Scary.
To sum up, the article says that various foods have been intentionally mislabeled or represented as something else. Farmed fish represented as wild, caviar that was not, sheep's milk cheese that was really made from cow's milk, and moldy tomato paste that was marketed as a higher-grade product to companies like Heinz and Kraft are the most notable examples.
The FDA apparently has a lot of issues on their hands, and this kind of fraud is low on the list.
On the good side (wait....there's a good side?) individual consumers aren't the only ones who are scammed -- big industry is too. So that means that the food industry and multi-million dollar corporations are part of the effort to get the FDA to do something about this.
I tried to think of ways that as consumers, we could possibly avoid this happening to us, but I couldn't think of any. If big corporations like Heinz are being scammed, then how are we to know? Wouldn't it be great if there were individual do-it-yourself DNA kits that you can test foods on the spot with?
The only thing I can think of to help protect ourselves is:
- Be aware.
- Buy expensive items from sources you trust. That can't prevent fraud completely, but it does help.
- Where possible, when buying natural, organic foods, buy from local farmers with good reputations. So if you are in the market for sheep's milk or grass-fed beef, for example, you have a pretty good chance of getting what you buy.
- Try and buy from the "lowest common denominator" and make processed foods yourself. For example, ketchup is pretty easy to make, and, although it may take more time out of your day, you know you are using real tomatoes instead of moldy tomato paste.
Easier said than done? Of course! I don't do all of these things myself -- but I'm working towards it. But, like anything that's worth it, it's always easier said than done. *sigh* That's life, I guess.
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