Fake Foods: Checking Out the Market

The unprecedented affluence of the early 21st century and the newfound willingness of the American public to try the pleasures of foods and fresh products from other countries has caused both restaurant chefs and home cooks to make exotic meals that were unknown to the U.S. market twenty years before.

The problem is that many of these new products that grace America’s larders are not always what they pretend to be.

It isn’t the fault of the buyers. Many have never seen or experienced the real thing. Advertisers and marketers are mostly to blame for creating high falutin’ designations for lowly ingredients, renaming them and selling them at high prices.

A case in point is what appears on restaurant menus and fish markets as Chilean Sea Bass. The fish is neither Chilean (in Britain, it’s presented as Australian Sea Bass), nor is it actually sea bass. Known to ichthyologists as Patagonian Toothfish, it’s harvested in the chill waters of the Antarctic. In the fish markets of Chile and Brazil, it’s a very inexpensive catch.

And talking about South America, many diners pay top dollar in East Coast restaurants and churrascarias for “Argentine” beef that supposedly comes from hormone-free cattle grazing in the Argentinean pampas. But a few years ago, Argentina’s populist government enacted a sweeping ban on beef exports in an effort to keep domestic prices low.

So what’s presented as “Argentinean steaks” is, in reality, probably beef imported from Australia or New Zealand or even the feedlots of Texas.

Plenty of other ingredients are being replaced by inexpensive stand-ins. Wasabi powder, for example, is a staple in America’s 7,500+ sushi bars. It has also started showing up on non-Japanese restaurant menus in such dishes as “Wasabi Crusted Salmon” or “Grouper with Wasabi Sauce.”

But much of the wasabi sold in the U.S. is actually powdered horseradish, crushed mustard seed, and food coloring at a retail cost of about $10 per pound. Meanwhile, real grated wasabi root, which has a much subtler taste, has a U.S. retail cost of about $140 per pound.

Prized “Blue Point” oysters are rarely actually raised from the waters of Blue Point, New York. Otherwise, they would have become extinct long ago. And flounder is commonly sold as sole at twice the price. Rounds of shark meat cut with small cookie cutters have often masqueraded as scallops, and undersized sea scallops are frequently served as Nantucket Bay scallops – a far more expensive ingredient.

If you are eating Camembert, Brie, or Roquefort in the USA, they are probably not an import. U.S. law prohibits the sale of soft, unpasteurized cheeses aged for less than 60 days, with a few exceptions. These exceptions permit the importation and sale of Italian fresh cheeses made from unpasteurized milk that has not been aged for more than 60 days.

Groupe Lactalis, a leading European dairy marketer, sells Roquefort under the Société Roquefort brand. If you look carefully at the Roquefort back label, you will see in small type, ”Product of France made from unpasteurized sheep’s milk.” So that Roquefort is genuine.

However, on the back label of the Joan of Arc Double Cream Brie we recently purchased, you will see (at the bottom in very small type) that the product is actually made in Lincolnshire, Illinois and is not imported from France.

Another product commonly faked is balsamic vinegar. Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena is aged for at least 12 years and as much as 25 years in wood casks, and it must bear an official government seal from Reggio or Modena. It can cost as much as $80 an ounce. It has a full body with rich density and a very characteristic bouquet, and it’s best used uncooked as a dressing for antipasti, first courses, desserts, and crudités.

A less expensive variation, Condimento Pregiato (100% cooked grape must), aged for only the 12 minimum years, is used in lightly cooked sauces. A good balsamic should be kept away from heat and light and at room temperature – 68F maximum.

At your local supermarket, you will probably find a product sold as “balsamic vinegar” that’s in reality a red wine vinegar treated with caramelized sugar. The Barilla company imports an excellent authentic balsamic vinegar under the Academia brand that’s very aromatic and with decreased acidity. It’s available in many supermarkets.