This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Hidden Inflation Everywhere, From Watered-Down Bourbon To Horse-Meat Chili
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter
We’ve had an endless series of products whose ingredients have been cheapened in order to maintain the price. Consumers won’t be able to taste the difference, the theory goes. So, as the horse-meat lasagna scandal in Europe is spiraling beautifully out of control, we’re now getting hit where it hurts: Maker’s Mark is watering down its bourbon.
Unlike the horse-meat folks, Maker’s Mark announced it. They even had an official reason. “Fact is, demand for our bourbon is exceeding our ability to make it, which means we’re running very low on supply,” said the missive that COO Rob Samuels sent to his customers. They’d add water to the remaining batch—it would lower alcohol content from 45% to 42%—so that there’d be enough for everybody.
The uproar was immediate. The company, a subsidiary of Beam, Inc., though still run by the founding family, had to deal with the clamor. Chairman Emeritus Bill Samuels, Jr. crafted the response. The company’s focus over the past 50 years has been on “product quality and consistency.” And the primary measure of that consistency was “the unique Maker’s Mark taste profile,” he wrote. “That’s all that truly matters in the end.”
So why not just run out and play on scarcity? Knob Creek, my personal favorite and also a Beam subsidiary, had done that successfully in 2009. Samuels did not provide an answer. Or why not raise the price to lower demand instead of watering down their bourbon? Well, he wrote, “We don’t want to price Maker’s Mark out of reach.”
Fighting inflation by watering down bourbon. But there was nothing to worry about. He and Rob personally tested batches of watered-down bourbon, and they all had “the same taste profile that we’ve always had.” Their Tasting Panel and “structured consumer research” agreed: “there’s no difference in the taste.”
Nobody noticed a difference in the taste either when horse meat replaced beef in frozen lasagna. It was found out through testing. Turns out, there was a vast trading scheme that involved slaughter houses in Romania, traders in Cyprus and the Netherlands, and companies in France, including a subcontractor of the brand Findus, which shipped the meat to tax haven Luxembourg where it was manufactured into frozen dishes that then spread to freezers across Europe.
At first it was just lasagna in Britain. Then lasagna in France and elsewhere. Now they’re finding horse meat in other frozen foods. In France, for example, cannelloni, spaghetti bolognese, moussaka, and hachis parmentier were hastily yanked off the shelves at six supermarket chains. On Wednesday, another French brand, Picard, found horse meat in its frozen lasagna and chili con carne. It suspended the sale of all products containing “beef” that had been supplied by one of the parties in the Findus web.
In Britain, an investigation has started. Catherine Brown, chief executive of the Foods Standards Agency, called for retailers to test their dishes containing “pork,” “chicken,” and other meats. Retailers were currently focusing on “comminuted” beef, she explained, “the stuff where meat is ground up to the point that it is not readily recognizable.”
While I have not knowingly eaten horse meat in Europe, I had horse meat in Japan, carnivore that I am. As sashimi, served raw, thinly sliced, with raw onions, fresh ground ginger, in a vinegar-soy sauce. Delicious. But there is a dilemma. In France, horse meat consumption has plummeted from 1.8 kg per capita (4 pounds) in 1979 to a measly 0.34 kg (12 ounces) in 2009. It now makes up only 0.4% of total meat consumptions—not counting the “beef” in frozen foods. In other European countries, demand for horse meat has collapsed similarly. Prices are low. The meat isn’t toxic. So why not feed it to people who don’t know what they’re eating? Just grind it up, stuff it in manufactured lasagna or whatever, hide it inside an enticing package, call it “beef,” freeze it, and when consumers stick it in the microwave, they’ll never know. Because they can’t taste the difference.
“Industrial terrorism,” it was called in France. Findus and every company in the trading web claim to have been victimized, much like consumers. But if they’d wanted to know what that cheap meat was and where it had come from, they could have found out. Or they could have refused to buy meat of shady origin. But they didn’t want to. What mattered was the cost of the meat. It would keep profit margins high and avoid price increases.
