Fake Foods and Fraud

If you were a teenager in one of my culinary arts classes, you may well already be tired hearing my rants, for a lack of better wording, about corporate food offerings. I say often, when you are relying upon a corporation to feed you, you are already in trouble. A corporation, ultimately, has only one goal, to make profit. When your family farmed, their one and only goal, was to nourish people. We have traditions of offering guest something to eat or drink for the same reason. A gift of food implies that you care if the receiver lives a healthy long life.
 
I am willing to come and bare the bad news about these edible non-foods on our health and longevity. My teens have been known to say "Chef, you make me want to stop eating everything". In fact, that is not my goal. I want them to do a couple of things, make intelligent choices about what they eat, I want them to question how and what they eat, and hopefully they will make nutrition decisions based on facts and not on marketing.

These kids have a steady diet of Kruncy Kurls, Hot Pockets, Hot n Flaming Everything, Pop Tarts, McDonald, Wendy's , and Burger King. There are more greasy spoon restaurants in their neighborhood than grocery stores. They never read a nutrition label or even question what they are eating. Is this butter or margarine? Is these long long named ingredients chemicals or food? Just because it can be eaten, should it be eaten? What is natural and what is not?

To this, I bring up a legal case currently in the headlines. A cheese company is under indictment for selling wood shavings as parmesan cheese.  This fraud was perpetrated over many years by a particular company. Naturally, this brings up many questions. Who knew about this? Why didn't anyone report it? How did the consumers not know what they were eating? And I wanted to know how the legal suit is progressing. The totality is that one individual is charged with a misdemeanor crime under one count of crime. This is not something I can understand fully. Why is this a misdemeanor and not a felony? What is there only one name on the indictment? And why hasn't the company been charged with each and every count of sales that were contaminated and sold to consumers?

The other article in recent news are the results of a study that found industrial chemicals in the bodies of fast food consumers. All the preservative and chemical additives are taking a toll on our health and, I believe, is costing us financially by causing disease and needing additional medical expense. Last year was the first time on record that American's spent more money in restaurants than at grocery stores. We are trading nutrition for convenience and suffering a high cost. If you can't read everything on the label, why are you eating it?



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/the-parmesan-cheese-you-sprinkle-on-your-penne-could-be-wood

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-13/fast-food-eaters-have-more-industrial-chemicals-in-their-bodies

Robotic innovations

Lots of robots have been, and will continue to be developed, for the purpose of making cakes, icing them, and some simple decorations. You have probably bought one of these cakes and taken it home from a local grocer. While there isn't anything wrong with these types of products, on the whole, they are not made with any human hands or artistry,

I was once a bakery department manager for a large local grocer, and my experience working there gave me fresh eyes for the manufacturing of these take-n-go cakes. These products are mass produced with a lot of preservatives and cheap ingredients. When I was working in the bakery department, we used frozen cakes from a factory and icings that came in a bucket. While these products can be called 'cake' by definition, they are very different that any cake made at any bakery any place else. In fact, I will claim that the box of cake mix is down the baking aisle is better.

The icing is called buttercream but has no butter involved, just butter flavoring, another chemical. This icing has 1 lb of fat to every 7 lbs of powdered sugar, real buttercream has a ratio of 2 lb of fat for every 4 lbs of sugar. The commercial icing is basicly wet sugar. The difference in taste and mouth feel is very large and often times it has customers saying that they don't like buttercream. I have often done tastings prior to ordering my cakes and even those who make the claim about their dislike to buttercream are often very surprised when they taste mine.

Another icing used at many retail bakeries are called whip cream but it is usually a product called "bettercream". This product is very much like cool whip from the frozen aisle. This, just like the last item, this product has none of the ingredients they are replacing, no cream involved. Both "bettercream" and Cool Whip are non-dairy products made from chemicals and preservatives.

The frozen cake layers bought from factories are using as many preservatives and chemicals they can shove into the mix as they can in order to prolong shelf life and make the highest profit possible. If I am not mistaken, the sell-by date is about a year long frozen, and during my time in grocery stores, I have never seen any of these cakes 'go bad' unless they were damaged or the freezer was broken.

Automation and innovation is inventing new ways to work and turn profits. The problem with this, in my realm of cakes, comes in with a lack of love, creativity, artistry, customization, and a reliance upon chemicals instead of real food.

Real foods are essential for the proper operation of the body, even if most people don't want to account for the calories that pastry supplies. Dessert isn't a bad word when speaking of nutrition, it is however, bad when you forgo eating them in moderation. A good meal should be highlighted by a perfect sweet finish, be it cake, custard, or fresh fruit.

Manufactured food, preserve laden, chemical combinations that are readily available in stores is not the way to eat.  Our bodies, oftentimes, don't even recognize them as food. Our digestion is taking hits all day. We are stuffing all sorts of chemicals into our daily intake without any sign of ceasing. Live long enough and you too will see the news reports that explain why the list of ingredients, that we sold to you as food, is banned due to the risk of another disease or aliment. Big pharma and food additive companies produce formulas and use mass media and sales staff to push the new hot product only to be sued years later by consumers due to the harm it cause.

I'm not against all shortcuts found in the neighborhood grocery store, but I am not in favor of reliance upon the corporate overlords for ingestion of foods. The goal of any corporation is, first and foremost, profit. The thinking at a corporation is if it won't cause harm and be profitable then it is okay to sell. The goal of doctors, nutritionist, and chefs must be a positive viewpoint about the value of the item, what the consumer will gain from eating this item. I want to know how important is this to consume. Price shouldn't be the only measurement used to judge a food.  The question shouldn't be why is this food expensive, but it should be why is this other item so cheap?

