THINGS NOT TO BUY AT THE SUPERMARKET! SUPERMARKET SECRETS

 

 

Number 1 – Steaks held together by Meat Glue – Your favorite steak might not be a real steak at your market but instead clumps of stew meat bound together by meat glue. The cheaper cuts of meat are  glued together with an enzyme called Transglutaminase aka meat glue and can fool customers to think they are buying a higher quality cut and hence the heftier price tag.

In this video, you see an example on how the meat is glued together. First, the transglutaminase is added and mixed together with the bowl of stew meat. It is then wrapped air tight, then put in the fridge for about 12 hours.

Now while the FDA says is generally safe for consumption, it certainly doesn’t sound natural and is even a deceptive practice if consumers are not informed or aware. Concerns of bacteria being stuck on the inside of the meat that does not die at cooking temperatures especially when the steak is served medium or rare can be a potentially a health hazard.

It is been said the best way to tell is to examine the steak to see if there is a lot of lines or suspicious uneven looking crevices in the meat when it is raw.  Even then it can be extremely difficult to identify if it’s been glued together.

According to Katu 2, it is not mandatory for markets and restaurants to inform you if you're eating glued meat, but the labels will contain the words "transglutaminase," "formed" or "reformed."

Number 2 - Pre-packaged fruits and vegetables – Have you ever noticed that hefty price tag on any of the pre-cut and packaged fruits and vegetables? If you were to find the same exact fruits and vegetables that weren’t prepackaged you might notice that you can have paid twice the amount if you were to cut and prepare it yourself. Well that is because you are paying premium for the convenience and labor that is used to precut and package the fruits and vegetables.

Now according to an article by consumer reports, it was advised to avoid precut melons due to it being contaminated with Salmonella. Pre-cut produce has a higher chance of being contaminated with bacteria due to prep areas and cutting utensils might not be properly sanitized.

What’s even worse is that it might not be the freshest produce in stock. Chances are it is ones that are about to spoil and could not sell it at face value so it was cut and packaged nicely for someone to buy!

https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/salmonella-in-melon-what-you-need-to-know/

Number 3 -  Pre-peeled and pre-minced garlic – For starters it is a lot more expensive then the unprocessed garlic. Okay, we heard of the saying, I ain’t got time for that. I get it, peeling and mincing garlic can be tedious and time consuming but maybe you will make time once you hear this. If you watched our previous videos (which you should be doing), you should be fully aware China is world’s top producer of garlic and according to USA today, 60% of garlic imported into the USA is from China.

Now here’s something new for you, the peeling and processing of the garlic is actually done by Chinese prisoners according to an article by NY Post. It is said their fingers get so tired; they have to use their teeth to peel the garlic. As of the reports of the garlic being bleached to appear whiter wasn’t bad enough.

Number 4 – Supermarket prepared meals – It is sure tempting when you see the prepared meals sitting on display from behind the glass – feels like its calling out to you. But before you give into that temptation, here is what you should know.

It is charged based on weight and tend to be double the price compared to preparing the meal at home with the same exact ingredients. You are really paying for convenience. Second, the ingredients itself that are used in these prepared meals might be unfit for sale. It can be the foods that are about to expire, such as the produce turning bad or the meat is near expiration date so deep frying  or cooking can conceal it.

Also there are no nutritional labels on these prepared meals - according to consumer reports, some of these foods can be high in sodium, fat, and contain hidden ingredients such as preservatives. For instance a turkey meatloaf can contain up to 891mg of sodium for a 6 oz serving or mash potatoes that contain preservatives to maintain color and shelf life.

Sometimes it might just pay to cook!

Number 5 -Bottled water – Bottle water is not only bad for the environment but it’s an unnecessary expense that adds up especially with the recycle deposit for each bottle. Those bottles are also not BPA free. BPA is an industrial chemical used to make plastic bottles. BPA is potentially carcinogenic when exposed to the sunlight according to an article by Vice and you don’t know if the bottles were exposed to sunlight when being shipped.

To quote a wise person “why should I pay for water when I can open the sink and get it for free?

Now, I get it. Not everyone is comfortable drinking tap water and neither am I. Using a Brita Water filter Pitcher, or an electric water cooker, and a BPA free reusable water bottle are all alternatives from bottled water and tap water.

I personally use all of these and links will be in the description box below.

Number 6 – Avoid things from the deli case in supermarkets – This is confession by writer Stacy Ritzen who wrote an article on uproxx.com on her experiences working in the deli/seafood section of a big chain grocery store during a summer in college. She writes that employees were instructed to cut off moldy parts of cheese that were spoiling and then sell the rest of it to customers as well as spoiled deli meats.

When packaged salads such as macaroni and potatoes expired, they were told to put them into containers in the deli case and sell by weight. Rotisserie chickens that were not sold would be put in the fridges and just when they were about to spoil the meat would be picked off them to be once again sold by weight in the deli case or used to make chicken salads.

Supermarkets don’t like to waste money and that’s one way to salvage it all at the expense of the customers.

Number 7 -Packaged fruits – These are the whole fruits that are put inside an zip lock bag. This one comes from personal experience with a bag of apples. I purchased a zip lock full of apples from my local market only to realize later that some of the apples in the middle hidden by the fresh ones on the outside were ripe to the point where it was soft and almost turning brown.

What I suspect is that since the bag is a ziplock that can be open and closed so the apples were manually put in by a supermarket employee. It seemed likely that the older apples were placed in the middle of the bag while the newer fresher apples were put on the outside.

The best thing to do is personally buy the apples that you can inspect and pick out each individually. 

 

Number  8 – Expiration dates is just a date that can be changed. Believe or not, but according to the FDA - best if used by dates are not required on any food products besides infant formula and entirely up to the discretion of the manufacturer to provide this information according to an article by Healthyway. This means that supermarkets are allowed and possibly change expiration labels on food products once its passed the date.

According to askusda.gov – if a retailer places an expiration date on food products such as poultry or meat, there is no regulation on the federal level that would stop a retailer from changing that date if the food is not spoiled and still sellable.

We hope now that you are more aware of what you are putting in your shopping cart and spending your hard earned money on. Now don’t go questioning everything you see at your local supermarkets but its best to be conscious and avoid being duped and paying premium price on something that isn’t worth the price tag. If you like this post, the biggest thing you can do for us is to share it, smash the like button and subscribe. Consider checking out our patreon page as we will have exclusive content uploaded on it soon. Until then, stay informed and Genius Tomato out!