a low rate. Exercise has always been a bad way to lose weight. It has always been easier to lose weight by eating less. You could skip the gym for two days by neglecting to eat half a mars bar. I don't want to call you out fo…

> I'd bet money that the increased caloric intake of our ancestors is entirely explained by their increased physical activity. I'd bet that there were other factors involved, like parasites (worms) and lower quality food (inedible/rotten food tends to leave our intestines quickly).

Maybe. I bet, though, that if you made me do the work my grandfather did when he was a youngster, or that my great-grandfather did when he was my age, I'd burn those 4000 calories a day, just 'cause being a fat desk worker, I'm not going to be nearly as efficient, even if I get to keep my 21st century digital healthcare and hygiene.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#209

Post by sampo »

wildmusings wrote: post #184
pizza234 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public is not made only/mainly of science-challenged people as you're subtly implying. There are other reasonable motivations for labeling GMO, ie. political and environmental (not all environmental reasons are "GMO is frankenstein food"). Moreover, the GMO scaremongering will last, as any other fad, for a limited amount of time. The part of public who rejects GMO for shallow (no) reasons, will quickly forget and…

I'm not so sure. People are still sure that MSG will slowly kill them, when it's actually been proven to be 100% harmless as far as we know. You still see "No MSG" labels on tons of food. Mandatory labeling gives the impression that it's relevant information. Whether your food is GMO is totally without consequence. I don't see why the government should burden and mislead the rest of us so you can more easily wage you…

If anything, GMO products should be be much safer than non-GMO, because they have gone through a much stricter approval process.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#210

Post by thaumasiotes »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #179
gambiting wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it as stupid at all! To me, Greek Yoghurt has to come from greece, that's what I expect as a customer. Any non-Greek Greek yoghurt is simply labeled as "Greek-style Yoghurt" and that's easy enough, when I go to the shop I know exactly what I'm getting.

That's a interesting example – I totally agree with you in the general case, but I'd actually always thought of 'Greek yoghurt' the same way I thought of 'French fries'!

What would be an example of food that conforms to the "general case"?
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