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Private Notes
It is often separated, but we also like it raw: ham. Supermarkets have raw hams from many regions for sale. From Parma to Coburg, Black Forest to Spain. Almost identical at a glance, but with a high price. From thirteen to over fifty euros per kilo. How can it be, all pork raw, such a big difference in price? Value Inspection Service about the raw reality behind raw ham from the grocer.
If you want to drink a cool, fresh drink, don't buy cola but buy kombucha. Come what? Kombucha, that is. Smooth bottles and cans with, yes, that is the question. The striking labels mention yeast and fermentation, tea and 'raw'. And many swear to be good for you too. A soft drink that does not claim to be a soft drink but has nevertheless conquered the soft drink shelf.
Brush, clean and floss your teeth well and your teeth will remain fresh and healthy. Or not? No, say the mouthwash sellers: for a really spotless mouth you have to use mouthwash. Good for eternally fresh breath and no more cavities, the bottles say. Rinse twice a day for minutes with: yes, what exactly? The Keuringsdienst puts on its best smile, dives into the mouthwash and discovers that appearances are sometimes expensive.
An olive, a press and presto: olive oil. Simple enough, you might say, but leave it to the Dutch grocery mentality to turn it into something extremely complex. There is mild olive oil and traditional olive oil. Classico and Extra Virgin. For cold, lukewarm and hot. Meat, fish and chicken. So many varieties that choosing is almost impossible. Because what is the difference? De Keuringsdienst van Waarde asks around in olive oil producing countries and raises eyebrows about the story that you cannot bake in virgin olive oil.
They come from the flowers and the bees: pots of honey. Simply available in abundance at every grocer. But de Keuringsdienst finds it strange that one scornful one costs four and a half euros per kilo and the other costs more than twenty. How is that possible? Bees are bees and flowers are flowers, right? They don't add anything else to it, do they?
It is of course logical that in the organic store they only sell items that are labeled as organic. They may even sell boxes of mussels with a sticker. So organic. But how organic are organic mussels? Or how much not? A mussel is simply fished from the sea, right? De Keuringsdienst asks mussel men, who appear to call themselves mussel fishermen as well as mussel farmers, and discovers that all mussels are equal. Some just a little more than others.
All the ducks were wonderfully warm in the ice-cold water: people looked at them and wanted that too. And so we took their down and put it in our coats and duvets. It turned out that was not being done animal-friendly for a long time. There were stories of live plucking and force-feeding of ducks and geese. But buy something with down now and you will receive a stack of promises. It says responsible. Fair and even animal-friendly. Do good, buy down! But how do they actually obtain responsible, animal-friendly down? De Keuringsdienst van Waarde dresses extra warmly and discovers that a chick is not actually a chick when it is made cold.
Puddings and sweets: as long as they stand, they are stiff from gelatin. And it is the worst kept secret of the food industry that gelatin is made from dead animals. Often pigs, sometimes cows. Difficult for vegetarians and people of faith. And because the customer is king, some producers claim to have partially removed the stuff from their food. But suddenly De Keuringsdienst sees gelatin in places where it had never been noticed before. From pesto to coconut bread. Chocolate mousse to custard lip. But why is one possible and the other not possible without gelatin? De Keuringsdienst van Waarde on dead animals in places where you don't expect them.
It has now become practically Dutch: pasta. Many packages go through each person per week. But which one should you choose exactly? There is fresh and dried. In many shapes and sizes. With and without egg. Expensive and pressed through a bronze mold or dirt cheap and very slippery. Sometimes you cook them for a short time and then again for a very long time. And all supposedly really Italian. Different types of pasta, no one knows what it is. De Keuringsdienst about very simple dough that has been made far too complicated.
Buy an egg and you know where it was laid. The box says free range or even organic. There is a code on the egg that reveals the farm. But more than half of the eggs a person eats are hidden. In cookies and croquettes, in noodles and chocolates. They are everywhere, without revealing anything about their origin. No rooster crows about it. Except for de Keuringsdienst. Because what kind of eggs do food makers use in their products? And why aren't we allowed to know that?
We know about sausage. Fish too. They get smoked. But walk the isles and the whole supermarket seems to filled with smoke. Smoked chips and nuts. Smoked tofu and smoked cheese. Sometimes it says 'smoked' in large letters. Sometimes 'with smoke flavor.' And then there are products that mention neither smoke nor fire but do contain smoke aroma. And also, don't we know smoke is bad you? Houses have to get rid of the fireplaces and smoking is not done. So why is our food full of smoke?
Mozzarella is out. Burrata is the bomb. Also white cheese balls, also Italian, only with a buttery soft interior. From restaurant to sandwich shop, cheese shelf to kiosk: the containers of burrata are selling like hot cakes in the Netherlands. But de Keuringsdienst received a letter. A young couple had moved to Italy specifically because of their love for that cuisine. Once there, doubt set in. What turned out? There would be no burrata anywhere in their area. How is this possible? De Keuringsdienst van Waarde on Italian cheese that the Dutch like more than the Italian.
Wild trout has been fished up and sold out, farmed trout is still widely available. Fresh, smoked or frozen; Trout is almost always raised in a fish farmer's pond. But how is that pond actually filled? De Keuringsdienst asks a simple question about farmed fish and discovers that fish can also be transsexual.
They have come far: nuts. Long only for the connoiseur with drinks, now even dietitians love it. It is therefore not surprising that the nut industry is almost bursting at the seams. They are available raw, burned and roasted. With and without salt. In transparent containers or in bags without daylight. But look at the price tags and your head spins. The same nuts, costs vary wildly. Not to mention the miracle that happens when you throw them together. With a calculator in hand, de Keuringsdienst cracks the puzzle about what a nut costs.
For many it makes a big difference: how a chicken's neck is twisted. The supermarket even has a separate shelf for it: halal it says. Meat, piously picked for Muslims. But when is a chicken actually halal and when not? And why do all other chickens have at least one star from the Better Life quality mark, and the halal chicken only has to make do with halal? Or is that better life already ingrained in it? De Keuringsdienst van Waarde is full of questions about chicken with a quality mark but no one knows exactly what that means.
