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posted by
martyb
on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:23AM
from the results-are-not-as-foul-as-expected dept.
from the results-are-not-as-foul-as-expected dept.
According to the CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation], researchers at Trent University sampled both the oven roasted chicken filets and the chicken strips that Subway uses on its sandwiches in Canada. After testing six small samples of the filets and three small samples of the strips, the researchers ran a DNA test.
The results showed that the filets contained just 53.6 percent chicken DNA. The strips were found to contain just 42.8 percent chicken DNA.
CBC reports that the rest of the DNA found in the chicken was soy — used either for either seasoning or filler.
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University Study Says Subway Chicken Strips Could Contain Less Than 50 Percent Chicken DNA
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Goto, n.:
A programming tool that exists to allow structured programmers
to complain about unstructured programmers.
-- Ray Simard
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:27AM (2 children)
There's chicken in my soy strips?!
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:29PM
Well, I'm somewhat surprised they didn't use that as a marketing gimmick yet. For example, ham these days contains so little meat I wonder what's the threshold for a kosher certificate.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:06PM
Soylent Green is chickens!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:36AM (4 children)
( No further comment ).
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:01PM (1 child)
To be fair, there's Jared DNA in the chicken strips too.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 28 2017, @07:22PM
FTFY
To be fair, there's Jared DNA in your children too.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 28 2017, @07:25PM (1 child)
I hear it was his exercise regimen.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 28 2017, @09:45PM
Prison food...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:36AM (5 children)
What I want to know is how are such tests done and what are they actually measuring? Even 100% chicken meat isn't 100% chicken DNA by weight.
I have the impression that DNA tests are more useful for checking to see if there's too much rat or roach DNA in the samples...
BTW seems like those making kosher stuff might not cut corners as much: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/hot-dog-sausages-contain-human-dna-study-says-and-many-vegetarian-ones-contain-meat-a6710341.html [independent.co.uk]
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday February 28 2017, @11:40AM (1 child)
Those brits!
I wonder why do they make hot dogs with corners in the first place?
Is it perhaps to better fit the sausages in Cornish pasties?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday February 28 2017, @12:52PM
Turnip.
Not you, the filling in the corners. (Also potato, but that isn't as funny)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @11:49AM (1 child)
Molecular markers, probably through an (q)RT-PCR reaction. You can generate them to be specific for species. You test your material for the species it should be, then you get results that it is the species.... but also others. Then you go on with using markers for a variety of species and get results that match them or not.
This test is about 2-3 days work in a normal molecular genetics lab for one researcher.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @11:00AM
Why is the above even modded informative? That's for testing for the existence of stuff, not the _proportion_ which is what this story is about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction [wikipedia.org]
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique used in molecular biology to amplify a single copy or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence.
e.g. it amplifies the tiny bit of DNA you have.
So that's useful for knowing if you have soybean or rat in something when you shouldn't. But how is that going to help with _accurately_ figuring out the proportion of soybean vs chicken by mass?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:01PM
I have known this for a long time, this is why I prefer to buy Kosher Products. You can say a lot about religion, but in this one instance they have a huge net positive on accountability. The kosher inspectors take their jobs... religiously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @11:57AM (14 children)
If it is not mixed with other species meat (horse meat (which is in general very cheap) in sausages and minced meat products), it is injected with water (less meat, more water, lower price).
There are even groups here in Europe claiming that most of the meat is infested with human pathogenic viruses... I would not be surprised if that would be the case. It has me started thinking
about reducing my meat consumption.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 28 2017, @12:22PM (4 children)
Cook them well and they'll be yummy! Also a boost for the immune system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @12:30PM (3 children)
Yeah, that's also the reason to not completely stop eating meat. However, I know there are viruses that very stable, only one needs to slip through somewhere to get you infected.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @01:51PM (2 children)
If your immune system is so bad that it already is unable to cope with a single virus, you'd better hide in some sterile environment.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:03PM (1 child)
If you're looking for places to go, I hear the moon is fairly sterile. However, you probably want to bring a dust mask or a HEPA filter or two as you may discover that you're allergic to the moon dust. (it would not surprise me in the least if lunar dust has the same side effects as asbestos)
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday March 01 2017, @02:25AM
FWIW, one of the astronauts was allergic to moon dust...the geologist.