As the belts of consumers are being tightened notch by notch, price pressures become enormous. Consumer product companies are reacting in a myriad ways [to the.... The “Pauperization of Europe”]. Some are disclosed or obvious, others are hard to detect. But it’s an insidious form of inflation that doesn’t show up on the price tag and isn’t counted in the inflation statistics. But you’re eating lower quality food, and you’re getting less for your money that is constantly being debased, and then, when you finally had it, you end up self-medicating with watered-down bourbon.
So I love steaks. Rare. But now we find out about the potentially deadly industry practice of mechanical tenderization. It has been going on for decades, with innumerable victims. Yet the industry resists even the most basic labeling requirement that would save lives. Read.... The Beef Industry’s Deadly Secret: “Blading” and “Needling”
»
- advertisements -
I believe the "new normal" means people come to expect and trust the fraud and dishonesty.
Big O could have run on the slogan "Trust the dishonesty!" and would have won as well.
One thing I don't understand...a horse is more expensive to raise than a cow. The lucky Europeans are just getting more than they paid for.
Susie's pet horse is free when it dies. Plenty of unwanted old horses around, sad to say.
From a site called "THE STRAIGHT DOPE":
These days, it's more common (an undocumented source says 90% of all domestic horses) for unwanted horses to be sent to a slaughterhouse if still alive, or a rendering plant (AKA the knackers, the knackery) if deceased.
Rendering plants are the recycling links in the food chain. They take fat and bone trimmings from grocery stores, waste scraps from restaurants, and dead animals. They cook the meat and fat products together and grind it up. It's used for animal feed and non-edible products like soap, various lubricants, and of course glue--the heavy kind that's used to glue furniture together, for example.
But as I say, the rendering plant isn't the only possible destination for a horse that's outlived its usefulness. Horsemeat is considered a delicacy in some countries. Some slaughterhouses will happily accept and process horsemeat if it's commercially feasible. I've read that they buy horses in the United States for about 50 cents a pound and sell the horsemeat overseas for about $15 a pound. The Bureau of Land Management periodically comes under fire for its wild horse/burro adoption program as reports of "adopted" animals going to the slaughterhouse surface. See www.cnie.org/nle/biodv-33.html for more information.
Geez - before Bernank and his QE crimes against humanity...old horses were sent to the glue factory...
And something that Bill Cosby never told you - the hooves, bones, and hide trimmings from cows and horses, etc, are made into gelatin/Jello. YUM!!! I want whipped cream on mine!
Don't they "cut" cocaine and heroin to do the same thing?
I don't shoot horse, I eat it.
Yes, that's why I switched to Makers Mark.
"Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people!"
"Mr. Chambers! Don't get on that ship! The rest of the book To Serve Man, it's... it's a cookbook!"
have and must to see: http://trendybull777.blog.com/2013/02/14/stop-investingstart-createthink...
See heuristics work. People DO switch to (horse meat) hamburger when steak becomes expensive...only they just don't know it.
I had horse in Patagonia, Argentina. The gaucho had just slaughtered part of his herd. When I asked what kind of meat I was eating the waitress just kept repeating 'del orno, del orno'. Apparently if it came from the oven it was good enough to eat.....they were serving horse meat but just did not want to admit it.
The age of transparency....we ain't there yet.
I had horse in Patagonia, Argentina.
You didn't notice the marks from the jockey's whip?
I've been there. Best beef in the World in my opinion, they really know how to barbecue. If they ever tell you the meat is "del orto", then don't eat it.
Hedonics?
So a good investment should be a rat-meat farm? Slip it into a big-mac, probably lean meat, ghetto-chicken. Detroit has a future after all.
Mice breed faster than rats, with bigger litters. And Chinese Restaurants serve newborn mice in honey as a delicacy.
And you can always bring Kitty to a restaurant that serves live mice.
Would you like flies with that Big Rat?
There is an older book/novel about WW2 German prison camp life where they did just that - was called "King Rat".
Japanese not German
"King Rat" by James Clavell - 1962. Only the king rat was a "wheeler-dealer" in a POW camp. He did really well in captivity while others didn't do so well. And they made a movie of it.
Re horse meat - where would the American West be today without the cowboy's dependence on a good horse now and then?
