Bad Stuff
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Germs are a problem around the home, though not always in the way we think. Some germs are definitely unwelcome and there is no shame in keeping your kitchen surfaces clean and healthy. Simple things like washing your hands before cooking, and again after handling raw meat are just pure common sense. But good soap and nice hot water will do the trick fine.
Despite evidence that we do need exposure, albeit with some care, to nasties as we are growing up to help our body build its own defences, some companies love working on scare tactics to make sure we buy their anti germ products. Once such company is Reckitt Benckiser, producers of Dettol, a product that has been closely linked to the antiseptic market in the UK since 1933. This is a highly respected product, so when their adverts start shouting FACT in front of every sentence and tell you that your work top has more germs than you toilet bowl, there is the assumption that everyone will rush out and buy Dettol.
This scaremongering has continued with their latest, heavily hyped product, the Healthy Touch soap dispenser. Apparently your soap dispenser that you have been using for several generations is a frightening source of germs, so they have invented one that you don’t have to touch to get the disinfectant soap.
In the last week or so, I have noticed they have calmed down their adverts, and are concentrating on how your children are going to catch terrible diseases from that terrible soap dispenser that you force them to use (or maybe even that germ laden bar of soap?) and should buy this no touch system.
Now as I said, there is nothing wrong with cleanliness, especially in the kitchen, but isn’t this new device and the marketing that goes with it just feeding off our paranoia? Paranoia generated by the adverts in the first place. To make it worse, this product is completely pointless.
After all, what is the first thing you do having touched a soap dispenser to get soap?
You wash your hands!
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Interesting little article in the BBC’s food programme blog about frozen food written by Simon Parkes. I have had and still have a mixed relationship with frozen food. Generally speaking I find it a false economy because the quality of frozen product in this country is so woefully low. We have an allotment and the freezer comes in handy for freezing over production, but because we cannot employ the blast freeze techniques of the manufacturers the result is disappointing and what was a wonderful bean when fresh, is a limp, structureless thing when thawed out.
Some things have improved over the years – most notably the freezers them selves. Apart from freezing a little quicker, they are also cheaper to run because of much improved insulation. Though be warned, they still cost considerably more to run than a refrigerator. And that insulation has brought its own downside – when we changed an ancient small freezer for a new one last year we were horrified how little space there was in the new one for the walls of the box were five times the thickness.
Simon Parkes does make one strange comment. “And secondly, it helps reduce waste (there’s nothing to trim off and throw away and you only take out of the freezer the amount you need)”. I am not sure how he works this out. Somewhere in the manufacturing process the veg had to be trimmed – probably by machine that often cuts off more than is required. That waste was generated anyway – just not at home. Also, most food waste is from cooking more than we eat and cheap food actually encourages that, especially if it is sold in portions size which many frozen products are.
As Simon points out, the French buy more frozen food than we do. However, the comparison is rather odd because in France the quality of frozen food is often much higher than ours – it is not seen as a cheap alternative but of a way of accessing food and storing food that you cannot get in your region so easily. I do likewise when I buy giant prawns from a local Chinese catering shop, or soft shelled crabs. But lets face it, these are hardly a cheap option!
Overall, we would save more money and eat better if we were more organised at home and cooked sensible sized meals. Frezers use a huge amount of electricity and are yet another item that is difficult to dispose of and far from saving waste, encourages it. And in the UK at least, they reinforce the idea that eating is something you just do because you have to rather than a special moment in the day.
So, do we need them? Have a small one for your peas and the odd luxury, and get the rest fresh from a market.
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
The ASA has banned a poster for a vitamin drink produced by Coca-Cola for being misleading. The advert for Vitaminwater claimed “enhanced hydration for the nation delicious and nutritious.”
However, as some people noted, each 500ml bottle contained 23g of sugar – a significant amount. The water is promoted as a health kick because it has added vitamins including 100% of the daily allowance of Vitamin C. Coke has used a quirk in the law that says a “Low Calorie” drink must have less 19 kcal per 100ml. Unfortunately, the law does not put a limit on a “per bottle basis” so if, like coke, you make a bigger bottle of a drink, you can still claim it has low calorie, even though most people will drink the entire bottle.
