We were all shocked by the level of horse-meat in the food system and considering the British system that is supposed to be the best in the world; the said system has failed on all counts as we have no idea how much horse-meat is in the system or where it is; it’s as elusive as the scarlet pimpernel himself. (We seek him here, we seek him there, the FSA seek him everywhere)
Nevertheless, perhaps because of the horse-meat scandal it has done us all a favour and it’s not the end of the world after all! At least we are now questioning the food we eat, starting to shop differently and buying products we know we can trust and in my case starting to exercise regularly.
For me, I am lucky and I don’t really have to shop differently as I always have quality meat to hand, however, I am questioning other products that I buy such as beer & lager.
I’ve never really been overly fond of pints of lager, thankfully I prefer a quality beer so give me a ‘waggledance’ any day. This is partly because many of the mainstream lagers in this country have countless chemicals added that are banned in other European countries. They always seem so Moorish and leave you dehydrated and needing more and more lager.
For instance, If you have ever drank a mainstream lager or bitter then it is likely that you have drank in your beer; betaglucanase which is used to speed up the brewing process and propylene glycol alginate which is added to keep that lovely ‘head’ on your pint. In fact below are some of the typical chemicals that may be in your pint and the brewer has no legal requirement to tell you.
Betaglucanase
Ammonia caramel
Rhoiso-alpha acids
Sulphur dioxide
Protease
Amyloglucosidase
Propylene glycol alginate
Silicone
The Germans, who are famous for their great lagers, will use some or all of the above chemicals when making lager for the UK market, however, when making lager for sale in Germany they are not allowed to add such chemicals as they are banned due to the German ‘Purity Laws’. The German purity laws insist that inferior products and chemicals are clearly labelled on the product so the consumer can make an informed choice and guess what the consumer ‘don’t like’ so they don’t put the chemicals in! simple really isn’t it.
Perhaps some people out there that ‘love their chemicals’ power to the people and all that but I’m not one of them. For me, we need to send our politicians a strong message in the next election (perhaps a horses head left at the bottom of David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s respective beds might do it?) that we no longer want to be the worlds dumping ground for ‘crap food’ and unwanted ‘added chemicals’ (those chemicals are everywhere believe me; they are worse that the ‘reds under the beds’!).
Perhaps to change things the country needs shocking out of the current 3 party system so we can actually get some work done without mindless sensational media interference. Maybe we should all vote for any party other than Labour, Conservatives and Liberals after all they all lack common sense and are full of sound-bites seeking their next ’round of applause’ on question time, not-to-mention some of the ‘sensationalist butt-heads’ that work in the media; perhaps we could introduce a law that insists all reporters have a higher IQ than a ‘wild bore’ sorry I meant to say wild boar which will remove such butt-heads from the industry and we can get back to proper investigative reporting.
Finally, if Cameron & Clegg or their colleagues need a sound-bite for their next appearance on the BBC’s ‘Question Time’ then here’s one for you both ‘you don’t need a silver fork to eat good food’.
