There's an interesting article on tomatoes in today's Guardian.
It would seem that despite being labelled "Produced in Italy" an own-brand Asda tomato purée actually consisted of 100% Chinese tomatoes. And this was legal because EU consumer laws allow products that have had a minimal change in an EU country, in this case adding some water and salt, to be described as produced in that EU country.
And should we be worried, I hear you say. Well, how much confidence do you have in China's health and safety regulations? Remember the milk scandal of a few years ago when melamine was added to milk to apparently raise the protein level.
To be honest, when you consider the global range of food production and treatment nowadays, we're probably only starting to see the tip of the iceberg. I hope we don't return to Victorian practices where you had green arsenic salts used to colour sweets, the taste of gin sharpened with the addition of a little sulphuric acid and wooden pips added to strawberry jam.
It would seem that despite being labelled "Produced in Italy" an own-brand Asda tomato purée actually consisted of 100% Chinese tomatoes. And this was legal because EU consumer laws allow products that have had a minimal change in an EU country, in this case adding some water and salt, to be described as produced in that EU country.
And should we be worried, I hear you say. Well, how much confidence do you have in China's health and safety regulations? Remember the milk scandal of a few years ago when melamine was added to milk to apparently raise the protein level.
To be honest, when you consider the global range of food production and treatment nowadays, we're probably only starting to see the tip of the iceberg. I hope we don't return to Victorian practices where you had green arsenic salts used to colour sweets, the taste of gin sharpened with the addition of a little sulphuric acid and wooden pips added to strawberry jam.