Chefs need to be health conscious and have a environmental outlook for their craft.  Industrialized foods were an effective tool for preserving and transporting food during WWII, but once the war ended the machines didn't stop running.  The love and care taken by mothers and grandmothers to produce and preserve jellies and jams, for example, was replaced by the unstoppable soulless steel.

Of course, it is more expensive to order a handcrafted item compared to factory made. Yes, it can be created by machines in the shortest times possible but the losses that are created can't be worth the effort.

Environmental Chef

Every body, and every chef, relies upon quality ingredients to make a meal go from hum drum to zing pop. Without honorable farming practices, from soup to nuts, the chef cannot do what we do best.

Organic, non GMO, pasteurized, and fortified, all influence what our plates contain. Should chefs have a voice in the movement away from Monsanto tainted food, processed and persevered, items with more chemicals than food? Yes. 2015 was the first year on record that Americans spent more money on restaurants then at the grocery store. One can extrapolate that chefs are having a greater and grater impact on the health of the American citizen. Will it be left up to the corporations or to the craftsmanship of skilled chefs?

How we grow and treat food, or manufacture it, should be very important to everyone, but especially to us chefs. Life happens, change is the only constant, but preservation of the food sources we rely upon, not only for our trade, but for our very lives, must be a concern.

There is a farm to table movement in the culinary scene. I am not directly apart of that movement per se, as pastry doesn't rely as heavily upon farmed items as does the savory chef. However, as a fibromyaliga patient, I am rewriting my common eating practice to be gluten-free because the ingestion of gluten reeks havoc on my system.

Gardening, farm to table, diets, vegetarian and vegan, no matter your eating style how your food is treated before you purchase it is a huge consideration to be mindful of when purchasing. Environmentalist point to climate changes that are signaling some drastic shifts to our planetary harvest of edible products. We need to listen and learn before it is too late. We must take some responsibility for feeding ourselves. We have hired corporations to provide our nutritional needs by way of prepacked and process foods. We are confusing good for you and good tasting, they are not mutually exclusive. Many things that are good for us nutrition-wise can be very good tasting as well, however, if you are accustom to eating process food almost exclusively then your have trained your tasting ability to like those types of things, and therefore, being unaccustomed to the flavors of this items.
macrobiotics

Lots of kids in this new generation are trained to eat so many processed food items, microwave entrees, microwave popcorn, chips, dips, salsa, and super sticky sweet pastries that are just spun sugars. Sugar is a very addictive item with levels of dependencies very similar to heroine addiction. Frequently this diet is tied to the income of the parents. The lower the annual income of the household has a direct connection to the types of foods consumed. Often the families chose food stuffs with the primary focus on getting the cheapest and the most abundant items. While this type of consideration can be understood, it is the worst reaction or action that the shopper can do. I once was listening to a radio show and the host hit the nail on the head. He stated many things about budgeting, the most import of them was 'It is most important to understand when to spend and where to save. You should save on items that depreciate over time, like a car or clothing, but you should never buy food totally based on saving money. You should spend on food with the mindset of health benefit. The quality food stuffs you buy today will help to prevent you from being sick tomorrow and spending a high percentage of your money on medical bills.' I totally agree.

The environmental impacts of toxic waste, oil spills, water contamination, polluted air, are easy to understand in terms of their effects upon food resources. The global warming issues of storm changes, floods, drought, shifts in tides, changes in streams and rivers, will devastate our farming lands and methods. These issues are looming on the horizon but the current threats to our food supply are in the methodology of how we currently grow our food. The debates are all over the place, and the two loudest sides of the discussion are the organic food movement against the Goliath chemical companies, like Monsanto, who produce pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics for livestock. Add to that the factory farming practices that have changed how our dairy, eggs, and meat production/slaughter. The corporations like Monsanto, have always contended that the use of their products has increased yields and improved quality, and they maybe right, however, anyone that has ever had a garden of their own can tell you, the taste, variety, quality, of their harvest far exceeds anything offered in the grocery store.

Many chefs have established relationships with local farmers and livestock growers. This way the chef has the opportunity to understand, share, and ask for items that they would love to buy. Farm to table is more than a catchphrase, it is becoming a movement. Factory farming kills any uniqueness in preference of the most shelf stable and consistent items. We have breed, cross pollinated, and forced ripened foods to the point that they have the highest profit margins and ability to transport these items long distances. I find it to be much like corporate cooking. The corporate chef is often forced to produce the highest amount of items as quickly and consistently as possible which erodes the creative artistic aspects of the chef. Cookie cutter concepts in grocery stores, kitchens, and manufacturing, stomp out the uniqueness that happens when a chef is able to use their imagination. Can a chef create and repeat highly crafted items? Of course, we can, but when the total issue is all about designing in the most cost effective methods, the major ways to achieve this is with lesser quality items, machines, and factory items instead of handmade items. Kill the chef?

Revolutions have been fought over food issues over and over again. "Let them eat cake!" When the body of citizens examine their nutrition substandard, it becomes a big part of how they view their poverty or wealth. Can you afford to eat or feed your family? Can you afford to have quality foods on your table? Are you needlessly suffering from malnutrition and diseases? And what are you able to about it?