When chocolate bars are no longer made with chocolate. About a decade ago, I discovered that pringles chips had no potato in its ingredient list. Yeah, I know considering what the packaging seems to imply. However, American chocolate manufacturers have begun replacing cocoa and its derivatives with chemicals that are cheaper, they apparently also changed the composition of the "chocolate bar" it no longer melts…
Now, I have long discussed our business model, we focus on the higher end, "organically" grown crops and sell mostly to high end buyers and our own transformation businesses (aka our meat pie business as an example).
Last week an expose was made of the McDonald hamburger that was now mostly if not entirely made out of corn and its byproducts. Now, I have no idea if McDonalds in the UK does this too, last time I had a big Mac was in the 1990s.
It seems that the American food industry has decided to double down on ingredient lists and use what can best be described as chemicals to make food. It always amuses me to hear my gluten intolerant American friends having no problem eating bread in Europe. Bread in Europe and America share little in common.
I would like to point out that America's food industry is dying to expand into Europe, we have seen it at the lower end of the food business scale already.
As an example of the cost of food, our meat chickens that are raised for our own consumption (and our staff) cost about a bit less than two pounds in feed over the 12 to 14 weeks we keep them. It is us and our employees who transform the chickens during plucking parties (we have two). The whole thing is actually fun (you have to remember we are all farmers..) Yes we kill chicken, but we do it humanly and how you do think your supermarket chicken gets to you. I have seen (in the US) whole chickens sold for less than $10 and at the time, I wondered how they did that. Bottom line they feed them junk, mostly corn, and used chemicals and hormones to promote growth. BTW the difference in taste between an UK chicken and a US chicken is day and night (with the possible exception of the corn fed, "free ranging") that sell for $25 in the US.
The games the food industry is playing with the "chocolate bars" is just the latest and most visible iteration of an industrial complex that has no oversight and no control over the quality of its production (it is equally true that most people would rather buy the cheap protein, independently of the consequences). Because with heavy sauce any chicken taste the same! The cost is long term health (never mind the unbelievable level of obesity in the US).
The rant is really about what people are "willing" to do in the short term. I know it is very unfair, I am a wealthy man, and I can afford premium ingredients. On the other hand, there is something to be said about being careful of what you put in your body.
End of rant!
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