Bring Back The Food Inspectors
By Janey1966
@Janey1966 (24170)
Carlisle, England
February 12, 2013 4:24pm CST
In this country, at the moment, we're finding out that not all food we eat is what it's supposed to be i.e. horse instead of beef found in processed foods. I'm so glad I don't eat this crap anymore.
At first suppliers from Romania were blamed but now, it seems, we're finding out that not all food suppliers in this country are being honest either. A slaughterhouse in Yorkshire is being investigated, for example.
Now, no-one has mentioned the fact that the cutbacks to Environmental Health Departments has had a detrimental impact on the food industry in general. Where are the Food Inspectors?
My Mum makes sandwiches for 'naughty children' now, but for many years she was in charge of a school kitchen, making around 400 meals a day for the kids. Her standards were very high but not all cooks are like my Mum and will 'cut corners' in their preparation of food. I'm not saying they're poisoning the kids or anything but the quality of the food is suspect, purely due to the fact some cooks are skimping on ingredients. Bearing in mind that kids who have to pay for their meals are forking out £2 A DAY, this is a disgrace! For me growing up, it was about 90p A WEEK so you get the idea how expensive it is.
If Food Inspectors were coming round unannounced like they used to, not only in schools but slaughterhouses, etc, I really don't think this mis-labelling would be an issue right now.
So, BRING BACK THE FOOD INSPECTORS I say. There aren't enough of them, that's pretty obvious to me.
Oh, and some takeaway establishments are 'rank!'
At first suppliers from Romania were blamed but now, it seems, we're finding out that not all food suppliers in this country are being honest either. A slaughterhouse in Yorkshire is being investigated, for example.
Now, no-one has mentioned the fact that the cutbacks to Environmental Health Departments has had a detrimental impact on the food industry in general. Where are the Food Inspectors?
My Mum makes sandwiches for 'naughty children' now, but for many years she was in charge of a school kitchen, making around 400 meals a day for the kids. Her standards were very high but not all cooks are like my Mum and will 'cut corners' in their preparation of food. I'm not saying they're poisoning the kids or anything but the quality of the food is suspect, purely due to the fact some cooks are skimping on ingredients. Bearing in mind that kids who have to pay for their meals are forking out £2 A DAY, this is a disgrace! For me growing up, it was about 90p A WEEK so you get the idea how expensive it is.
If Food Inspectors were coming round unannounced like they used to, not only in schools but slaughterhouses, etc, I really don't think this mis-labelling would be an issue right now.
So, BRING BACK THE FOOD INSPECTORS I say. There aren't enough of them, that's pretty obvious to me.
Oh, and some takeaway establishments are 'rank!'3 people like this
9 responses
@MoonGypsy (4606)
• United States
12 Feb 13
the schools systems over here are worse, as far as feeding kids have to go. the food is all process and not healthy for the children. i remember when my kids where in public school, i got a report from them over the phone that they had gotten a hold to some contaminated meet! i think it takes more than food inspectors over here in this country to make things right with that matter.
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
12 Feb 13
Jamie Oliver got things moving so far as healthier meals for children are concerned but it's all down to money, and since his programmes the price of food has rocketed. What constitutes as good practice then isn't always happening now, due to the price rises.
However, Mum was always intelligent enough to use her brain and the stuff she's seen the cook make in the kitchen she works in now turns her stomach, as she can't actually cook properly.
In poorer schools (an example was the one Mum used to work at) all the kids have free school meals but the standards HAVE to be higher for that very reason. The school where Mum is now..the kids all pay this £2 a day but the standards are less. This is something Mum cannot understand but she can't do anything about it, unfortunately.
At least her sandwiches are top notch!
1 person likes this
@inertia4 (27961)
• United States
13 Feb 13
That seems to be the trend these days. I agree there should be under cover inspectors checking on these things. But remember this, it is big business, big corporate companies are making tons of money. They will do anything to cut costs to bring up their profit margins.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Feb 13
Sometimes I wish I had a massive garden so I could grow stuff. My FIL grows his own vegetables but still eats crap as well. I can't understand it!
