As a child, I remember a bowl of plastic fruit atop my aunt’s end table. I hadn’t thought about it in years until standing outside the Jelly Belly booth at the Winter Fancy Food Show last month. I was holding the latest item to come out of their “Wonka” lab, peas and carrots. This wasn’t typical of what I found walking the aisles, and I didn’t have to go far to find myself surrounded by cured meats and gourmet chocolates. I met passionate people with a love for story. I spoke with importers and producers from throughout the world whose priorities are flavor and authenticity above price. Many of the products were PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), an EU designation to protect the quality and reputation of artisanal food products, often produced based on centuries of tradition.
When I returned home, I was hit with a rush of news that chiseled away at my renewed excitement for our food discourse. Taco Bell was accused of serving a “taco filling” that was only 1/3 meat, and Kellogg’s admittedly was passing off “crunchlets” as blueberries. The food industry isn’t new to fraud cases from seafood to produce. In fact one case I was following concluded with the operators of “Reel Fish” admitting to wide-spread fraud and misidentification of fish.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Buzz Bin.