Probably not something they were thinking about when they designed their protocols.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday February 28 2017, @12:27PM
Good, make sure you get your daily supplement of E.coli [wikipedia.org] - beats the crap out of any viral infection (or just beats the crap out fullstop? Or is it non-stop?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ledow on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:04PM (4 children)
If my meat is mostly water and soy, then personally that implies I could eat more meat today than I ever could before, and still be within my daily nutrition limits!
More seriously, are you paranoid much? Eat meat or don't. Don't start preaching conspiracy theory nonsense trying to influence others.
Personally, horse tastes fabulous. Apart from dishonesty, I see no problem with horsemeat in product. A horsemeat burger I had in Italy is probably one of the best things I've ever eaten. They eat it all the time.
Sure, nobody wants dishonesty in ingredients lists, but my gammon steak already tells me that it's about 30-40% water, right on the label, you only have to read it. So long as it lists the correct animal on the list, who cares?
And to be honest, the answer is "nobody cares" as your chicken strips haven't been chicken strips for an awfully long time, and people still buy them because they like how they taste.
The only dishonesty here is on the part of the consumer ("Hey, we'd pay more for pure chicken as we can tell the difference IMMEDIATELY, you know!") and - potentially - in not listing the ingredients properly (did anyone ever ask for a list of ingredients?).
Ingredients in my country are listed in order of amount (first item has the single most weight of ingredient, so you see things like Ingredients: Pork (70%), water, flavourings, etc. and know that there's more water than flavourings.
In this case, it might say "Chicken, Soy, flavourings, etc." and so long as chicken is the LARGEST single ingredient (by mass or volume depending on the product) then it's being entirely accurate. It could even be only 40% chicken, 39% Soy and the rest all sorts of other stuff. And STILL the ingredients list would read the same, still it would have less than 50% chicken DNA, and still it's being totally TRUTHFUL on the label, compliant with the relevant food labelling regulations.
If you don't understand that, or don't like that, lobby for a change in labelling. And watch as still most people won't care that their chicken nugget has more breadcrumbs, filling and flavouring than actual chicken - because it tastes nice and they can't tell the difference.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mmcmonster on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:57PM (1 child)
I think the issue is that these things are starting to taste disgusting.
I generally order a salad at Wendy's as my lunch. Occasionally I would have a 5 piece chicken nugget instead.
Lately the chicken nuggets have a horrible pasty consistence and taste awful. Happened to me twice in a row.
No more fast food chicken nuggets for me. Now it's salad or nothing. Until the salad is made with artificial lettuce.
(Score: 4, Funny) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday March 01 2017, @04:55AM
I think the issue is that these things are starting to taste disgusting.
Starting?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by vux984 on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:06PM
In this case, it might say "Chicken, Soy, flavourings, etc."
Yes it might, and while its within the regulations. Its not a truthful label.
If you don't understand that, or don't like that, lobby for a change in labelling.
Oh i do understand it, and I don't like it. Improving the labeling laws sounds brilliant. A tenet of an ideal free market is that buyers and sellers are informed.
And watch as still most people won't care that their chicken nugget has more breadcrumbs, filling and flavouring than actual chicken - because it tastes nice and they can't tell the difference.
Its more complicated than that. If people know its 50% chicken and 50% soy they will value it more accurately. People will care. They may still choose to eat the 50/50 product, because it tastes nice, and its more affordable, and there is nothing wrong with eating soy, but the knowledge will factor into their buying decision... at the very least it will affect their value judgement. They will correctly stop viewing the subway chicken strips as a great 'deal' compared to the other restaurant that charges 2x as much ... for real chicken strips.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday February 28 2017, @07:10PM
Personally, horse tastes fabulous. Apart from dishonesty, I see no problem with horsemeat in product. A horsemeat burger I had in Italy is probably one of the best things I've ever eaten. They eat it all the time.
Sure, nobody wants dishonesty in ingredients lists, but my gammon steak already tells me that it's about 30-40% water, right on the label, you only have to read it. So long as it lists the correct animal on the list, who cares?
