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Crap sold with food

Grumpy Old Lemons Like You
UncleEbenezer
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Crap sold with food

#177629

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 1st, 2018, 3:11 pm

When I buy food, I want to buy food. That is, things I eat. I'll accept things I don't quite eat where natural (e.g. stones or peel in fruit), and packaging within reason.

Packaging should be functional and no more. But that's a scale, and much (most?) food packaging is a grey area somewhere between strictly necessary and utterly gratuitous. So when I saw the large tub of Gordal olives in Sainsburys at what looked a reasonable price, I foolishly turned a blind eye the presentational black card around the outside, and bought it.

For lunch today I opened it. Only to find that it is in fact not a large tub but a very small portion, in a small but conventional clear plastic tub. Most of what that black card hid was in fact a ceramic bowl. Not even a bowl containing the olives, but an entirely empty bowl, inserted by stealth to bulk the package out to the size and weight of a big pack.

Ahem ...

If I wanted a ceramic bowl, I would buy a ceramic bowl. And I don't think I should be looking on the food shelves. Or if I did, I should go for one of those "straight into the oven" products that displays them honestly so you know what you're buying (and which I consciously avoid). Not one thrust on me by deception!

And - no surprise - those overpriced olives themselves were no better than Sainsburys' (or other supermarkets') cheapest: the ones in a package that's filled with food not with crap. Not a patch on the gordal olives from my once-local specialist shop that I fell in love with, and buy every time I revisit the area.

Should I be posting this to Trading Standards?

swill453
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Re: Crap sold with food

#177635

Postby swill453 » November 1st, 2018, 3:35 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:Should I be posting this to Trading Standards?

If the product wasn't as described on the packaging, then yes. Or at least complain to Sainsburys first.

Scott.

kiloran
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Re: Crap sold with food

#177636

Postby kiloran » November 1st, 2018, 3:36 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:Should I be posting this to Trading Standards?

No, you should stop eating olives. A creation of the Devil. Yeuk!

--kiloran

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Crap sold with food

#177661

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 1st, 2018, 5:41 pm

kiloran wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:Should I be posting this to Trading Standards?

No, you should stop eating olives. A creation of the Devil. Yeuk!

--kiloran

Nope, a creation very specifically of the goddess Athene. Her gift to Athens, that led the city to take her as its patron, and even to take her name.

And for me, a taste acquired by living six years in central Italy.

kiloran
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Re: Crap sold with food

#177668

Postby kiloran » November 1st, 2018, 5:51 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:And for me, a taste acquired by living six years in central Italy.

I assume they didn't have deep-fried Mars bars or pizzas, so olives were the only alternative ;)

--kiloran

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Re: Crap sold with food

#177696

Postby sg31 » November 1st, 2018, 10:31 pm

I love olives and I'm very partial to anchovies, my wife dislikes both. Strangely she loves olives stuffed with anchovy.

Work that one out.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Crap sold with food

#177703

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 2nd, 2018, 12:36 am

sg31 wrote:I love olives and I'm very partial to anchovies, my wife dislikes both. Strangely she loves olives stuffed with anchovy.

Work that one out.

You seem to have worked it out quite ingeniously. Keep them separate if you want them all for yourself, or combine them to get some help with consuming them.

I always found anchovies (and some olives) too salty to enjoy. But each to his own.

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Re: Crap sold with food

#177714

Postby redsturgeon » November 2nd, 2018, 6:55 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:
sg31 wrote:I love olives and I'm very partial to anchovies, my wife dislikes both. Strangely she loves olives stuffed with anchovy.

Work that one out.

You seem to have worked it out quite ingeniously. Keep them separate if you want them all for yourself, or combine them to get some help with consuming them.

I always found anchovies (and some olives) too salty to enjoy. But each to his own.


There are anchovies and anchovies.

The little ones cured with salt in tins are incredible strong and salty but delicious with pasta or on pizza, used sparingly with no additional salt added. The way they just dissolve into a tomato sauce while adding layers of umami is a beautiful thing.

The bigger fresh ones that you can buy in vinegar (alici or white anchocies) are less strong in flavour and absolutely delicious eaten on their own as antipasto.

