A now-viral video on YouTube is circulating of the woman burning a leaf of the “cabbage” over a stove flame. Even after burning the leaf for a few minutes, the video showed the leaf still maintaining its bright green appearance. “My mother-in-law suddenly realized that the cabbage she is cutting is quite hard for her to cut therefore I attempted a test (as seen on YouTube) to see that whether this is real or made of plastic [sic] you all can see what’s the outcome,” she said in a report on Pragartivadi.
The woman supposedly bought her items from a renowned grocery store in New Delhi.
Here’s something to chew on
This story is one of several new reports of fake vegetables being made and sold as genuine in local grocery stores. People were first made aware of this dangerous trend from a video posted on the public Facebook page of “The People’s Voice” on February 17, 2016. The video reportedly showed artificial cabbages being made in China. The video caused quite a storm -- viewers witnessing beautiful looking cabbage heads being sculpted after various colored liquids were ladled in a large bowl of water. The entire procedure took all of 40 seconds. Despite it being in a foreign language, most people understood that what they were seeing was disturbing. The YouTube video has since been removed.
Whether or not these stories are true, it does highlight the need for consumers to be more aware about the food items they buy. With more people reporting their desire to transition into a healthier lifestyle, they are often still confused by the various labels and ingredient lists slapped on their favorite food items. This has led a lot of people to head on to their vegetable aisle instead; naively thinking that anything brightly-colored and supposedly coming from a tree or harvested from the ground would not require any intense thinking. After all, what other ingredient could a vegetable have other than itself? (Related: Fake food vs real food: American grocery stores offer a wide variety of… chemicals, toxins and dangerous foods.)
It is a disgusting topic to think about, but one that has to be emphasized time and again. Consumer education, along with proactively researching various food manufacturing practices, can literally save your life. Ignorance is never bliss when it comes to your health; the only thing active denial of food safety achieves is a slow (and potentially painful) decline in overall health.
That being said, you would do well to take note of the more common counterfeit food items, courtesy of Fox News.
- Olive oil -- According to the article, olive oil is one of the most common items that is passed on as genuine when, in fact, it is not. Some olive oil brands even claim that their oil is “from Italy” when the item was only brought into the country and re-exported from there. Technically they’re not lying, since the oil did pass through one of Italy’s ports.
- Honey -- Some honey brands are not made from the natural source and have additives such as sucrose, beet sugar, or even high-fructose corn syrup.
- Balsamic vinegar -- True, authentic balsamic vinegar is aged similarly to wine, as stated the article. Less scrupulous manufacturers dilute their products so that production costs are reduced.
So what’s the moral of all this? As much as possible, buy fresh, organic produce from local farms -- if you can actually see the farmers growing them, the better. If you choose to purchase food from the grocery store, make sure to do your research beforehand so you know what items to look out for when you’re checking the ingredients list.
And if you do find yourself in the vegetable aisle, try picking ones that are sourced from a trusted farm.
Sources include:
Nielsen.com [PDF]
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