Apparently horses are in that category with cats and dog where people don't want to eat them because they're too cute? I've wondered that exact same thing before.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 28 2017, @07:25PM (2 children)
Why is horse meat so sacrosanct? I'd eat horse meat! Is a horse so much nobler than a cow, pig, chicken or mealworm that it deserves a "Ewwww, yuck! You eat horse?!?!?!" thing?
Man, i've eaten a lot of things. Why not horse?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Wednesday March 01 2017, @06:08AM
I've had donkey. It's good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @11:17AM
I've no problems eating horse meat when it's supposed to be horse meat. I found horse sausage a bit dry (not surprised though since there aren't that many fat horses).
My problem is if something is labelled beef and it contains horse. Because if someone can cheat and slip some horse in beef they might put other stuff or cheat in other ways too. And that's unlikely to be for my benefit.
Similarly I wouldn't eat dog meat because the dog meat industry is unlikely to be regulated that well.
Other people have a less "culinary" view of horses, dogs etc. But to me if you're eating pigs, sheep or cows you're already eating creatures that are about as intelligent as horses and dogs.
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/pigheaded-smart-swine/ [modernfarmer.com]
Even chickens aren't that stupid: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/chickens-smarter-four-year-old-article-1.1428277 [nydailynews.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SunTzuWarmaster on Tuesday February 28 2017, @12:47PM (29 children)
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Tuesday February 28 2017, @12:52PM (15 children)
> they replaced 50+% of the chicken with soy-chicken and no one noticed.
Well, it is Subway, not sure anyone really buys that for the quality of the food. More for the "I am hungry, need something cheap and filling quickly". It is the McDonalds of sandwich shops.
Saying that, I tried the chicken once, didn't like it, tasted really odd. So never had it again. I wonder if it was due to this.
Another part of me wonders, if 50% of the meat has chicken DNA, what does the rest of the "chicken" contain?
(Score: 3, Touché) by CoolHand on Tuesday February 28 2017, @01:21PM (14 children)
As what you quoted states (and as TFA states), it is soy...
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Tuesday February 28 2017, @02:12PM (11 children)
A touché mod for you! I didn't realise soy was the replacement. I only knew of "soy" in "Soy sauce", had no idea "soy chicken" was even a thing. I thought they were referring to chicken marinaded in soy sauce or something.
Thanks for the insight :-)
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:07PM (3 children)
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:30PM (2 children)
You could replace "vegan" with "moron" and that sentence would have the same meaning.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:09PM
I did not know morons were generally picky eaters.
Was not aware that vegans generally had mild metal retardation either, buy YMMV I suppose.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:15PM
Well, that post has three sentences. However two of them don't contain the word "vegan" so they of course trivially have the same meaning with that replacement. So let's look at the only sentence that, indeed, contains the word "vegan":
This sentence does three things:
So what happens if you replace "vegan" with "moron"?
Well, the changed sentence would:
Conclusion: You are obviously the moron. Given your opinion about vegans, I also conclude that you are not a vegan. Therefore you are indeed a quite good example for the fact that not every moron is a vegan, and therefore that the first part of the meaning of that sentence is indeed changed by the replacement of "vegan" by "moron". Thus your very existence already proves your claim wrong.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:08PM (6 children)
Soy beans are one of the highest quality sources of protein.
Its also one of the largest crops in the USA (and the world).
Tofu is pure soy.
This is the kind of stuff a regular of soylentnews.org really ought to know.
FWIW, I'm not terribly bothered by this revelation. The roasted chicken 'cutlets' they use in their sandwich always struck me as being too uniformly shaped - they were obviously squeezed out of a machine. As long as its not [foxnews.com] cellulose [latimes.com] I'm generally OK with it, except for the false advertising aspect.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Unixnut on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:13PM (2 children)
>This is the kind of stuff a regular of soylentnews.org really ought to know.
I guess if you are really that interested in food. Apart from the odd time I had tofu, I don't think I ever had anything else with soy in it (and until now, I didn't know tofu was pure soy). It isn't a part of my culture, so hasn't really been part of my diet unless we are going to eat something "exotic". Not sure if soy is big in the Americas, but sounds like it might be.
If you want to discuss electronics, astronomy, cars/engines, aircraft or something computer related, I would probably be more knowledgable. Soyentils are as varied as they are many. One of the things I like about the place, I learned quite a bit new in this conversation thread, so I am better off for the interaction.