John

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Crap sold with food

#177726

Postby AleisterCrowley » November 2nd, 2018, 8:19 am

Confusingly , Swedish anchovies ( ‘ansjovis’ ) are actually sprats, and are a different beast

stevensfo
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Re: Crap sold with food

#177881

Postby stevensfo » November 2nd, 2018, 6:32 pm

For lunch today I opened it. Only to find that it is in fact not a large tub but a very small portion, in a small but conventional clear plastic tub. Most of what that black card hid was in fact a ceramic bowl. Not even a bowl containing the olives, but an entirely empty bowl, inserted by stealth to bulk the package out to the size and weight of a big pack.


I remember having a similar experience many, many years ago.

These days, I've got into the habit of automatically looking at 'weight net' and 'price/kilo'. Then the ingredients to check that it's not yet another product that has half a ton of %$#!! sugar in it to bulk it up.

Re. olives, our youngest was such a fussy eater when young that we had to convince the Primary school teachers that we weren't deliberately starving him. Breakfast was a nightmare! But he would eat olives till they came out of his ears!

Anchovies are wicked on pizzas and salads.

Our youngest is now the tallest and healthiest in the family and has no memory of what he put us through! :-)

Steve

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Re: Crap sold with food

#177885

Postby Itsallaguess » November 2nd, 2018, 8:17 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
For lunch today I opened it.

Only to find that it is in fact not a large tub but a very small portion, in a small but conventional clear plastic tub. Most of what that black card hid was in fact a ceramic bowl.

Not even a bowl containing the olives, but an entirely empty bowl, inserted by stealth to bulk the package out to the size and weight of a big pack.


This is most definitely a thing now - I'm really not sure how the people designing this type of packaging sleep at night....

Some further examples -

https://i.redd.it/zgvaoij285wz.jpg

https://i.redd.it/ctmy19dr6o801.jpg

https://i.redd.it/avzbkc9t9xo01.jpg

https://i.redd.it/j3a9tdlcq5u01.jpg

And a similarly-related, and a particular favourite of mine from last year -

Meat substitute company Quorn Foods will change its sausage roll packaging after a Twitter complaint was shared tens of thousands of times.

Dan Douglas drew attention to an asterisk on a packet of 12 of the meat substitute snacks at a supermarket in Sydenham, London.

Following the asterisk, he pointed out the pack contained three sausage rolls which the labelling recommended could be served as "12 mini rolls when cut into 4's."


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42251481

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

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Re: Crap sold with food

#178087

Postby Rhyd6 » November 4th, 2018, 4:59 pm

Not quite on the mark re the subject but we were out to lunch today and a vegan was bemoaning the fact that the pub didn't have vegan sausages or vegan bacon on the menu. Why do vegans want to call the strange mixtures they eat by the names of foods they claim to despise?

R6

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Re: Crap sold with food

#178091

Postby swill453 » November 4th, 2018, 5:14 pm

Rhyd6 wrote:Not quite on the mark re the subject but we were out to lunch today and a vegan was bemoaning the fact that the pub didn't have vegan sausages or vegan bacon on the menu. Why do vegans want to call the strange mixtures they eat by the names of foods they claim to despise?

Possibly because they like the taste, but not the exploitation of animals?

Scott.

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Re: Crap sold with food

#178100

Postby bungeejumper » November 4th, 2018, 5:40 pm

swill453 wrote:
Rhyd6 wrote:Not quite on the mark re the subject but we were out to lunch today and a vegan was bemoaning the fact that the pub didn't have vegan sausages or vegan bacon on the menu. Why do vegans want to call the strange mixtures they eat by the names of foods they claim to despise?

Possibly because they like the taste, but not the exploitation of animals?

So, if pork sausages contain pork and beef sausages contain beef, what are vegan sausages made from?

I think we should be told. Soylent green, anyone?

BJ

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Re: Crap sold with food

#178101

Postby Slarti » November 4th, 2018, 5:44 pm

swill453 wrote:
Rhyd6 wrote:Not quite on the mark re the subject but we were out to lunch today and a vegan was bemoaning the fact that the pub didn't have vegan sausages or vegan bacon on the menu. Why do vegans want to call the strange mixtures they eat by the names of foods they claim to despise?

Possibly because they like the taste, but not the exploitation of animals?

Scott.


Hmm. Well, having tasted vegetarian sausages, I'd be surprised if vegan ones tasted anything like the real thing.

Slarti


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