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (45472)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
13 Feb 13
After the "tainted beef" kerfluffle here in Canada last year, the government hired 40 more food inspectors, for the whole country. However, not all of those hired actually inspect food, but do administerial work.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Feb 13
Wow, and Canada is MASSIVE isn't it? There should be 40 per Province..or whatever the regions are called over there..please enlighten me!
It's the same over here. Thousands of establishments either selling or preparing food for others and there will be one Inspector covering hundreds of miles. I bet Cumbria will have one or two of them at the very most.
It's ridiculous!
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (45472)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
13 Feb 13
Yes we have 10 provinces and 3 territories, covering 9,984,670 km2 or 3,855,100 sq mi.
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
15 Feb 13
I agree, but I'd be much more worried about contaminated food than horse meat. Granted, people are sentimental about horses (and cats and dogs), but eating their meat isn't going to make anybody sick.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
16 Feb 13
Apparently, meat being left outdoors is commonplace, whatever that meat may be. This is whilst delivery drivers pick the meat up and it gets er..transferred. No refrigeration whatsoever. That's down to lack of Inspectors, in my opinion.
Standards have most definitely slipped.
@bounce58 (17387)
• Canada
14 Feb 13
I don't work in the industry, so I don't know if there really are (or were) food inspectors around here. But I agree with you that some takeaway establishments are 'rank', and deserve to be shut down.
It's hard to find good (and honest) and cheap restaurants or shops here near where I work.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Feb 13
Some important person on television said there should be more Food Inspectors as he mentioned the fact that many were sacked due to government cutbacks recently. They may need a re-think on that one as standards will go down further the fewer Inspectors there are.
@Summer_Lee (39)
• China
13 Feb 13
The safety of food is also a serious issue in my country.
Food suppliers use “trench oil" in the food(oil that had been used and been poured into the trench) or add too much chemical element in food. When I order beef in a restaurant I even can not make sure it's real beef or something.
It's horrible when read a news on TV about food problems,but it's happened every day. According to a report,there are some chemical element which can turn pork to beef or mutton?It's horrible when go to a restaurant I even can not make sure what I really ate.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Feb 13
Is rice not as popular in China now? I do know that eating beef, etc, is on the increase but I'm wondering why?
@Summer_Lee (39)
• China
14 Feb 13
I just made an example.And race is also unsafety. By the way, Western food is popular among young people in China.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
14 Feb 13
I avoid fast food restaurants like the plague now, a few years ago I went to Pizza Hut, which at the time was my favourite eating out place, now I wouldn't go in there if my life depended on it. I ordered my usual deep pan, and it was sodden in grease it was tasteless and the after taste I kept getting was revolting, then I heard that they soak their pizzas over night in oil. So I've never been back since. If I started watching those Food Inspector Programs I wouldn't eat a thing. I always worry about complaining about a meal in a restaurant in case they spit in it or do other things which I have seen done when the meal is out of your sight. My mum used to work in a school canteen and was head chef, back then the meals were nutritional and she oversaw everything that went on.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Feb 13
How I wish my Mum was on the internet as she used to share the same job as your Mum. She's been on school dinners since 1974 and is currently making sandwiches for the 'naughty kids' but will probably retire sometime this year as she'll be 67 in June!
The description of the pizza is apt as I always look FORWARD to eating pizza but whenever I do I always regret it as it makes me feel sick.
Now I know why and thank God I don't eat them on a regular basis. One day I will have a go at making my own but it's finding the motivation (and ingredients) to do so.
@derek_a (10874)
•
13 Feb 13
Hi Janey,
Yes, I would say that things have deteriorated over the years in the food industry. Back in the early 90s I became quite ill and visited the doctor who could find nothing wrong after a series of blood tests etc. Then one day, a client of mine recommended a retired GP who was running an allergy clinic about 50 miles away, so I went there privately to find if allergies were the problem. It was discovered that I didn't metabolize sugar very well and had to quit. This worried me at first because I thought that sugar was a necessity, but he told me, only in tiny amounts of natural sugars were necessary and that could be absorbed from vegetables. So I went on what he called a stone-age diet. I had to check all labels for hidden sugars and I was amazed that foods that don't need sugar was actually laced with it. So it was back to loose vegetables and everything being cooked from scratch, as my mother used to do it.