Just don't try to lump all of us here as having the same interests and abilities :)
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 28 2017, @07:36PM
The only problem is, soy is like gluten and lactose: it. is. in. EVERYTHING.
Just read your ingredients: you're probably getting more than you think.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @06:41PM
Tofu is not pure soy despite what the AC claimed. There are coagulants used:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Tofu/?ALLSTEPS [instructables.com]
http://www.soymilkmaker.com/making_tofu.html [soymilkmaker.com]
And don't eat too much of it: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/08/010829083130.htm [sciencedaily.com]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11661711/Doctors-remove-420-kidney-stones-caused-by-excessive-tofu-from-patient-in-China.html [telegraph.co.uk]
Not that surprising given the combination of high oxalate plus calcium from popular coagulants.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:04PM
It also fucks up your hormone levels, and makes you more feminine. Enjoy your "balls-fall-off" meat substitute.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:14PM (1 child)
Soy protein is estrogen-mimicing. It encourages the growth of breast cancer. You might even get feminized in some way -- do you like boobs? Soy protein is also inflammatory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoestrogens [wikipedia.org]
You can mostly avoid this by using fermented soy (soy sauce, tempeh, miso, natto) instead of unfermented soy (tofu, soy milk, and everything else).
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 28 2017, @07:38PM
Do i like boobs?
HELL YES! I'd pay to have nice, soft, feminine boobs. It's why i got married!
Do i like boobs.
Did Hitler like being a Godwin!?!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:51PM (1 child)
As what you quoted states (and as TFA states), it is soy...
Taking it to a whole new level!
Didn't read article - CHECK
Didn't read summary - CHECK
Didn't read post he was responding to - CHECK
Didn't read the post he was actually posting - CHECK
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:39PM
Calm down, it was a joke...
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday February 28 2017, @12:59PM (3 children)
I was trying to decide how I felt about this as a vegan.. On the one hand, I think it would be great that people might realize they can eat non-meat products and enjoy them. On the other hand, it's never good to lie to people about a product, and there is usually a backlash about it. So, I'm guessing it probably isn't a "win," possibly a "wash." We will see..
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday February 28 2017, @01:09PM (2 children)
Exactly, in response I expect my next chicken sub to contain 150% chicken DNA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @02:23PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:37PM
Thank $DEITY THAT didn't last...
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wisnoskij on Tuesday February 28 2017, @01:12PM
>and no one noticed.
It was always soy-chicken.
Their was a show on this study, where they did taste tests as well. And everyone noticed how shitty the "chicken" was.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @01:47PM
No one noticed that there's indeed still chicken in it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 28 2017, @02:44PM (6 children)
they replaced 50+% of the chicken with soy-chicken and no one noticed.
I would imagine the people allergic to soy noticed. Kinda like all crap tier processed foods are also stuffed with wheat.
This is probably a factor behind weird arguments with millennial urbanite hipsters online and at work about how its too expensive to cook at home so they eat restaurant crap every day (shocker, they're fatter than me and have more medical problems than me). Well yes my chicken fajitas are expensive because I'm not a cheap bastard with the marinating sauce and I use actual raw chicken, whereas the restaurant is selling you mostly soy and mystery protein. Or yeah my homemade burgers are more expensive because I buy the higher fat (for flavor) grass fed organic beef (which you can taste) whereas the McD burgers are mostly mystery meat pink slime of unknown origins, so yeah its more expensive when I cook at home, but you could make inedible non-food at home cheaper than a restaurant if you tried. At home I could have one of the neighborhood dogs take a dump on a plate which is healthier than most fast food. Probably cleaner too.
I feel like cooking pork chops with shallots and apples this weekend. Yeah I bet its going to be more expensive that some dried out little pellet of fake "white meat" at a restaurant, but that's because I'm a pig WRT portion sizes and I buy the best stuff, I'm sure there's some restaurant selling mystery meat brat patties in a high carb bun that is kinda sorta equivalent and cheaper, at least if you don't have any taste buds, but I'm not eating junk food, so that doesn't matter.
