"scam" news and stories

There are many instances of non-food items being found in food, far more than the ones we have mentioned here, but did you know that there are dedicated task forces employed by restaurant chains to investigate claims?

When something unfortunate happens in the kitchen, restaurants don't want it to affect the customers' overall experience. If it does, they want to offer a settlement ASAP to show their good will and to keep the story out of the new, if at all possible. Usually employees can verify an incident, as can delivery records, etc. This option is often coupled with a non-disclosure agreement, which means that far fewer incidents make the papers than really happen.

Some of the stories make it into the papers regardless of what the restaurant tries to do and, not infrequently, they inspire copycats. The copycats attempt to plant things in their food and defraud the restaurants, so for every incident that is reported, the company's investigators are called in. Eyewitness testimony and scientific evidence can prove an incident to be fake, as it was in the case with the mouse "found" in soup at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. In these cases, no settlement is offered (though the offenders in this particular example bizarrely tried to get the restaurant to pay them to not admit they tried to defraud them) and the scammers end up serving time.

The incidents are unfortunate, but a finger in your food isn't a crime unless you planted it there. Otherwise, it's just bad PR.

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An undercover investigation revealed that some butchers in the UK were selling non-certified organic beef under an organic label. Some of the butchers were from small towns and knew their meat suppliers closely. They were willing to attest to the quality of the beef that they sold, even if they have not been willing or able to purchase organic certification for their shop. Others, however, simply claimed to use the term as "shorthand."

Because the organic label can command up to 5 times the price of conventional beef, there is a clear financial incentive for less scrupulous butchers to try and sell it as such. From the customer's perspective, it can be quite difficult, if not nearly impossible, to tell the difference between organic and non-organic beef based on physical appearance and the scientific methods are not a guarantee. Relying on certification continues to be the most trustworthy method, but is it actually doing a disservice to small businesses, like some butchers, who say they can't afford the £300-£400 to become certified?

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