The Elephant in the Room..........

[gregorach]

geez! Really making me question eating meat when I can't be sure where it came from. I suppose you could probably tell if you were eating a horse steak rather than Beef, but what about sausages, clearly there is no gaurentee that my A**a extra special sausages don't have meat other than pork in, so what is safe?

So far there's no indication that any of it's unsafe... But if you're worried, then buying from a reputable local butcher seems the way to go.

[Maykal]

It's the preserve of the "new middle classes" to eat from scratch and grow there own in this post industrial world, the proletariat now have no desire to cook...

This is one of the things that I like about staying in the countryside here as the village norm is for people to grow their own and cook from scratch. Here in the city, it's much like the west now with young 20-30-something corporate couples stuffing as much fast food and ready meals into their mouths as possible. Shopping at the hypermarket is 'classy', whereas eating home-grown/cooked food is 'peasant-ish'.

I find it very sad when some of my city acquaintances look at me pitifully when I explain what I ate whilst at my country house, usually some meat and veg washed down with wine, all of which came from within a 200-yard radius of the house and all produced organically (not because the villagers have middle-class pretensions, but just because they don't have the cash or knowledge to use artificial fertilizers or whatever).

[boboff]

Maykal, that does sound like a wonderful society to be part of.

The UK is very different nowadays unfortunately, the post war baby boomers put pay to the notion that happiness is more than possessions!

[Zech]

When a "typical" pleb on benefits spends so much on White Cider, Rolling tobacco and dare I say it Cannabis, surely it's there choice to do this, and spend relatively little on food, kitchens, etc etc. It's the preserve of the "new middle classes" to eat from scratch and grow there own in this post industrial world, the proletariat now have now desire to cook, save money, get up of the sofa and clean, as they can play x-box and claim benefits.

OK, must go and finish that column for the Daily Mail...........

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation tried to study this "Culture of Worklessness" but they couldn't find it: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/cult ... rklessness

[boboff]

ITV 9.25 a.m. Mon - Fri, they couldn't have tried very hard!

[Flo]

Can't cook, won't cook and then look surprised when the packet you buy isn't what you thought it was.

But then did you read the contents? And have you any idea what it would really cost if you had to make it - or how to make it following a basic cookery book.

Come back the Marguerite Patten and her basic cookery skill books with uncomplicated recipes.

[Skippy]

ITV 9.25 a.m. Mon - Fri, they couldn't have tried very hard!

I think I know the programme you mean, I'm not a viewer but at my last job it was always on the tv in the canteen at breakfast time so I couldn't alweays avoid it.
However, I think you're mistaken as when the DNA test is done on that programme it's almost always from a completely different family ,


Pete

[boboff]

You make a good point!

"I am like 98% sure the babies his!"

How?

[oldjerry]

Can't cook, won't cook and then look surprised when the packet you buy isn't what you thought it was.

But then did you read the contents? And have you any idea what it would really cost if you had to make it - or how to make it following a basic cookery book.

Come back the Marguerite Patten and her basic cookery skill books with uncomplicated recipes.

I don't disagree with any of that,and I expect we'd agree on most of this,but surely the point is what's on the contents label ain't the contents.Yep horsemeat is OK to eat,but if it's not officially there are, you trying to tell me that it's been slaughtered hygienically and legally ??

[okra]

The European meat processing industry is, like most other sectors of today's globalised food chain, dominated by a handful of companies. The large supermarkets simalarly control most of the food we buy. It's common knowledge that the supermarkets put pressure on all suppliers to produce the cheapest products available but at what cost. Profits are squeezed for farmers and processors and we the consumers get what we pay for. I am not surprised that horsemeat has been found in cheap burgers but at least they contain meat rather than some chemically reconstituted concoction made with all the left-over bits following processing.

[boboff]

I agree with all your facts bar one Okra.

Supermarkets do not put pressure on Suppliers to produce the cheapest product, they insist on paying the most commercial price for a quality stated in a very very vigorous specification, it is the suppliers who try to cut corners to make money from the high volume they get from a Supermarket, they cheat, not the Supermarkets.

It's a widely held, albeit fundamentally wrong opinion mind.

It's only like you or I looking for a Superdry T shirt, its £40 everywhere and we see one for £19.99, we buy it and then are disappointed it's a fake. We didn't force them to make fakes, we expected the genuine article but at the cheapest price. I know that argument isn't very rounded, but the weakness lies in us being unable to demand exactly what we want.

[oldjerry]

Serious question,Boboff,I'm really not digging you out..

I can just about accept that a supermarket can have no responsibility for the sale of adulterated branded products in it's stores,but surely their own brand products must carry a degree of it.I could be wrong,but everyone seems to be desperately off-loading responsibility further and further down the chain.I could be wrong,but given the state of the economy,and the general level of downtrodden depression this could roll on for ages,and sales take a massive hit, far better for Supermarkets,authorities etc,come straight out and say''We've screwed up'' ''We're changing the whole system'' and,er,''Sorry''.

[boboff]

No Jerry, it's fine, I didn't say they didn't have any responsibilities, ultimately they have 100% responsibility, if, IF, they did not act with Due Diligence.

It really doesn't matter that much whether branded or not.

As the guy said today from the forensic accounting people, most ready meals involve over 400 steps at multiple locations, so it is going to take some time to filter all the way down the line.

Fundamentally I only really object to this "Supermarkets are the Devil" shite that get rolled out.

I have some firmly held views, Supermarkets are in business to make money, but provide excellent customer service, they spend millions on systems and procedures to ensure food is safe, fresh, competitively priced, local to demand and delivered with excellent customer service, ok shop local and get your warmed up pasty served by some dirty vagrant with BO who picks his nose and lives in a house with 25 flea infested Alsatians if you like, me, I would much prefer a HACCP controlled, BRC audited plant any day of the week.

Secondly, farmers are the biggest bunch of moaners in the world, brought about from years of being secretly absolutely stonking Rich, and pretending otherwise so they don't have to stand a round in the Pub. Ok some arn't but allot are, and when a farm goes out of business our hearts bleed, but ask yourself what that means? They keep the house, no mortgage, rent the land off and get an income without working, sell of the equipment for cash and buy a villa in Malta. The same farmers / Land owners who actually run the country, is it any wonder they get away with it???????

[oldjerry]

Thanks for that,most reasonable people would see the SMs as the inevitable end product of a system that may or may not be diabolic(depending upon where you're coming from),but not themselves intrinsically evil.(Christ,though I wish they'd change their bloody architects).
They do sort of employ a fair few people....in fact my niece went out with a bloke who told her he was in an aerial display team.......turned out he stacked the washing powder shelves at Morrisons.

Pity you live so far up country,as the pasties in the West of Cornwall are excellent and largely bogy-free.

[okra]

Supermarkets are not evil and have provided cheaper food, which is generally safe, provide many jobs and are what most people want. There has, however, been a cost. Out of town superstores mean driving to shop and with fuel prices increasing this has become an issue for many.

An argument can be had as to whether they have changed our food culture or that they have only provided what customers want. Is it a coincidence that the supermarket revolution and ever increasing obesity levels seem to have followed the same trajectory?

Ready made meals high in salt, fat and sugar are more of a health issue than horsemeat which is has=s been fraudently used to replace beef. Apparently on average we all eat 3 ready meals per week and the number of people cooking from scratch is on a downward trajectory. Have the supermarkets followed this change or led it?