Hipster Urbanite white Millennials are basically a death cult anyway. Sit around all day thinking of ways to ensure a successful and happy life for them and their descendants and then do the opposite every time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:45PM (1 child)
grass fed organic
Are you sure you're not the millennial hipster?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:54PM
The relationship I have to my food is I'm a rich capitalist white male buying it with money made out of tasty refined tears of multi generational oppression, which is different from a relationship consisting primarily of posting pix of it to instagram and pintrest for the "likes". Like Gene Hackman portraying Lex Luthor as compared to Zooey Deschanel portraying her only character (if she has more than one I haven't seen it, but I don't watch much TV, so ...).
Money spent on good food is never wasted. Like that old saying about tools, it only hurts to pay for good food once, in the checkout lane, but you'll regret every penny you spent on garbage food several times. Not just WRT food poisoning either.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:14PM (3 children)
To be fair, they've halfway got a point, but they lose it in volume. Eating substandard food is cheap compared to the real version of it you can cook at home, unless you cook like a human and not like a restaurant and if you ignore the fact that you get multiple meals out of it. Overall, it's probably impossible to produce a hamburger yourself as cheap as McDonald's. But you can make a big batch of something and eat extremely well for several days. Of course, that requires eating leftovers, which requires not being picky little children.
Example, I made chicken curry last night. It was somewhere between 10 and 15 USD for the stuff, but I made some vegan (tofu) for the girlfriend too, so there's an extra couple bucks added in. Now that's somewhere between comparable to a little expensive of meal compared to your hipster Qdoba or Chipotle or what have you, until you consider that she's probably going to get at least two meals out of hers and I probably have a solid three out of mine. This means that, per meal, it's 2-3 bucks. That's closer to McDonald's cheap stuff, and it's vastly better in every way. Don't like curry? Fine, make chili. Chili is even easier and will probably come out about comparable to the curry in price per serving. Or a stew for that matter.
And that's excluding the things that are remarkably cheap and single serving stuff like your pork chops or, as I prefer, proper pork steaks. I usually cook pork in cast iron on as low of a heat as I can manage with a combination of hot pepper sauce, apricot preserves, and soy sauce spread over them. Good flavor and it melts in your mouth. Pork steak is probably about 2 USD a piece around here, sometimes even cheaper if you get them on special during a sports event or something, so with some veggies and some homemade bread, it's still not that expensive of a meal.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:57PM
That sounds delicious. The only thing I'd add is teenage kids mean I don't have leftovers they're like wet dry vacuum cleaners but before their monstrous appetites I would make like ten servings of delicious chili as you mention and put a plastic ziploc bag in a bowl or jar and fill the bag and freeze the works and seal the bag and a little microwave work a week later and I'd have delicious chili again.
(Score: 2) by http on Tuesday February 28 2017, @11:07PM (1 child)
When you're working three part time jobs, "cook at home" is a pipe dream worthy of Cheech and Chong.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:42AM
I'm going to assume that doesn't apply to the majority of the millennial hipsters VLM was referring to. I doubt the "three part time job to get by" edge case would try to make the same argument. Theirs would be, I presume, in terms of the time needed to do so.
I mean, back in my early 20s when I was a "two part time job to get by" person, I still cooked frequently. I'm going to guess the biggest difference between their situation and mine would be some combination of needing to spend two hours on the bus each day, those extra couple hours from that third job, and probably some kids mixed in there. Also, I enjoy cooking. That's probably a non-trivial consideration as well.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday February 28 2017, @01:11PM (7 children)
Subway finding yet another way to cheat the customer out of money?
I have ate there in the past and one thing that has always stood out is how stingy they are with their product. The employee always puts the same few slices of meat and cheese no matter where you go. The trick to fill it out was to ask for every vegetable available to stuff it. You are eating mostly bread with a little meat and cheese and some vegetables. Now the meat isn't even all meat but half filler. What's the point? I haven't ate there in ages and most likely never will; Mainly because their food sucks.
If I want a proper hero I go to a deli/bodega. For about the same price you can get a hero stuffed with meat and cheese. Hell, a sandwich on a roll for $4-$5 is cheaper and contains more meats and cheese than a shitty subway hero. I went to a nicer deli the other day and got a turkey and swiss on a roll with lettuce and tomato for $8 which is expensive. BUT! It was so heaping that half that sandwich was a full meal on its own and I saved the other half for later. Worth the $8.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday February 28 2017, @02:28PM (6 children)
The employee always puts the same few slices of meat and cheese no matter where you go.