"Mister Ed! Why are you hiding?"
"WILLL-BURRRRRR" "Hormel is Coming for me"
"I'M goin in the cannnnnn"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PZPpWTRTU
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/mr-ed.htm
Loved that show.
That wasn't very nice.
Clicked on the link and was confronted with a video of Feinstein coming out of a barn.
hujel
Booze I don't care about. But by God, the frozen monkey bread has shrunk in size and rumor has it that it now contains real monkey. So in desperation for something sweet I went to my favorite candy store to buy a British Kit Kat and THEY WERE OUT! Supposedly the boxes of chocolate goodness are being help up at customs. Riiiiiight. I think Chris Christie had his dockside helpers take them all so he can hoard them for the coming collapse.
Stay thirsty my friends.
Chris Krispy Kreme hoarding Kit Kats??? That is really the sign of the end.
As a stacker / prepper, I find storing "booze" a very good longterm method of storing grains and potatos.
By the way, Dinty Moore is now 20 ounce can instead of 24 ounce. Price the same. Of course the meat in this beef stew is the same as always and that is "of unknown origin".
I think they use 'SMEAT' in there.
Girl Scout cookies--They're $4/box now and just simply no longer any kind of value to anyone. It's easy to get people to part with $2 for such a cause, but at $4 it's a tough sell.
If you go to Goodwill nowadays, the prices make Sachs Fifth Avenue look cheap.
The tubes of cookies in the Thin Mints are short compared to the box on the outside too. Anyone have a box from last year to see if there are less cookies in it? Price increase, and a decrease in the amount of cookies you get. Inflation BITCHEZ!!
This kind of thing has been going on for at least three years. It's one of the ways the food companies are avoiding price shock. If you are just noticing, then it has been very effective!!! (Only an accountant like me woould notice... 'cause it's what we DO!)
Just look at the Unilevers of this world, bringing third world packaging
to the masses in the ,hrph, first world.
With already have the slums of Mumbai, we just call it Detroit.Mumbai slums are much cleaner.
Forward.
The Mint cookies do not even taste or feel like they used to. The Caramel Delights are physically smaller.
The Lemon cookies are still a good deal imho.
There is hidden inflation all over. I had to throw an adding machine away that was probably 20 years old a few weeks ago. New adding machines won't last a couple years at most. If I have to buy 10 adding machines today, to last the same 20 years, thats alot more inflation than the 2% that Ben is trying to tell us exists. Nothing lasts nearly as long as it used to. If it lasts half as long, even if it costs the exact same amount, thats 100% inflation right there.
My new abacus only has half the number of beads as my old one.
Just moved a file cabinet that has been in place since 1986. At the bottom of a drawer found my old slide rule that I used in Chemistry and Physics in high school. Used to be pretty good on that thing. Can't even remember how to get started now.
LOL
That's more because the companies that produce that equipment all moved out of the US to Mexico and because they are intentionally cutting corners on parts quality to make them not last. If we really wanted to produce long-lasting equipment, we still could, it's just that too many MBAs think they're a genius because they took another pickle out of the jar.
BTW--there's a thing called a computer that made adding machines obsolete about 25 years ago now.
Well, they still come in handy if you run a business. Thats my point, we could make stuff last, but it would cost twice as much. Thats the hidden inflation I am talking about.
we could make stuff last, but it would cost twice as much
Except for cars. They get better and cheaper every year. Everything else, you're probably right.
Check Ebay for your adding machine.
indeed, although it is much harder to "cheat" on an adding machine - "winning"
Jack Daniel's has never been the same since it went from 90 to 80 proof.
What they're also not telling you is taht companies are lowering the aging time on booze (at least when they dont have to state the age on labels). Has already happened to a lot of brands. You used to have 'X' years of aged booze - now they're using booze that's been aged for a year less (or even more)
You would think that it wouldn't make any difference to someone eating that god-awful lasagne out of a box what kind of "meat" was in there.
Maybe Soylent green would be a better substitute to horse meat.
Well, there is a lot of starvation and death in Africa, I hear.
Or is it just a rumor?
Maybe we're already eating Soylent Dark.