I never was any good at maths

[robpage]

Having spent many years in the food industry , I can assure you fresh means loads of bugs , Pasteurised means not as many bugs and sterilized means just a few bugs . Aseptic cartoning means that the cardboard packaging and the air is sprayed with Hydrogen Peroxide as a disinfectant , no bugs means you are eating something sprayed with chemical , Sunny Delight was the well known one , it took two days before the Sulphur Dioxide dropped to safe levels and made it not poisonous . The unpasteurised milk that came from our youth , we eulogise over the cream level , killed millions with Tuberculosis , bacteria , virus , yeasts and moulds , are all hard to kill off , the only way to do it is extreme heat for a prolonged time , as in tinned food where it is sealed in , but remember the fray Bentos Corned Beef scare of the 1960's and a couple of salmon ones too , or you use chemical disinfectants , your choice . Me ? I prefer fresh even with the stuff attached to it

[Colin Pook]

erm. why would I want to do that, Alf.

[Colin Pook]

Hi Rob, is ANYTHING safe to eat? I mean, everyday there's summat new?

[Ron B Manderson]

Go on then Ron, I'll bite. How does that work

No joke it is a fact.
To do with amount of water in beer. Not as much as you would think
ron the batcave

[robpage]

The supermarkets dictate what you eat , they want sterilised pasteurised , sanitised , so they get a better shelf life , and less waste and then more profit , it is never for the good of the consumer , i use local butcher and vegetable shops , farmers markets and Waitrose , I buy unwashed lettuce , the wash water contains chlorine , unwaxed lemons , ( Shellac the wax is insect waste ) Pasteurised milk because of pathogens , but the filtered variety , I rarely eat tiunned goods because of salt and sugar , and importantly I read the labels , sugar is fructose , lactose , sucrose , glucose , a can of corned beef is 1000 calories half your daily needs . I think we pay too much heed to what teh supermarket buyer thinks we want , just to boost their profit

[happy daze john in oz]

i left some yeast in an airtight tin for some months. when i opened it out came a cloud of very tiny spiderlike things just like brown dust. my son immediatly said "yeasty beasty's" .

Alf, you do know they use yeast in brewing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[happy daze john in oz]

Like Rob we only use the local produce merchant for fruit and veg, apart from what i grow. I spent some time employed by Safeways in the 80's and saw what happened with their fruit and veg, yuck is all I can say. Do not use milk or butter, apart from cooking, no sugar, salt, tea, her indoors only uses soy milk and hardly any tinned goods. Slim line mixer drinks and only Ice we have made.

[Calvin Kent]

Rant start.
Where I live there is very little choice without travelling. The last independent butcher in the town centre shut up shop a couple of months back and the remaining greengrocer will follow him with planned redevelopment later this year. There are no independent electrical retailers left either so you buy off the internet or you have to buy in the big supermarkets. Quite convenient in its way but while Arthur on the cheese counter may be a mine of information when it comes to milk gone funny his knowledge on the latest computer technology is sadly lacking. The only growth in this town in the 20 years I have lived here has been in the number of charity shops moving into empty premises that have been blighted by the axe of regeneration hanging over them. They will not be able to afford premises in the new utopia as most of it will be car park for the new multiplex cinema they are building 100 yards from the existing one. You have to wonder how a town serving a population of 120,000 cannot support small business.
Rant over.

Regards
Calvin

[happy daze john in oz]

The problem with small business is just that, they are small. Here in Oz the old fashioned strip shops are just about gone, super shopping centres are what the public want. All manner of shops under one roof with good parking and the good old fashioned shops such as the butcher and green groacer are gone. The house wife has much to answer for in this respect, they choose to buy it all at the supermarket unlike our mothers who went to each individual shop. Small shops now do not have the buying power to compete. It is sad as when all the big boys have killed off the small guys thye will then control the prices as up they go.