Counterfeit foods everywhere, especially at restaurants

[masraum]

There are a ton of articles on the net about the subject of this book, https://www.amazon.com/Real-Food-Fake-Youre-Eating/dp/1616204214. I read one on the plane back from NY yesterday.

Here's a different article on the same topic/book.
Fake Foods - Foods You're Eating That Are Probably Fake

I was already aware of a lot of this. For instance, I knew that when you are eating fish, it's often not the kind of fish that the menu says whether it's cooked or sushi.

Honey, I'd heard of this recently, I think because my mom had seen something on TV, probably triggered by the book.

Olive oil, I'd read something about this years ago. It's apparently very common for olive oil to contain little or no actual olive oil, but to instead be colored and flavored to seem like olive oil. (We buy California Olive Ranch olive oil, and if we can find it, some local Texas stuff). Apparently, real, good, fresh olive oil, if you drink it should tickle/burn your throat and make you cough.

Parmesagne cheese, I think we had a thread about that here a while back. We buy Parmigiano-Reggiano, but even that apparently gets counterfeited.

Coffee, Tea, spice, etc....

It's a bad world out there with lots of folks trying to screw you to make a buck.

This just popped into my head. I'd read it a while back.

Chinese police uncover huge fake jellyfish 'scam' - BBC News

Police in eastern China have raided two fake jellyfish workshops, saying more than 10 tonnes is thought to have made its way into local food markets.

Police said the fake jellyfish had been made by mixing chemicals, adding that checks showed high levels of aluminium.

The syndicates made more than 170,000 yuan (�18,100; $26,100) in profits in a year of production, they added.

Jellyfish is very popular sliced and served as salad, particularly along China's southern and eastern coasts.

Huzhou municipal police in Zhejiang province, which is leading the investigation said they first found a workshop run by a Mr Yuan, who made and sold the fake jellyfish at a farmer's market.

Mr Yuan then led detectives to a bigger workshop in Changzhou city in neighbouring Jiangsu province run by a Mr Jia who had taught him the "art" of faking jellyfish. He was detained alongside other syndicate members. The arrests were made in late April, but police only made it public late last week
Is fake jellyfish harmful?

Mr Yuan told the investigators he made the jellyfish by mixing three chemicals - alginic acid, ammonium alum and calcium chloride anhydrous - according to an official release (in Chinese) by Huzhou police on social media platform WeChat.

Officers say they found "excessive levels" of aluminium in the fake jellyfish - up to 800mg/kg, which is eight times of China's own legal limit.

The food and drug safety branch of Huzhou police said too much aluminium could result in bone and nerve damage, and potentially harm memory. They warned against pregnant women, children and the elderly consuming the substance.
Why make fake jellyfish?

Although jellyfish can be poisonous they are considered something of a delicacy in China, described as both tasty and a good source of collagen.

Especially popular in the summer, jellyfish skin is sliced and served like a salad with various dressings.

It appears as if the wild jellyfish supply simply cannot cope with the demand. Zhejiang's Metropolitan Express paper has reported on jellyfish farms in the province. It quotes fish farmers saying that half-a-kilo of jellyfish takes 40 days to raise, with the wholesale price at about 30-40 yuan.

This cost is halved with artificial jellyfish and for obvious reasons, the production time is far less.

It's not far off from the crazy chemical soaked eggs that they often sell as 1000 year eggs in China.

[Por_sha911]

Next you're going to tell me the Ribeye on the grill is "supermeat"
What is this world coming to?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

Next you're going to tell me the Ribeye on the grill is "supermeat"
What is this world coming to?

Not super meat yet.

Could be meat glue though.

[Craig T]

At sushi bars is the U.S., less the half the fish is actually the fish being represented. Halibut, red snapper, chilian seabass, and blufin are almost always substituted with a cheaper fish similar in texture and color. Only one in five sushi bars in the country are Japenese owned, and less than 10% have any formal Japanese sushi chef training.

I think the seafood industry is the worst.

[Por_sha911]

Don't forget pink slime

[JJ 911SC]

This would be hard to fake...

