Food Fraud Advisors

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Services
  • Tools, Templates and Training
  • Learn about food fraud
  • Report a food crime
  • News
You are here: Home / Archives for Fun Food Facts

16th March 2017 by foodfraudadvisors

Blue wine, banana pens and touch-screen plates

From the fun food facts files:

Did you know that the Dominos research center in Japan was trialling delivery by reindeer?  A statement from the company said that it was a difficult decision to abandon the trial and reindeers are very difficult to control.  Uh huh.  Also from Japan and the first of its kind: a pen that can be safely used to write messages on banana skin.  I never knew I needed one of those.

Did you know that cabin conditions affect the way we perceive taste and texture?
Strawberries: not so sweet at 30,000 feet.

 

From Britain comes research that explains why aeroplane food never tastes really good.  It isn’t just because it has to be pre-cooked and schlepped from kitchen to airport to thousands of feet in the sky and then reheated before you eat it, it is also due to the conditions inside a passenger plane which actually alter our perceptions of food.  Within the cabin the atmosphere is very dry and the air pressure is lower than usual.  This affects the way our tastebuds work.  Low humidity decreases our sensitivity to odours, which are in fact the main conveyors of flavour.  Oddly, the loud background noise also has an effect on how we perceive certain tastes, with salty and sweet tastes perceived less intensely.  Loud background noise also makes food sound crunchier, which can change the apparent texture of food.

iPads.  We love them.  But do we love them enough to eat off them?  Restaurants are serving food on the screens of ipads.  One establishment serves a dish of truffle croquettes on an iPad that shows video of dogs searching for truffles.  I wonder how they clean them afterwards?

Blue wine has label compliance experts scratching their heads in EU
Gik blue wine. Looks fabulous, but what does it taste like? Gik.

 

Blue wine.  It’s a thing.  It has a gorgeous neon hue achieved with natural additives.  But for Gik, the Basque company that makes blue wine, there are legal headaches on the horizon, as Spanish lawmakers grapple with the question of what can and cannot be called ‘wine’.  Last month, Gik was fined by Spanish regulators for breaching European wine laws, which do not allow wine makers to add colourants that are not specifically approved in the oenological regulations.  Unsurprisingly, blue colourants are not on the list. Gik is appealing the fine and has filed a petition.  In the meantime, they have re-labelled and re-formulated their blue beverage by adding 1% grape must so that the product no longer needs to meet the rules for ‘pure wine’.  It’s not available where I live, which is a shame because I would love to have a taste.

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Filed Under: Fun Food Facts

29th July 2016 by foodfraudadvisors

Authentic glaze, fake ice and false positives

It’s not exactly food fraud, in fact, it’s a fabulous case of mistaken identity for a genuine American delicacy; Krispy Kreme donuts.  These tasty treats caused plenty of trouble for Florida man Daniel Rushing after a police officer discovered flakes of donut glaze on the floor of his car after pulling him over for a minor traffic offence.  Unfortunately, the officer mistook the pieces of glaze for crystal meth.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Rushing man spent ten hours in jail after the officer performed two roadside drug tests on the sugary substances, which returned positive results for methamphetamine.  A state drug lab has since confirmed that it was a case of mistaken identity.  Rushing reported that although he had nothing to hide, he would “never let anyone search my car again”.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Filed Under: Fun Food Facts

6th May 2016 by foodfraudadvisors

Chicken flavoured nail polish and other food trivia

It’s always a joy to stumble across new and silly food facts as I take my daily stroll through the huge inter-web-universe of food industry news.  Here are my favourites from the last few weeks:

In Japan you can purchase sake-flavoured KitKats containing 0.8% alcohol.  Because sake and milk chocolate have always seemed like a great match…?

Pink peppercorns are the berries of a Peruvian tree and not genetically related to other types of peppercorns, despite the fact that green, white and black pepper all comes from the same flowering vine (Piper nigrum).  Green peppercorns are unripe berries, black peppercorns are dried berries and white peppercorns have had their dark outer husks removed prior to drying.

