Mens Journal

entire Kobe herd); to Parma Italy to obsess

over the medieval cheesemaking technique

that ensures real Parmesan cheese is better

than any imitation; and to Mississippi’s Gulf

Coast to spend time on a shrimping boat

whosecatchputsthefarmed Asianstuff—

what most of us unknowingly eat — to

shame.Thefakefoods bycontrastdidn’t

require exotic travel. They were hiding in

plain sight in supermarkets and on restau-

rant menus across the country.

Fraudisbigbusiness—nearly$50bil-

lion a year according to one estimate — and

some of the current fraud plays into our

lust for f iner foods says John Spink Ph.D.

director of Michigan State University’s Food

Fraud Initiative.The brandstatusattached

to luxury cars and watches has migrated

towhatweputinourmouths.Somuchso

thatthesedayswearewhatweeat—and

more and more that’s grass-fed beef and

heirloom tomatoes. This new culture of the

healthy and the artisanal has created such

high demand and soaring prices that Spink

says “the fraud opportunity increases.” At a

primal level this sparks feelings of betrayal.

Those of us who don’t grow our own food

depend on a supply chain for the meals on

our table. When fraud is discovered the trust

holding together that chain is broken. “Food

is a very personal relationship compared

with say luxury sunglasses” Spink says.

“You begin to wonder ‘What else is in there

that I don’t know about?’ ”

For Olmsted’s money the worst possible

answer to that question comes from the sea-

food industry. “In many cases counterfeit f ish

is the f ish market” he writes. The U.S. actu-

ally catches a huge amount of wild clean f ish

especially from Alaska he explains but most

of that gets exported to wealthy international

markets.Theseafoodweeatis91percent

imported mostly from Southeast Asia where

it’s typically farmed in conditions that are

abysmal — for both the f ish and the human

workers. (Olmsted asserts that the average

imported f ish travels 5475 miles before it

becomes our dinner.) Swapping cheaper spe-

cies for more expensive ones is so routine he

says that some of the most frequently con-

sumed f ish — escolar ponga swai — are types

most of us have never heard of.

Escolar seems like a particular prize

known in food circles as “Ex-Lax of the sea.”

Says Olmsted: “You eat sushi regularly and

sooner or later it will happen. You’ll think

‘I had some bad tuna.’ But the real reason

you’re sick is that youdidn’t have tuna.”

While fake foods may not severely harm

your health you’re likely deceived nearly every

time you eat out. Restaurants are under no

legal obligation to play by the rules the FDA

and USDA set for food producers and Olm-

sted wagers that “most restaurants are lying

order lamb it is likely lamb “but it’s probably

not from ‘Rainbow and Unicorns Farms.’ ”

Olmsted’s ordering rule of thumb is: “The

more adjectives I see on a menu the more I

feel like I’m about to be ripped off.”

In his book Olmsted drives home the idea

t hat skepticism is our best prevention against

being duped. He also outlines specific ways

to minimize exposure to fakes. A fter reading

it though you can’t help but feel jaded when

heading to the neighborhood sushi or burger

joint. Say what you will about McDonald’s

Olmsted says “but at least they don’t tell you

it’s pastured grass-fed beef.”Q

aboutsomething.”Wedon’thaveacompre-

hensive national survey of menu tampering

butthesnapshotswedohavearen’tencour-

aging. A study by the nonprof it organization

Oceana looked at 16 New York sushi eater-

ies ranging from high-end to low and found

t hat all were g uilt y of fraud such as replacing

white tuna with escolar and snapper with

tilapia. ATampa Bay Timesexposé found a

similar unanimity: All restaurants the news-

paper investigated were guilty of lying about

the provenance of their meats and produce. As

Nathanael Johnson author ofAll Natural a

skeptic’s guide to healthy living puts it if you

While Kobe beef is one of the highest-profile fakes far

more prevalent are retailers passing off grain-fed beef as

grass-fed. One way to tell the difference: True grass-fed beef

has a deeper darker red hue than grain-fed meat and little

marbling. It’s another reason to buy your beef from a

butcher or farm when possible versus the local supermarket.

The majority of salmon is farmed Olmsted says yet retailers

often sell “wild” next to farmed for $2 more a pound even

though it’s the exact same fish. To circumvent this fraud look

for Alaskan salmon which is caught in the wild. And buy

shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico; if it’s packaged it should

have the Gulf Wild logo.

Most of us don’t mistake grated Kraft for authentic Parmigiano-

Reggiano from Parma. We may however buy pseudo-

Parmesan from say Wisconsin or Britain. This costs just as

much as the real thing but tastes nowhere near as good. Buy

the original — clearly labeled from Parma — and avoid the

cheapest versions which may contain fillers like wood pulp.

European oils and especially Mediterranean supermarket

brands like Bertolli routinely fail purity tests (perhaps

because of low-grade or stale oil). Try to sample olive oil

before buying — real olive oil tastes and smells grassy fruity

and ripe. One way to avoid fraud: Buy bottles from Chilean

Australian or Californian olive-growing regions.

People assume that truffle oil is olive oil infused with pricey

French truffles. But in most cases it’s a purely synthetic

chemical concoction cooked up in a food lab. Skip it.

GRASS-FED

BEEF

FISH

PARM ESAN

CHEESE

EXTRA-

VIRGIN

OLIVE OIL

TRUFFLE

OIL

1

2

4

3

5

THE

BIGGEST

FOOD

FAKES

The frauds you’ve

likely fallen for

and Olmsted’s

advice on getting

what you pay for.

MEN’S JOURNAL 53 SEPTEMBER 2016

MAYA KARKALICHEVA/GETTY IMAGES