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Summary
On episode 149 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Larry Olmsted, an award-winning columnist for USA Today and Forbes and the best-selling author of Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It.
Larry argues that fake food isn't about low quality, it's about not getting what you think you paid for: a different species of fish, a diluted product, or a name borrowed from a place it never came from.
The conversation covers seafood fraud and how to spot it, why most extra virgin olive oil on supermarket shelves doesn't meet the standard, and practical habits, like buying whole fish and checking harvest dates on oil, that help you avoid getting duped.
Links
- https://realfoodfakefood.com
- https://freshpressedoliveoilclub.com
Key Takeaways
- Fake food means not getting what you think you're buying. Larry defines it broadly: it isn't a judgment on quality, it's the gap between what's on the label or menu and what's actually on your plate.
- There are three levels of food fraud. You can get a completely different species (tilapia sold as red snapper), an inferior version of the real thing (diluted juice), or a product whose name is borrowed from a place it never came from (Kobe beef, Parmesan, Champagne).
- Seafood fraud is widespread, and worse for expensive fish. National studies found more than a third of seafood sold in the US is mislabeled, and red snapper is faked as much as 94 percent of the time.
- Most seafood fraud happens at the very last step. FDA DNA testing found 85 percent of seafood is correctly labeled right up until the last point of wholesale distribution, meaning restaurants and retailers, not the whole supply chain, are responsible for most of the mislabeling.
- Wild-caught salmon is frequently swapped for farmed. Consumer Reports found that more than half the time shoppers paid extra for “wild-caught” salmon, they got the same farmed fish instead; farmed salmon is often dyed pink because it can't eat the krill that colors wild salmon naturally.
- Buying whole fish at a reputable market beats ordering fillets at a restaurant. Once fish is filleted, breaded, and sauced, almost nobody can identify the species, but a market that cuts whole fish in front of you gives you a real chance to verify what you're getting.
- Most “extra virgin” olive oil sold in the US doesn't meet the standard. A Spanish producer told Larry only 8 to 10 percent of European olive oil actually qualifies as true extra virgin, yet nearly every bottle on American shelves carries that label.
- Freshness matters more than most people realize. Olive oil is a fruit juice, not a shelf-stable seed oil, so look for a harvested-on or pressed-on date, skip oils that only list a “bottled on” date or a use-by date far in the future, and use opened oil within a month or two.
“My definition is you're not getting what you think you're buying.”
Larry Olmsted