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Article created by: Vėja Elkimavičiūtė
This year, the global food market revenue stands at around 9.36 trillion US dollars. For comparison, Germany's entire economy is valued at "just" $4.4 trillion. What's more, it's estimated that the figure should continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by 38.46 percent and reach $12.97 trillion.
But big money brings tough competition, and businesses may try all sorts of tactics to get an edge.
Interested in the practices of this sector, Reddit user Lilyxrx made a post on the platform, asking everyone, "What's a secret the food industry doesn't want you to know?" Turns out, many more wanted to know, too. As of now, the post has 4.6K upvotes and 3.5K comments. Here are some of the most interesting ones.
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#2
The reason restaurant food tastes better than what you make at home is probably because it was drowned in butter or oil.
Also MSG is in nearly everything. Totally safe and delicious. And it definitely isn’t what is giving you a migraine. The fact you ate 4000 calories and 3 times your daily salt intake is probably what gave you the headache.
Andrew Cowles 9 months ago
Agree with it all, except the MSG. Only aware that Chinese food often uses the powder as an actual ingredient. It does give the umami flavour though, and it's naturally occurring in Brocoli, Sea Weed, well lots of fruit and veg.
#3
Unless it’s a health conscious food joint you’re eating at, the food we serve is designed for maximum taste. It’s either dense with fat and sugar, or fat and salt . E.g. Those mashed potatoes you like? Made with cream, butter, and salt. The quiche? made on cream, not milk. Etc, etc.
#4
They're making BANK windfall record profits right now under the guise of "inflation" and "supply issues".
#5
At least up until the pandemic hit, there is a 100% chance that you've eaten at a restaurant where 1 or 2 of the people directly handling your food were legitimately sick enough that they should have stayed home, but they had to come in to work anyway because they couldn't get their shift covered and they can't get a doctor's note without insurance or the money for a copay.
#6
Everything on the Mexican menu uses the same ingredients. Just built it different and give it a different name
Tortillas
Cheese
Salsa
Beans
Rice
Meat
Tacos, burrito, chilaquiles, tostada, chimichanga
It's all the same thing!
* written by a Mexican cook
#9
A lot of the processed cheese and cream cheese is all the same recipe we just switch the labels and packaging for the different brands we run. Source: I work in a cheese factory in a company that services 75% of America's domestic market
Andrew Cowles 9 months ago
Yeah, and the reason grated cheese goes off so quickly (apart from the bigger surface area exposed to the air) is because when they find moldy cheese, they'll cut those bits off and grate what looks OK.
#10
German chocolate cake isn’t from Germany.
Raymond Core 9 months ago
The 'German' is named after English-American chocolate maker Samuel German, who developed a formulation of dark baking chocolate. There is also Dutch Processed chocolate where the cocoa solids are treated with an alkalizing agent to reduce the natural acidity.
#11
The American FDA takes food additive safety claims from corporations at face value. If a corporation has done internal testing and says it’s safe the FDA approves it. In the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc if a corporation wants to get an additive approved, the governments have their own food labs. They will take your testing procedures/results and then do their own testing to see if they think your additives are safe, and then approve or deny accordingly. Same goes for medicines in farm animals. Canada won’t allow BGH (bovine growth hormone) as it shows up in the milk. America gets angry because they can’t sell dairy to Canada and the EU but we have rules banning widespread use of Antibiotics and hormones in farm animals. If you are ever travelling outside of America, pick up some food products off the shelf that look like the American brands and read the ingredients list. It’s probably half as long. I’ll let you work out that obesity epidemic cause for yourselves.
Mike Goslin 9 months ago
only 1/2 true. The FDA has an extensive and rigorous independent testing and evaluation program for food additives. With that said, they only test for short term toxicity. That is a pretty low bar to clear. As such there is lots of stuff in American food that I would rather not eat. Consider low amounts of antibiotics or hormones. They won't k**l you , so the FDA allows them to pass the test. That leaves a lot of stuff in our food that the rest of the world doesn't want. Can't say as I blame them. I don't want it ether.
#12
Five Guys- not really a secret but everything was fresh as could be, we did not have a freezer at all only the fridge. Every morning the burgers were rolled into balls and weighed to make sure all were the same. Bread made fresh from local factories. Potatoes straight from Idaho or Washington. Freshly cut and washed 3 times to remove the starch before being cooked. All veggies were labled by date for freshness. Honestly probably one of the cleanest places ive worked at.
Also at the register every single person would ask why it was so expensive but proceeded to buy it anyway. As if I could change the price for them.
#13
Cows make milk not because they are cows but because they are mothers
Andrew Cowles 9 months ago
True. A bovine female which hasn't given birth is called a heffer. Only mothers are called Cows.
#14
Dragon fruit isn’t an exotic Asian fruit. It’s a cactus fruit, and as such are native to the Americas and can even be grown in the US.
#15
I'm a trucker who hauls mostly refrigerated freight. I pick up at a lot of slaughterhouses. You really, really don't want to know what those places are like; let alone the conditions at feedlots or CAFOs.
#16
King crab and Maine lobster prices that restaurants pay are cheaper than they have been since even before the pandemic, yet we still charge more than ever before
#17
Pringles (and baked Lays/similar) are made of rehydrated and compressed rejected/excess parts of potatoes that go into regular chips. I learned that from my dietician at work and thought that was odd. I still like them over regular chips.
#18
Buffalo wings are not made of buffalo, they're made of chicken.
Buffalo don't even have wings.
#19
When I worked at a mass production bakery the chocolate for the chocolate covered doughnuts came in giant frozen blocks of 4x4 peices and contained no actual chocolate what so over. When unfrozen it was like some sort of nasty smelling paraffin wax that I would break up with a hammer and place into a melter that would then pour over the doughnuts.
Andrew Cowles 9 months ago
Never liked that fake "chocolate". Thanks for confirming it's just brown gross stuff.
#20
You technically can't get addicted to sugar, but sugar dependence is very real and can give you similar withdrawal symptoms to caffiene withdrawal. Your brain gets dopamine when you eat sugar, which means that most companies put as much sugar in their products as they can get away with so you feel good by eating them.
#21
Well - I work at Dominos, and we are kept afloat by the people who don't coupon and pay full menu price. You people are the unsung heroes of labor.
#22
The "natural flavors" are just big jugs of glycerin with hyper concentrated flavoring in it. Banana flavoring is fairly flammable.
Source: Worked in food manufacturing
Andrew Cowles 9 months ago
I'm sure the concentrate is from "natural" sources though. Not necessarily the fruit they're meant to be. Vanilla and Strawberry is often from bever butt glands!
#23
Beekeeper checking in - there is no such thing as organic honey. I do not treat my bees with chemicals, but I have no idea where they get their nectar. A bee can fly up to three miles from a hive to get nectar. It is virtually impossible to guarantee they have not gotten nectar from a chemically treated source.
SH 9 months ago
idk how that's in your country, but where I life, this is not true. Surrounding area needs to be at least 50% organically managed, bees need to be far enough placed from any possible sources of non-agricultural pollution, and bees cannot be fed with sugar, e.g., the beekeeper needs to make sure that they always have enough honey and pollen to feed on. You cannot just assume from any crappy regulations that you yourself have that this applies to the rest of the world.
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