It Only Takes One Complaint
Aside from Coke trying to be clever, and thankfully not getting away with it, this adjudication by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) is interesting as they only had three complaints. It is good to know that the ASA work on the basis of the quality of the complaint rather than as a popularity contest. This is in contrast to other organisation in the media who will react only when a significant people complain, rather than because the rules were broken.
So, if you see something, especially advertising food, that is trying to mislead or even telling an outright porkie – Complain! Even if you are the only one, you may still do some good. Details of how to complain can be found here: ASA – How To Complain
ASA Adudication on Coca-Cola: Click Here
BBC Article on the Ad: Click Here
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Huge out of town sites kill the high street
The big four supermarkets in the UK have had planning applications for a further 577 huge supermarkets approved in the last two years, signalling further misery for our high streets. Research for Panorama to be broadcast tonight on the BBC at nine o’clock shows that Tesco took the lead with 392 more applications with Sainsbury second with 111. The campaign group Farmers For Action (FFA) has claimed that the huge growth of the big four in terms of market share will eventually put British agriculture out of business; FFA is currently under an injunction from ASDA preventing them for peacefully protesting at ASDA stores.
On the other side of the coin, the British Retail Consortium who lobbies powerfully for the big four pointed out that the growth of stores had produced much needed employment. John walker from the Federation of Small businesses points out, however, that 12,000 independent shops had gone out of business in 2009 alone.
Supermarkets are not always bad news and much depends on the size and how they fit in with the local economy. For instance, smaller supermarkets such as Waitrose and Budgens, who often open up in high streets can give the local economy a boost by attracting custom to the high street. However, where supermarkets open in areas away from the high street, especially when they add a cheap petrol station to drag drivers away from high streets, then the effect can be devastating. Even where they are closer to the high street, by often preventing local shoppers from using the car park unless they are buying from the supermarket they increase their strangle hold.
Part of the problem is also our eating and shopping habits. We are very quick to blame fast food and processed food for obesity in this country, but the real devil is the quantity of food we eat, a devil that the likes of Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Asda are all to keen to keep alive and kicking. Two for One offers, mega sizes, low price per pound, the farmers in this country are having prices squashed simply so we can be sold far more than we should eat and often do eat – we throw out thousands of tons of uneaten food every day.
Take a chicken for four. A small to medium chicken up to 1.5kg is ample for four people. Yet Tescos standard chicken weighs in at up to a whopping 3kg!
We have become greedy and the supermarkets are feeding that greed by selling bigger and bigger quantities at lower quality. It is dulling our tastes, taking the excitement out of food and making us fat – all in the name of business.
Friday, November 19th, 2010
It seems that in the US at least there is growing concern at the new breed of alcoholic “energy drinks” that are stuffed with high levels of caffeine. The aim of these drinks is quite simple, to mask how drunk you are getting by adding the coffee stimulant – therefore you drink more, and lets face it, buy more from the manufacturer.
Well, the Food and Drink Administration has had enough and have told manufacturers to take the coffee out or remove the products from the shelves. Phusion Projects, makers of Four Loko, a fruit flavoured caffeine enriched alcoholic drink, has already announced that they will remove the caffeine, and others like United Brands, maker of Joose, will probably follow suite.
(more…)
Friday, September 24th, 2010
This is the conclusion of the UK Food Standards Agency and for that matter the FDA in the US. The problem is pretty simple really, Miracle Mineral Supplement or MMS is 28% Sodium Chlorite – mix that with citric acid and you have bleach! And even if taken as instructed it can cause vomiting, diarrheoa and even respiratory failure if mixed wrongly.
It is one of those thing that you have to say “why would any one want to put it on the market in the first place?”
On the BBC News site a spokesman from the FSA said, “People should not take Miracle Mineral Supplement or Miracle Mineral Solution. This product is equivalent to industrial-strength bleach. The agency is working with local authorities across the UK to stop this product being sold. If anyone finds this product on sale please get in touch with your local authority trading standards department as soon as possible.”
Which sounds pretty clear.
So, why are sites like http://www.miraclemineralsupplement.org.uk still up and running? Maybe you would like to go and ask them. They very kindly have a blog.
Edit – oh, wonderful stuff. One UK site is claiming that this toxin can cure cancer. Though they do try and cloak it in pseudo-science. It is this lot of conmen here.
