“Strange brew, killin’ what’s inside of you”. That’s the refrain of Cream’s 1967 song and our Foodie Friday theme today. I got to thinking about this as the “pink slime” debate raged. For anyone uninitiated, that’s a food additive that meat processors use and many of us unwittingly consume. Suffice it to say it’s gross. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about it last week. That piece got picked up in a post by Media Post about the controversy. Not the best of things to read around meal time. I don’t care to have ammonia in my food. In fact, I definitely don’t want anything in my food that I would not be expecting and if there is something unusual in there it needs to be identified so I can make a decision about how brave I’m feeling.
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Every so often I think it’s good to remind ourselves that these types of products don’t make themselves and that food isn’t the only business that produces products that aren’t fully transparent with respect to how they operate. Tracking pixels anyone? As marketers, there’s really no upside in being nefarious. In a connected world, we end up getting caught more often than not. As people from Nixon to Clinton can tell you, the cover-up is way worse than the crime.
Let’s think about this from MSNBC.com:
Food adulteration is more than just your neighborhood fish counter selling you farm-raised salmon and telling you it’s line caught. It’s ingredients that can go in ingredients to make products sold by your reputable local grocer or restaurant.
New research shows that the most common food fraud ingredients are olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice.
I find myself shopping more often at places that display clear labels about food origins and buying products with ingredient lists and nutritional information that go beyond what’s mandated by law. Hopefully they’re being honest. But why should I have to think about that? Who makes the decision to lie? What’s the situation in your industry?
Thoughts?
Consult Keith 