While I'm in no way defending Subway, this is standard fast-food practice. Do you complain about the standard size of the 1.6-ounce patties (which shrink even more during cooking) on a McDonald's hamburger too? Yes, Subway has standard meat and cheese portions, but they're pretty clear on this, and I'm not sure it's "cheating the customer out of money" to offer a standard, yet small, portion of food. We might look at it as excessive profiteering, but even a quick glance at Subway's nutritional facts [subway.com] make it clear they're basically serving you bread and veggies -- just subtract the bread choice calories from the standard sandwich calories, and there's no a lot left over.
Again, I'm not a fan of Subway. But I also don't think it's "cheating the customer out of money" if you're clear with customers about what they're going to get. On the other hand, I *would* criticize Subway and the other fast food restaurants for misrepresenting their products in advertising photos. Have you EVER seen a actual sandwich from McDonald's or Burger King or Wendy's or any other fast food chain that actually resembled photos used in commercials?
What's interesting about the current story though is that it seems Subway IS worse than other fast food places in how much they may save in costs with "fake" meat.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday February 28 2017, @02:38PM (1 child)
I should have been more clear, that is exactly my point.
Type "subway sandwich" into a search engine and look for images. You will notice they are all stuffed with meats to give the appearance of a big sandwich. But in reality, you get the same three slices of meat and cheese from every store and the final sandwich looks nothing like the photos. That is misleading and ripping off the customer. No customer is going to perform calorie match to see how much meat they are getting. They only see a stuffed sandwich and think "mmmmm that looks so good!" Then they get a thin soggy layer of fake meat.
And I bet there is more meat and cheese on a quarter pounder than an entire subway foot long.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:13PM
I eat subway sandwiches all the time because I can get them loaded up with veggies.
You are only half-right about the meat. Yes, they use the same misleadingly staged photos as all other food vendors. But no they don't skimp on the meat in real life. Its not presented as nicely because they are minimum wage employees, not ad agencies food stagers. But I've never had a complaint about getting too little meat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:52PM
Are they still selling "not quite" foot long sandwiches?
(Score: 4, Informative) by vux984 on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:56PM (1 child)
Have you EVER seen a actual sandwich from McDonald's or Burger King or Wendy's or any other fast food chain that actually resembled photos used in commercials?
Actually; yeah. My first couple jobs were Fast Food, Wendy's for a couple years (from fry cook to management) through highschool and my BSc and Subway very briefly. And to be honest, most of the burgers *could* look like the photos until it was wrapped.
The only real discrepency at Wendy's was the lettuce -- the photos always showed the greenest outer leafiest edges, while in practice those wilted right way, and were tossed in the trash and you were usually served a piece a little paler and stiffer from inside the lettuce, which kept much longer. And sometimes the lettuce we had to work with ... its lettuce not processed cheese ... no two pieces are quite the same. The quality of the tomatoes is also a bit more variable -- and while the photos always took that biggest slice from the 'middle of a perfectly ripe tomato' the reality was that most tomatoes weren't perfect, and not everyone could have the middle slice. We weren't throwing away the top and bottom 3rds of every tomato just because they weren't as big as the middle.
Even so, at a well managed store (this was key -- the quality depended highly on management) with trained staff, the majority of the food looked a lot like the photos ... until it was wrapped. That always resulted in them looking a bit squashed after unwrapping. The cheese melting on the corners would turn into a mess, and any any bit of visible ketchup or mayo would all get smeared around on the wrapper and back to the bun. (This is why, unlike the photos, you really don't want the sauces visible -- in the photos they add some ketchup or sauce just 'oozing' out on purpose... in practice that's a mess when you wrap it; and the actual assembly 'training' avoids visible drops sauce like that.
Anyhow, we often had customers that demanded photogenic food to make the same point you are making, and we'd just serve it unwrapped. They were invariably surprised at how close they got. Like seeing a model in person, in her own 'on-the-town' makeup and clothes without airbrushing every imperfection. Not impossibly perfect, but still very recognizable and attractive.