I asked the doctor why sugar was put in all sorts of savoury foods and he told me that it was because it was highly addictive and those brands that contained it tended to be the big sellers, and what was addictive tended to be injurious to health. I have since discovered many of the hidden health problems of hidden sugars and one of my favourite sites is www.mercola.com (not a referral link), that has a ton of information about sugar. I know that this has been a little off topic here, but I believe it is just one of the things that the food industry needs to address, but as my doctor said, "I doubt is will ever happen as it's a big industry." I think we would then need some sort of "super food inspectors to detect such subtle harmful foodstuffs. The problem is that there are many things that we are encouraged to do that are a bit "iffy" in my opinion.
_Derek
_Derek@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Feb 13
Hiya Derek,
I can't say I'm surprised by your findings, to be honest. We don't actually need all this sugar, as you say, but it's in everything.
Besides the sugar content in processed food I found that Hollands Pies (for example) all had the same-looking fillings no matter what pie was purchased. This worried me somewhat and made me feel quite ill thinking about what was REALLY in the pies.
That was the time when I decided 'enough is enough' and stopped John buying all this crap that is no good for us. His parents still insist on eating takeaway curries and the pair of them look ill. His sister has been in hospital as her asthma is worse now since packing in the ciggies than it was when she was smoking. She has lactose intolerance but STILL she insists on eating foods containing the stuff.
If John wasn't married to me I KNOW he would be eating crap (and DOES eat crap when I'm at Mum's) on a daily basis, i.e. Rustlers you put in the microwave, that type of thing.
What worries me is this - if I ever got a job where will I find the time to do all this cooking from scratch? It just won't happen. So, in a way, it's good that I'm not working as I have the TIME to cook. Not everyone does.
Because Mum has always worked on School Dinners it meant she had the time to cook for the family too. I have grown up realising that cooking 'proper' food is far healthier than not doing so.
When I was told a while ago that my cholesterol level was 'under 5 and that's brilliant' I felt like doing cartwheels, as this proves beyond reasonable doubt that the changes I have made are definitely beneficial. The thing is, NO-ONE at the doctors has ever advised me to change diet..they're not allowed to for fear of upsetting their patients. I think there should be Health Zsars around the country based at surgeries given free rein to say what they like!
At least Home Economics is making a comeback.
That was the time when I decided 'enough is enough' and stopped John buying all this crap that is no good for us. His parents still insist on eating takeaway curries and the pair of them look ill. His sister has been in hospital as her asthma is worse now since packing in the ciggies than it was when she was smoking. She has lactose intolerance but STILL she insists on eating foods containing the stuff.
If John wasn't married to me I KNOW he would be eating crap (and DOES eat crap when I'm at Mum's) on a daily basis, i.e. Rustlers you put in the microwave, that type of thing.
What worries me is this - if I ever got a job where will I find the time to do all this cooking from scratch? It just won't happen. So, in a way, it's good that I'm not working as I have the TIME to cook. Not everyone does.
Because Mum has always worked on School Dinners it meant she had the time to cook for the family too. I have grown up realising that cooking 'proper' food is far healthier than not doing so.
When I was told a while ago that my cholesterol level was 'under 5 and that's brilliant' I felt like doing cartwheels, as this proves beyond reasonable doubt that the changes I have made are definitely beneficial. The thing is, NO-ONE at the doctors has ever advised me to change diet..they're not allowed to for fear of upsetting their patients. I think there should be Health Zsars around the country based at surgeries given free rein to say what they like!
At least Home Economics is making a comeback.
@webearn99 (1742)
• India
13 Feb 13
It is greed that makes people do this. Greed that makes them oblivious to the health hazards people are likely to face when they eat. It is the same in some cheaper brands of commercially available packed food in India.
Though the label says "Tomato Ketchup", what we end up is with pulp of pumpkin with tomato essence and artificial coloring. Of course, there is a declaration on the bottle, but then, we are too busy saving money to notice it. The print is so small that it would be very hard to find it even if we happen to read the label.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Feb 13
At least you know what it is, though. Yes, it's in small print but there is honesty..sort of.
The problem here is we get - say - a beef lasagne in a box and it has 100% horsemeat in it, not beef.
Serves people right for not making it from scratch!
