Food Labels at the shops

Indeed, I’ve never even thought it to be a risk, and never wiped a shopping trolley handle in my life. I do like the bar ends that have appeared on the Woolies trolleys though, much the same as on my MTB :slight_smile: I find them more convenient and better for cornering.

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the bag that I mentioned I get from the farmers markets. Organic farmers place herbs for me in the bags so that I don’t kill them with other things that I place on top.

Pretty sure they wouldn’t be getting something that they shouldn’t be,

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People still think vaccines are harmful or worse than the diseases they prevent. The world isn’t perfect, @annaa63. People still think disposable plastic can be sustainable and they think Organic produce is any different to conventional produce. We’re all learning :slight_smile:

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Organic produce is better then convectional produce.

The garbage you get at supermarkets spends ages in fridges then when it’s brought out and dumped in supermarkets it goes off fast.

Organic produce from the farmers doesn’t.

the plastic bag I mentioned is not made from plastic… nice try but you failed.

Ah so you mean the only difference is whether you get it from the farm within one week rather than within a few weeks/months? That has nothing to do with any differences between conventional pesticides or Organic pesticides. Nice try, but I didn’t :slight_smile:

Oh and just because it’s made from plants, doesn’t mean it’s not plastic. Just a plastic from a different parent material. Checkmate again :stuck_out_tongue:

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25 posts were split to a new topic: Supermarket produce isn’t fresh

A post was merged into an existing topic: Supermarket produce isn’t fresh

WOFTAM!! I sent in two examples, and have never received a reply from Choice, except to say that hey would get back to me! Has never happened…very disappointed!!

Today, 21st June, Coles announced that they would now charge the same prices for home delivery as in the stores.

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Coles website has been updated since my previous post to state:

Are website prices same as in store?

Yes, every online item price is the same as in-store. Additional delivery and Click&Collect fees apply

I am not sure what the additional fees will be…only time will tell. Maybe if a communty member orders Coles online and has it delivered/click and collect, they can provide information on the additional fees charged and whether there has been any recent changes.

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I have a bug-bear with the major supermarkets. They are both keen to be the loudest on ‘price cuts’ and ‘this used to be more expensive’, but price hikes are always performed in the dark.

Two recent examples from my local Coles:

  1. Coles-branded 2 litre ice cream has increased in price from $2.00 to $2.40 (with a brief attempt in there to charge $2.65, but a failure to put that price on the shelf). A 40c increase in price is equivalent to a 20% increase! Since when has inflation been running so high?
    1.1. Interestingly, Coles online shopping has this ice cream priced at $2.65!
  2. Coles-branded soft drinks (1.25 litre) have increased from $0.75 to $0.90 - another 20% increase!

I suspect that as the store-branded items are taking over shelf space the supermarkets are seeing opportunities for price gouging that they ignored while gaining market share. Has anyone else noticed this kind of significant price increase in their regular basket of goods?

A separate bug-bear is that the majors have decided to give reusable bags away in Victoria and I suspect NSW - but offered nothing of the sort in the ACT when it abandoned disposable bags!

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Maybe this is one of the reasons for vanilla ice cream price increases:

https://www.canstarblue.com.au/news/vanilla-shortage-affects-ice-cream/

It appears that there has been mass hysteria and anger about Woolworths and Coles removing the single use shopping bags, especially ahead of mandatory introductions by some state governments. In response, Coles and Woolworths are giving away thicker ‘multi-use’ plastic bags (as single use bags) for free as a transitional arrangement as a public relations exercise in response to the criticism they have received.

I suggest that since the introduction in the ACT was mandated, the community and retailers had no choice. Voluntary introduction pre-mandatory introduction appears to have caused concocted outrage as it has been imposed on the community by big business - how dare they :wink:.

They would have been far better giving each customer with say a flybuy or rewards card 4-6 cloth/fabric bags the first shop post introduction. These bags will last many multiple times longer than the thick plastic bags and will be seen as getting something for nothing. Giving away free multi-use plastic bags is like taking with one hand and then giving back with another.

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Some are used to “convenience” than to think ahead and take bags as needed, it is not something they do. They have been well trained to the old process. You could give them umpteen bags and next shop they did they would have none on them and would complain until something “free” was provided. This requires re-education/reintroduction or in the case of younger people education & introduction to a different way of doing things. They are more likely to learn if the penalty for forgetting is some money pain (purchase of bags). I don’t like even the multi use plastic bags and prefer degradable fabric bags (degradable in the sense that they can be broken down in a reasonable time when no longer required). I think we will see the multi use plastic become the next problem floating down our rivers or ending up in landfill.

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An ice creamier is quoted to say in that article that “…97% per cent of vanilla used in the West is artificial so you have got to ask if they are putting up because it’s real vanilla or because they want to put it up”

Coles’ list of ingredients does not include vanilla (and I would be surprised if it did, given that this is the cut-price version of their cut-price ice cream.

