Forget Horse Meat, It is Poop that may be in your cake now

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When reports came out that huge numbers of samples of beef products in Europe were found with horse meat the concern of this blogger was less with horse meat than with the fact of fraudulent labeling. If a company is willing to fool with adulteration who knows what else they may be mixing in to the meat?

As a consequence, this blogger suggested in a previous post that samples must be tested not just for horse meat as was being ordered by regulators but with all kinds of other meats such as dog etc. Tests for just horse meat will not reveal rats for example.  I do not know if any one that matters read and followed up on my suggestion but it seems that the Chinese went ahead and tested for poop products. Guess what the chocolate cakes were being flavored with besides almonds? Read this post;

http://grist.org/list/ikea-cake-turns-out-to-come-with-extra-feces/

To quote briefly from it,

“Chinese officials destroyed 1,800 pounds of -- almond cakes, when tests demonstrated the product had “excessive levels” of coli form bacteria. What is coliform bacteria, you ask? What a wonderful question! It is something often found in the feces of a mammal. In this case, probably a mouse. Better than a human, not better than a cake with no shit in it. The offending shit cakes, which originated in Sweden, had found their way to 23 countries around the world—“

Thank God; that the extra cheese is in several countries not just China or someone may have a speculated if it is a secret economic war by Europe on China for confining all the workers to the bogs instead of manufacturing !/!! :) The interested reader will find several other posts on this topic searching the net. I do not know whether to laugh or cry about this but I know for sure that it is better to make one’s food at home starting from basic ingredients that one can see, unless you fancy the additional exotic flavors.

 :) LOL

Note: I regret now that I gave chocolate cakes and almonds from Bashir such an important and mouth watering role in my novel http://www.amazon.com/Nude-besides-Lake-Ashok-Malhotra/dp/1463529392   watering indeed but not from the mouth!

UPDATE APRIL 2, 2013: For a while I had a messy photo (of poop) here, added to the blog for its shock value but that sort  of thing is not appropriate on a long term basis so it was changed today for a digital work of art depicting a tsunami. The pollution of our food  indeed appears to be taking that sort of proportions, and it seems it is time for the discerning amongst us to return to good old home food.

Comments

Vincent said…
Delightful topic. The only time I visited India, I got very sick indeed, for the very reason you mention (exaggeratedly) in your post. In fact the illness is well-known outside India as "Delhi-belly", and you may have heard of it. In the west we have developed less tolerance for these bacilli and cannot risk buying food from street vendors in case they have not washed their hands.
March 24, 2013 at 4:30 AM
ProfAshok said…
Quite right Vincent. i am aware of Delhi Belly and my novel includes quite a bit on that in the first chapter as the hero arrives in India from Canada. We are careful here about what we eat from where although some are not and they seemed to have developed considerable immunity. One can expect that in a country where poverty is still widespread but it is a pity to find that stuff coming out of Sweden.
March 24, 2013 at 6:57 AM
ProfAshok said…
In this case though it seems that the stuff far exceeded what might come from not washing hands or a contaminated food/water source. it was in proportions to warrant the conclusion that this was the real stuff.
March 24, 2013 at 6:58 AM
Vincent said…
Yes, but if you baked shit into a chocolate cake, that would destroy the e. coli.

I mention this only because I saw the film "The Help" the other day. It's about relations between black maids and their employers in Mississippi in the Fifties. Minny is instantly fired for using her employer's toilet instead of the one which has been designated for servants' use.

Now I quote from a synopsis of the film:

‘She brought the chocolate pie to Hilly on the day that Aibeleen saw her. Minny acts like the pie is a peace offering. Hilly eats two slices and Hilly’s mother wants a slice. Minny says no and Hilly asks why her mother can’t have a slice. Minny replies “Eat my shit.” Hilly says “excuse me?” and Minny says “you just ate my shit.” Minny baked her shit into the pie and Hilly had two slices. Hilly’s mother laughed and laughed.’

This is all part of the re-empowerment of women who have been treated as little better than they were as slaves.

But my point here is that even if you ate a cake made with 50% excrement, it would not infect you - unless it was served by someone with unwashed hands.

And in Western countries, restaurants and food factories are inspected regularly and closed down if rules are infringed. Needless to say, all areas for preparation and storage of food must be free from vermin such as cockroaches, rats and mice. Even more needless to say, there will always be breaches of rules. These seldom occur except in instances where buyers force down prices and tempt suppliers to cut standards.

Horsemeat was only found in burgers sold at a suspiciously low price.
March 25, 2013 at 1:56 AM
ProfAshok said…
Yes i wondered about that too - the cooking process destroying the ecoli,
I wonder how they were still found or if it was dead ecoli or something that indicated shit and they just destroyed them for the idea and not because they would have got sick.

personally I would hate to consume shit, howsoever well cooked.

According to news reports the horse meat contamination was very widespread right across most of Europe and personally I would eat it if i was a red meat as long as it was declared to be so.
March 25, 2013 at 6:48 AM
ProfAshok said…
Vincent since your comment that horse meat was found only in low cost burgers there have been new reports that support your point. It seems the expensive ones in UK do not contain horse. Fresh DNA has ruled that out. It is dog and cat instead it seem :)

well at least one can be thankful its not poop LOL :)
March 30, 2013 at 12:05 AM
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