[rusnak]

Halibut is super dangerous to eat as sushi unless the chef knows what he's doing.

I've heard of fake Kobe beef, Champagne, and caviar. I guess horsemeat hamburger will be making a comeback?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by rusnak

Halibut is super dangerous to eat as sushi unless the chef knows what he's doing.

I've heard of fake Kobe beef, Champagne, and caviar. I guess horsemeat hamburger will be making a comeback?

Horse is fine.

Just think of it as a tall skinny cow.

[Gogar]

Here is a list of the 9 restaurants in the USA that actually have real Kobe beef.

神戸ビーフ指定登録店 | 神戸ビーフ・神戸肉流通推進協�*�会

[Evans, Marv]

We routinely go to a couple of places that serve sushi, and I often wonder if the fish is what it's supposed to be. Wish I was knowledgeable enough to tell the difference. Like everything else, I've noticed the quality of beef cuts served in restaurants aren't as high grade as ones I ate decades ago. I had a zoology instructor in college who told us about his days of getting through school. He'd order a quarter of horse (I think it was a quarter) and have it cut up & processed into steaks, roasts, burger meat, etc. He said he always got compliments from his friends when he invited them over for BBQ, but he said he kept his mouth shut.

[masraum]

And one of them is less than a mile away in Houston. Cool!

[GWN7]

Horse meat is soggy according to people who I know who own horses. It's because your crying while eating it.

A few years ago a TV station in Minnesota DNA tested a bunch of walleye from restaurant's around the state. They found it was actually Zander, a cousin of the Walleye from Europe.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by Gogar

Here is a list of the 9 restaurants in the USA that actually have real Kobe beef.

神戸ビーフ指定登録店 | 神戸ビーフ・神戸肉流通推進協�*�会

That was pretty damn funny right there.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

We routinely go to a couple of places that serve sushi, and I often wonder if the fish is what it's supposed to be. Wish I was knowledgeable enough to tell the difference. Like everything else, I've noticed the quality of beef cuts served in restaurants aren't as high grade as ones I ate decades ago. I had a zoology instructor in college who told us about his days of getting through school. He'd order a quarter of horse (I think it was a quarter) and have it cut up & processed into steaks, roasts, burger meat, etc. He said he always got compliments from his friends when he invited them over for BBQ, but he said he kept his mouth shut.

I was listening to a radio show with a couple of restaurant owners. They were talking about quality beef, and how you just can't find it in stores. You pretty much have to order it. Their preferred beef was from Nebraska I think. One neat little tid bit was that there is a code on the beef label that, if you know what it says, you can tell where the store bought beef came from. They said that you can look through the packages at Costco, for example, until you find beef from a cow that came from Nebraska, hoping that it was from one of the grass-fed lots. They didn't share what the code was, though. That seems to be top secret.

[Crowbob]

Hate to say it but if fake food is the worst of your worries about eating at a restaurant, most likely you've never worked in one.

Seriously, you do not want to think too hard about it.

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by rusnak

I was listening to a radio show with a couple of restaurant owners. They were talking about quality beef, and how you just can't find it in stores. You pretty much have to order it. Their preferred beef was from Nebraska I think. One neat little tid bit was that there is a code on the beef label that, if you know what it says, you can tell where the store bought beef came from. They said that you can look through the packages at Costco, for example, until you find beef from a cow that came from Nebraska, hoping that it was from one of the grass-fed lots. They didn't share what the code was, though. That seems to be top secret.

Local grocery chain here maintains a buffalo herd. Partly an advertising tactic but buffalo is good stuff.

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by masraum

And one of them is less than a mile away in Houston. Cool!

B&B Butchers ... interesting

[craigster59]

Another reason why I only eat at Taco Bell. If they would only bring back the "Bell Beefer" all would be right with the world.

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by craigster59

Another reason why I only eat at Taco Bell. If they would only bring back the "Bell Beefer" all would be right with the world.

That sounds like a good name for a band.

[M.D. Holloway]

Bell Beefer(tm) ... mine! LOL

Had a band in the 70's, called it Long Island Sound. Only makes sense because I was living on the shoreline of CT...