I can safely say the food industry hasn't been very honest to consumers about food standards in recent years. Several chefs have highlighted this, including Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, stressing the importance of organic and free-range food and where some of the crap we eat actually comes from. Few people would admit that they are to blame for this.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall discovered that broiler hens are reared for their meat in just 39 days, whereas free-range hens are reared after more than 75 days. Free-range hens live in natural surroundings, but broiler hens live in small cages, and for what? More money for the food companies? Do they think consumers would be stupid enough to buy non free-range chickens after discovering this? I somehow doubt that.
You may remember a few years back when Jamie Oliver became king of school dinners. He found out children were eating turkey twizzlers rather than proper meat and were not having a very balanced diet. The amount of processing that goes into making food like turkey twizzlers is incredible. Most of the children Jamie interviewed couldn't tell what a cucumber or a cabbage looked like. The schools said they lacked funds so they bought cheaper food, but surely schools would want to serve their pupils decent, honest food, even if it is more expensive?
Films like Super Size Me provide further evidence with what was going on behind closed doors at some of America's high schools. Much of the food in high schools is bought in, packaged, processed and full of additives and E-numbers. The film also showed why you should never eat chicken nuggets again. Originally made from old chickens with no eggs, they are now made with chickens with unusually large breasts. They are stripped from the bone, ground up into chicken mash, which is combined with stabilizers and preservatives, breaded, shredded, freeze-dried and then sent to restaurants and fast food joints all over the country. Yuck.
Some of the giant food corporations in the world have also been in trouble too. Nestle were accused of using GM ingredients when Greenpeace found genetically modified organisms in Chinese Nesquik. From December 2004 to February 2005 Tyson foods, the world's largest exporter of processed beef, chicken and pork, were said to have workers that were that instructed to rip the heads off birds who missed the throat-cutting machines. The investigator stated that he saw birds scalded alive in the feather removal tank, and said that managers said it was acceptable to scald 40 birds alive per shift. This further underlines the problems with processed food.
In this country many people would opt for easy food such as ready meals rather than cook something that's healthier and less expensive. Some ready meals claim to be healthier than others to try and entice the consumer, and include health benefits on the packaging. These foods don't reflect their nutritional value and they are telling the consumers lies. The labelling of ready meals is very inaccurate, "healthy" options can have more calories than ordinary ranges and supermarkets are stocking some products that make unsubstantiated health claims. O dear. Uncovering more secrets only seems to be revealing more lies.
So the truth about food? There isn't much truth really. Don't believe what companies tell you, because ultimately, the food industry is a business. They want consumers to consume their food, because it's good for business. Even in the cynical society that we live in today will believe that most food is safe to eat, but standards have certainly fallen.
