Fake blueberries abound in food products (LAT)

[somone]

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-fake-blueberries-20110120,0,7536769.story

Fake blueberries abound in food products
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

Fake blueberries are usually plastic and can be found with other fake fruits in decorative arrangements or on bizarre hats. Now, apparently, they can be found in food. A range of fake blueberries are in a number of retail food items that contain labels or photos suggesting real blueberries were used in the products, according to an investigation. Sigh. As if it's not hard enough to include fruits in your diet. Now you have to watch for fraudulent food.

The nonprofit Consumer Wellness Center reported Thursday that its investigation found "blueberries" that were nothing more than a concoction of sugar, corn syrup, starch, hydrogenated oil, artificial flavors and -- of course -- artificial food dye blue No. 2 and red No. 40. The offenders are well-known manufacturers such as Kellogg's, Betty Crocker and General Mills, and the fakes were found in bagels, cereals, breads and muffins. Some products contain real blueberries mixed with fakes. For example, the blueberry bagels sold at Target contain some real berries but the "blueberry bits" listed in the ingredients aren't real blueberries, according to Mike Adams, the author of the report.

Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats Blueberry Muffin variety has no blueberries but does have "blueberry flavored crunchies" made from the sugar-and-dye concoction mentioned above. My personal favorite fraud is Total Blueberry Pomegranate cereal, from General Mills, which contains no blueberries and no pomegranates. Aren't there laws against this type of thing?

To avoid fraudulent blueberries posing as real berries, look on ingredient lists for red No. 40, blue No. 2 or any artificial colors, Adams says.

[MineralMan]

1. Reading ingredient labels is the answer. If the label says

"blueberries," then the product has blueberries. If it says something else or adds any other words to "blueberry", it doesn't. Careful label reading is fundamental if you want to know what's in your food.

[Obamanaut]

2. I have four blueberry bushes, and last season I tried to get people to

pick them, and keep all they picked.

Conversations went thusly:

Do you want some blueberries?

Are they picked?

No, you gotta pick 'em yourself.

I'll think about it.

Those four bushes produced enough that we bought a small freezer and filled it with bags of blueberries and yellow squash (not mixed in same bags.)

Now, I am having blueberries with oatmeal every morning.

[MineralMan]

6. Yah, people don't seem to want to put out any effort.

I'm thinking about planting a couple of blueberry bushes here, too.

[spooky3]

11. very generous of you - they were crazy not to accept your offer

The weather and hungry birds have always done a number on my blueberry bushes so I have given up. Raspberries are fine in our weather but the birds get every morsel as soon as they begin to ripen. I don't have the ability (or space or tools) to build and maintain a wooden frame to protect them from the birds.

But there is nothing more delicious than a bowl of ripe berries.

[Obamanaut]

18. We've had those same bushes for years, and this was the second

season they've had more than just enough for the birds to eat. We were surprised as to how much they produced this year.

We put 20 quart size freezer bags away, plus we gave a lot to the nursing home where MIL lives. Their activities director gets a few of the residents together and they cook things - in this case, they made several cobblers.

[spooky3]

25. great idea!

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

16. Nope, you can't beat the flavor of fresh home grown food.

We have 4 big and 4 small blueberry bushes... they have been loaded the last three years. We also offer but no bites, too much work for some people:shrug:

I plant two rows (about 24 plants) of yellow squash every year. Cook and give to friends. But how do you freeze yours?

[Pool Hall Ace]

20. Do you live near me? I'd be happy to come over and pick berries.

[knitter4democracy]

23. Are you kidding? We pick every year.

I live in blueberry central (Michigan), and the you-pick places are always busy here every year. I'm horrified that a Michigan company like Kelloggs (headquartered where I live) doesn't buy Michigan blueberries and use them in their products.

[Danmel]

28. Where do youl ive

I'll be over next summer to pick! I love blueberries!

[Ilsa]

10. There might be 200 "blueberries" in the package. Maybe 10 are real.

That means the package gets to list blueberries as an ingredient. Very deceptive, IMO, even to label readers like me.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Total Blueberry Pomegranate cereal

with sweet fuck all either. :rofl:

[MineralMan]

7. It says right on the front of the label that it contains

crunchy blueberry and pomegranate flavored clusters. Right under the name of the cereal. It says nothing about pomegranate or blueberries in the ingredients list. Why would you expect real blueberries or pomegranate to be found inside the box.

Do people really not read the boxes of the products they buy? The information is right there. If you want blueberries or pomegranite seeds, you really need to buy something that says it has those.

You think this is deceptive? I don't. It's made quite clear in plain English that neither are in the box.

[bluestate10]

14. Yes. "flavored" is the key. Anytime that word.

Or "like" show up in food or clothing labels, expect that the product is NOT natural. General Mills pulled a slight of hand, but would win every case brought against it in court because it stated that the clusters were not necessarily natural.

If a person wants "natural" fruit pieces in cereal, they should cough up the big dollars that it takes to buy boxes of those cereals. Until then, they can either eat the fake cereal, or take a pass.

[grahamhgreen]

4. Regulations? Hell yes!

[eppur_se_muova]

5. No blueberries in blueberry bagels.

The dough is too stiff, real blueberries would be pulped by working the dough.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Dried blueberries work well in stiff doughs.

Not an ingredient most of us at home would use but they are readily available to the food industry.

[pschoeb]

9. I make them all the time

I use freeze dried blueberries, works great

[eShirl]

12. small bowl of frozen wild Maine blueberries w/ milk or plain yogurt & a little stevia

YUM better than ice cream!! brings me back to childhood, we'd rake some of my grandfather's blueberries for ourselves to fill the freezer to last the year

[Lucian]

13. Just like the "strawberries" in Quaker Oatmeal...

nothing more than dried apples dyed red.

But at least those apples are real...I think.

[bluestate10]

15. They may be crab-apples. That is "may" be.

If people want "natural" cereal, they will have to cough up big bucks to buy brands that are made in natural cereal shops.

[jberryhill]

17. Next you'll tell me there is no froot in Froot Loops

I'm sticking with the Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Bars.

[SheilaT]

19. Another good reason to do as much

cooking from scratch as is possible.

[Duwamish]

21. Antifreeze & Seaweed in Your Ice Cream? Oh, It's in There

I saw this article this morning.... what to look for in ingredient lists.

Antifreeze & Seaweed in Your Ice Cream? Oh, It's in There

Does your ice cream contain seaweed? Sounds like an ice cream flavor for Oscar the Grouch, but if your ice cream contains carrageen, it's got seaweed. Carrageen is a food additive derived from seaweed to keep ice crystals from forming and to give ice cream that thick, silken texture we all know and love. It replaces more expensive -- and fattening -- ingredients.

But seaweed isn't the only weird ingredient lurking in your ice cream. It also contains beans ...

Guar gum, derived from guar beans, is another common thickener found in ice cream, chocolate milk, buttermilk, and other thick 'n' rich dairy treats.

There are many more of these in the article. Here is the link:

http://thestir.cafemom.com/food_party/109459/antifreeze_seaweed_in_your_ice

[louis-t]

22. I used to laugh when I saw labeling that said

"Made with REAL fruit!!!!" I'd say "As opposed to what?" Now I know. Fake fruit, fake niacin, fake hamburger.....

[aikoaiko]

24. My stores have been getting delicious Chilean blueberries lately for #2.50/pt

I've been eating them like boxes of popcorn.

[HopeHoops]

26. You mean the ones in my Boo Berry cereal aren't REAL?

AAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!

[jmowreader]

27. They're real Boo Berries. Come now.