Agreed, except there are some items (such as meats and onions) I prefer to put in a plastic bag as they can leak - and the plastic bags are more easily cleaned.

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Surprising since it is vanilla ice-cream. Maybe it should be called unflavoured?

The other reason could be bulk milk/manufactured milk product prices. See this:

Since 2016, the bulk milk/manufaxtured milk products price has increased by around 25% in AUD dollar terms. I hopefully can assume that Coles ice cream has dairy components in it (milk solids, milk powder etc). Note: manufactured milk product price is more influenced by world prices, than local price fresh retail milk.

The challenge with low cost items is they are impacted greater by change in input costs. This is because they have lower margins (either dollar and/or percentage terms) and any increase in input costs can quickly eat up these margins. Higher price and higher margin products have the ability to absorb increased input prices, as the expense of some of the margin.

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Not at all. Have a look at the bottles of what you thought was ‘Vanilla Essence’ in your local grocery store’s cooking ingredients aisle. You may find one - extremely expensive - bottle of The Real Thing, but in all likelihood they will largely be fakes.

In fact, I just managed to prove myself wrong by conducting a search of the Coles website:

You will note, of course, the difference in price per 10ml of the products. And that even the ‘real thing’ is ‘extract’. I would like to look more closely at those labels.

As for general dairy products (and this goes just the same for fake vanilla essence), I would expect the big supermarket chains to have locked prices in for extended periods.

My points remain:

  1. I find it difficult to believe that a 20% price increase can be justified on the basis of increased costs; it is much more likely to be geared at ensuring shareholders get their returns.
  2. Most shoppers will not even notice these increases, given the way they are snuck through without any fanfare, being drowned out by all the ‘discount’, ‘down down down’ noise that we get from Australia’s two main grocery chains.

It is probable that many other products from our grocers change prices at this kind of rate, but it is too difficult for anyone to monitor them all.

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There are generally two that are called extracts. One is an alcohol based product, they steep the vanilla pods/pieces in alcohol to extract the flavour and of course this comes with some colour from the actual vanilla. This is also sometimes mixed with a small amount of sugar. It is an actual vanilla product just diluted. The other one called extract or essence is produced by using glycerine to achieve a similar result but is non-alcoholic. You may also find Vanilla Paste which is a more concentrated form of vanilla, I am not sure how it is produced but I am sure it can be looked up. Once you use the paste most do not go back to the essence/extract, the paste flavour & smell is more vanilla intense.

The imitation vanillas use one of either two man made chemicals one that is named vanillin that is the same major flavour chemical in Vanilla that is 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde or it’s stronger relative ethylvanillin which is 3-ethoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde. Ethylvanillin is used a lot in Chocolate.

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There are a number of issues with ‘vanilla essence’.

One is the amount of vanilla product in the solvent, I haven’t seen this specified by any maker. So it is quite possible that one essence is more concentrated than another. This may confuse any taste testing where the same amount is added to a standard recipe. This issue may apply to both natural and synthetic.

The second is the difference between the synthetic and that extracted from the bean. We tend to pooh pooh synthetics as being inferior. There are a number of studies that, in this case, people cannot easily tell them apart. If vanillin was purified from the bean it would be chemically identical to the synthetic and I think you could not tell the difference at the same concentration. However the natural extract contains more than just vanillin so that may explain why some prefer it.

Some studies say that for baking the synthetic is as good or may even be preferred to the natural. The explanation may be that, being cheaper, the synthetic is more concentrated and so more survives cooking. Another possibility is that the other ingredients in the natural are more volatile and are lost in cooking. These cooks and testers suggest that you save the real thing for cold foods like cream pat and ice-creams.

Another complication is that if you pay much more for a product you will likely get more enjoyment from it. Some makers try to enhance this luxury aura with claims like ‘single origin beans’. We could get to specifying if they were grown on the north or south side of the hill. This enjoyment may not survive a blind tasting though where you don’t know which is real and more expensive.

Whatever is going on I don’t think there is a simple answer that one is necessarily better than the other.

Should Choice decide to do a double-blind taste test of standardised extracts I have my hand up.

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Ethylvanillin is much more intense in it’s “vanilla” taste than even perhaps vanilla and is preferred in manufacturing. There are a staggering number of other “flavours” (compounds) that add up to a real vanilla but when it comes to cooking some are indeed lost as you suggest to heat.

What we mostly taste in vanilla as I noted above is 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde but replacing the methyl part with the ethyl makes a big difference to the impact of the flavour. Pity it (the ethyl one) is not often sold in a local supermarket/shop for average daily consumption as the taste is much more impressive and might reduce the complaints about the difference. If someone can afford it though try the paste sometime and see what difference it makes to a dish.

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Just a little clarification, ethylvanillin is synthetic, it isn’t one of those compounds in natural vanilla.

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