bitful

I have always enjoyed the convenience of supermarket food. However, I have lately started reading labels a bit more thoroughly than just the calories content, and I did not like what I saw.

The other night I got stuck in watching Whistleblower on BBC1 against my better judgement:

For six months, two BBC reporters worked undercover to investigate health and safety issues around food in some of Britain's supermarkets. They find produce beyond its shelf life that's re-labelled and put back on fresh food counters.

Like, we did not already know?

The programme only confirmed what I have always suspected:

• falsified temperature logs, both for freezers and for core temperature of roast chicken
• bin bags used to cover meat nightly - and reused for a whole week
• rats in an area where goods are temporarily stored upon delivery
• knives and chopping boards casually mixed (raw/cooked meat/fish)
• 'best before' and 'sell by' dates regularly extended once they expire

A company that supplies leading supermarkets with ready made meals had a vat of onion bajii mix A bucket was dipped regularly into it to pick up the mix and feed it into a machine. The bucket that previously was on the floor. The very same floor that employees walked on after having visited filthy toilets (in a state I've only ever seen in clubs at around 5am) WITHOUT CHANGING THEIR BOOTS OR WASHING THEIR HANDS AFTERWARDS.

Throughout the programme, it was clear that people were instructed to throw away food and observe strict hygiene rules, but either did not have the time to do so because they were understaffed, or could not afford to do so because they had to meet strict performance targets.

Last year Tesco's profits alone were in excess of two billion pounds.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 6:49 am and is filed under food and drink, health and fitness, rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.