The famous fried chicken chain KFC plans to release flavoured nail polish that you can lick.  It has made two flavours available for market testing in Hong Kong and residents of that city can choose which will go into production; Hot & Spicy or Original.  This is not a prank; they really have developed chicken flavoured, lickable nail polish.  And it comes in two colours.

Watermelons looked really weird in the 17th century.  And probably didn’t taste that great. This painting by Giovanni Stanchi from around 1650 is of a watermelon of the day.  Who says genetic engineering is a modern-day phenomenon; we have been doing it for centuries.

Stanchi via Wikimedia Commons
Stanchi via Wikimedia Commons

Animals known as bearcats or binturong in South East Asia have popcorn flavoured urine.  Researchers confirmed this by squeezing 33 sedated binturongs, which are about the size of raccoons, to obtain samples for chemical testing.  Yes; squeezing.  The researchers published a paper in the prestigious journal Science of Nature which prompted one journalist to be tempted by the unfortunate pun ‘passing the popcorn’.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Filed Under: Fun Food Facts

2nd March 2016 by foodfraudadvisors

Fish pizza, from the things that make me go hmmmm files (a food scientist’s perspective)

Earlier this month, just in time for the Lunar New Year, Dominoes launched a fish pizza.  The toppings?  Fish-shaped fish sticks (fish fingers if you are Australian), pepperoni, green bell peppers, corn, lardons (bacon), and cherry tomatoes.  Fish symbolise wealth and success in China but I’m not sure they belong on a pizza.  Putting corn on a pizza is already bad enough.  Hmmm…

Source: Brandeating.com
Source: Brandeating.com

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Filed Under: Fun Food Facts

20th February 2016 by foodfraudadvisors

Natural caffeine. From the things that make me go hmmm files (a food scientist’s perspective)

energy drink claim label natural caffeine
This energy drink contains ‘natural caffeine’. Hmmm…

This afternoon I saw an advertisement for an energy drink that contains

  • No Taurine (sounds okay to me) and
  • Natural Caffeine.

Natural Caffeine.  What is natural caffeine? Actually what is not-natural caffeine?

I did some research and it turns out that the term ‘natural caffeine’ is sometimes used to describe caffeine that has not been synthesised in a laboratory or chemical factory.  Synthetic caffeine and caffeine from natural sources are chemically indistinguishable, so I am not sure why anyone would bother to make the distinction, but it does raise some interesting questions about the use of the word ‘natural’ in food and beverage marketing.   This is becoming a hot topic in food labeling and regulatory circles, and one that is not going to go away.  In fact, the USA FDA has embarked upon an ambitious project to define the term and provide guidance for food labels.  We await the results with bated breath.  In the meantime, I will stick to my favourite source of caffeine; natural, preservative-free black coffee.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Filed Under: Fun Food Facts

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

MORE FROM FOOD FRAUD ADVISORS

What is a food fraud team? (and what to do if you can’t get one)

A food fraud prevention team is a group of employees in a food business that is responsible for creating, implementing … [Read More...]

Food Fraud Databases Compared

Updated 30 April 2025 A food fraud database is a collection of information about food fraud incidents and food fraud … [Read More...]

What to do About Food Fraud (USA)

I was talking to a new client the other day.  They are based in the United States and had discovered their competitors' … [Read More...]

Paprika, Chilli Powder and Sudan Dye Contamination

Can paprika and chilli powder be “too red”? This post was originally published in The Rotten Apple … [Read More...]

Is Food Fraud to Blame for the Cinnamon-apple Recall (Video)

Our Principal, Karen Constable, explains how high levels of lead may have got into applesauce (video audiogram). For … [Read More...]

follow

  • View foodfraudadvice’s profile on Facebook
  • View karenconstable4’s profile on Twitter
  • LinkedIn

© Copyright 2015 - 2025 Food Fraud Advisors · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Return and Refund Policy