If you go to wendy's and you get a burger that's covered in grease and ketchup when you unwrap it the meat wasn't drained properly, or the sandwhich maker didn't put the right amount of ketchup on it etc. As for the perfect rectangular patties... that's very doable; and a good grill operator can turn those out no problem. The key there is proper timing and technique when you are turning and pressing.
As for subway, the main difference between the photos and actual sandwhiches is that the pre-portioned meat is laid on the sandwiches first and laid flat -- because its fast and easy. If you want it like the photo, its just a matter of doing the meat last, and manually doing loose folds. And again, serve it unwrapped so it's not squashed. Photogenic subway subs was not hard to do.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 28 2017, @07:46PM
I like going to A&W: if you are gluten intolerant and lactose intolerant like me, just ask for a teen burger, no bun and no cheese
The 'restaurants' i go to will lay a fecking salad of lettuce and tomato and onion on your burger and put it on a plate for you with stanless-steel knife and fork: i get my burger, my fries and a nice cold (frosted) glass of A&W root beer (free refill) and my burger has a load of lettuce and tomato and fixings on the side and is wrapped in lettuce as well.
No gluten, no dairy and no fattening burger, but a whole ship load of lettuce, tomato and onion.
NICE!
And they are used to it now. They used to look at you like you had two heads, but now it's normal.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday February 28 2017, @08:19PM
No, it's cheating the customer. Just one more reason why we should all rise up and kill every single MBA on the planet. Destroying the planet outright, and progressively feeding us *less* and *less* actual food that we *THOUGHT* we were paying for. This is just inequality furthering itself. Before, you could work a job and obtain actual food for your family and secure a future for them. Now, it's just slave wages and you're feeding your children nasty fillers while being 48 hours away from homelessness, one job lost away from medical care, and living on the edge.
How the fuck is this any different than putting YUM nutritious and healthy sawdust in the hamburgers? Or China finding merchants feeding their comrades meat buns made mostly out of cardboard (wet nasty shit with rat feces) and a little pork grease with some pork bits?
There was a study that compared the genetics across demographics and found that poor minorities had dramatically shorter telomeres than their healthier upper and middle upper class citizens living in the same country. Not some lamentation that the rich really do have it better, but actual concrete proof that not only do they live on our backs, but IT HURTS US WHILE THEY DO IT. Why do those evil worthless fuckers get to live a long healthy life, and not some wage slave?
So let's call this what it is: The MBAs need more money for themselves and the only way to squeeze more out at this point is to cheat us. It's not like everyone can eat steak in the future. That will be reserved for the Owning Classes.
If this was for a good reason, it would be fucking advertised and not hidden. It's hidden like this precisely because the executives (may they all die brutally and burn in hell) know exactly what they're doing. They're treating us like cattle not deserving of the human dignity they reserve only for themselves.
If we had any luck today, about 1% of the planet would drop dead.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by xpda on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:28PM (3 children)
Soy is good for you. I consider this a benefit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:12PM
I've got a dragon repelling rock to sell you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:20PM
Soy may be good for some people.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:28PM
Well, kinda.
I mean it's a great protein source, but it isn't without it's hazards. As just one example of many , it contains several anti-nutrients (undigestible molecules that bond to nutrients and remove them from your body), including for calcium, zinc, and iron, which are especially important for growing children - which is one reason why it's strongly suggested that you don't feed children soy products.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:25PM (2 children)
Subway uses brown sugar to colour their bread brown and markets it as "whole wheat" bread. They are the lowest of the low when it comes to fast food places. You think they are a healthy alternative but they are not.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:23PM
To be fair, about any bread you get that comes from anywhere other than your own oven is pretty gross and should be treated as suspect.
I've found literally one type of bread I could buy from a store even that didn't have unnecessary things in it. And that's not even counting whatever is in restaurant bread. My homemade bread lasts longer AND isn't filled with things that give it the look and texture of some sort of industrial foam.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:31PM
>You think they are a healthy alternative but they are not.
Really? Is there another major fast food chain where I can get a seriously loaded veggie sandwich with meat seasoning that I don't know about?
I mean, yeah, the bread is over-sweetened mass-produced foam, but you only have to take a bite of it to realize that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:07PM
Oh don't be silly, it's not like corporations are people or something... Fraud is only fraud when you or I do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:32PM
Don't eat chicken (or pizza [youtube.com]) you find in the subway.