Is it rude to serve guests something ‘shelf safe’

[Anonymous]

I recently was in the UK and there were definitely boxed products in the supermarket. All kinds of “shelf stable” products, in fact. We did an apartment and shopped in regular grocery stores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they not realize that even homemade brownies contain “shelf-safe” ingredients: sugar, cocoa powder or baker’s chocolate, etc.?

Yeah those are not the ingredients that would be worrying them - Potassium bromate and several other harmful additives that are banned elsewhere would be the concern. Even China and Indian ban potassium bromate.

Look at the ingredient list: those aren't in the brownies.

What is the ingredient that makes it shelf safe in the US?

Whether the extra food additives are there, the valid concern of many Europeans visiting the US is that non fresh long life products do contain additives that are banned elsewhere.

Op - the emulsifiers (several have been mentioned in this thread) were the concern.

I get having health concerns with food - my in laws basically exist on ham and Diet Coke and bring most insanely sugary weird candy and store cakes to the kids and I don’t love it. But I would never say this to them. It was just so embarrassing. And kind of also condescending at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently was in the UK and there were definitely boxed products in the supermarket. All kinds of “shelf stable” products, in fact. We did an apartment and shopped in regular grocery stores.

Op - there are lots of these in the uk.
It’s about some ingredients in the us ones that are banned in Europe

[Anonymous]

If your guests are going to be eating at any restaurant, or other location in the US while they are here, what is their plan? Are they going to ask the waitress about all the ingredients that might be in the food? Who are these people to you? Are they friends or family or what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they were very rude (surely they could have just said “no thanks I’m full” or something?!) but I have also experienced that sometimes people from other countries have heard things about food here and are genuinely scared of it, maybe rightly or wrongly. I had friends visit from Germany and they asked me a million questions about milk (they have toddlers who would be drinking it) and were really scared about hormones and antibiotics and the various different labels. I’m also from the UK and as I’m sure OP knows, box mixes are really uncommon there so I guess they were just thrown by it. I know it sounds odd,
but I also found the concept of box mixes extremely strange when I first moved here.

Had you never been down the correct aisle in Sainsbury?

https://www.bettycrocker.co.uk/product/devils-food-cake-mix/

I knew someone was going to come here to say something like this. Is it possible to buy these in the UK? Yes of course. Are there lots of other highly processed foods in the UK? Yes of course. I was simply stating my own experience - growing up in middle class London from the 80s onwards, I never had a box mix cake or brownie and I did not know anyone who made these. Yes, we ate other convenience foods. But not box cake mixes - not because we are so superior, it just was not a thing (yes, I am sure they were available if someone really wanted to find one!) that anyone did. So when I moved here in the early 2000s it was something that I found to be different and a bit strange, because cakes/brownies are so easy to make using standard ingredients. And to my taste, they are significantly worse. That’s all - the only point was to say that perhaps your UK friends just hadn’t encountered these before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they were very rude (surely they could have just said “no thanks I’m full” or something?!) but I have also experienced that sometimes people from other countries have heard things about food here and are genuinely scared of it, maybe rightly or wrongly. I had friends visit from Germany and they asked me a million questions about milk (they have toddlers who would be drinking it) and were really scared about hormones and antibiotics and the various different labels. I’m also from the UK and as I’m sure OP knows, box mixes are really uncommon there so I guess they were just thrown by it. I know it sounds odd,
but I also found the concept of box mixes extremely strange when I first moved here.

Had you never been down the correct aisle in Sainsbury?

https://www.bettycrocker.co.uk/product/devils-food-cake-mix/

+1
Come on. Packet foods? Spag bol packet mix? Custard powder and M&S curry kits? Brits feigning surprise and these guests are taking the piss.

THIS. Lecturing Americans on food quality as a brit is hilarious.

Have you noticed that there are no restaurants (besides the pasty place in Vienna) that serve "British food?" It's because British food is bad. They had to invade half the world to get some good food on their plates.

I genuinely like beans at breakfast though. Presumably they are made fresh each morning.

? Heinz baked beans? Out of a can. I love those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they were very rude (surely they could have just said “no thanks I’m full” or something?!) but I have also experienced that sometimes people from other countries have heard things about food here and are genuinely scared of it, maybe rightly or wrongly. I had friends visit from Germany and they asked me a million questions about milk (they have toddlers who would be drinking it) and were really scared about hormones and antibiotics and the various different labels. I’m also from the UK and as I’m sure OP knows, box mixes are really uncommon there so I guess they were just thrown by it. I know it sounds odd,
but I also found the concept of box mixes extremely strange when I first moved here.

Had you never been down the correct aisle in Sainsbury?

https://www.bettycrocker.co.uk/product/devils-food-cake-mix/

+1
Come on. Packet foods? Spag bol packet mix? Custard powder and M&S curry kits? Brits feigning surprise and these guests are taking the piss.

THIS. Lecturing Americans on food quality as a brit is hilarious.

Have you noticed that there are no restaurants (besides the pasty place in Vienna) that serve "British food?" It's because British food is bad. They had to invade half the world to get some good food on their plates.

I genuinely like beans at breakfast though. Presumably they are made fresh each morning.

? Heinz baked beans? Out of a can. I love those.

nvm.. my sarcasm meter was off.

[Anonymous]

Guests were rude. Let them find their own food from now on. And lodging.

[Anonymous]

They do not eat boxed food. Maybe they are scared of trans fats? So what OP? Your kids can eat the brownies. I think these friends made you feel less than stylish, but its not so weird to turn down things like cookies and I would just shrug off their food preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They do not eat boxed food. Maybe they are scared of trans fats? So what OP? Your kids can eat the brownies. I think these friends made you feel less than stylish, but its not so weird to turn down things like cookies and I would just shrug off their food preference.

There’s a big difference in saying no thank you and lecturing OP about food safety and acting superior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They do not eat boxed food. Maybe they are scared of trans fats? So what OP? Your kids can eat the brownies. I think these friends made you feel less than stylish, but its not so weird to turn down things like cookies and I would just shrug off their food preference.

There’s a big difference in saying no thank you and lecturing OP about food safety and acting superior.

Yeah lecturing your host about their kids making brownies from a box mix is not remotely “stylish” lol

[Anonymous]

What jerks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they were very rude (surely they could have just said “no thanks I’m full” or something?!) but I have also experienced that sometimes people from other countries have heard things about food here and are genuinely scared of it, maybe rightly or wrongly. I had friends visit from Germany and they asked me a million questions about milk (they have toddlers who would be drinking it) and were really scared about hormones and antibiotics and the various different labels. I’m also from the UK and as I’m sure OP knows, box mixes are really uncommon there so I guess they were just thrown by it. I know it sounds odd,
but I also found the concept of box mixes extremely strange when I first moved here.

Had you never been down the correct aisle in Sainsbury?

https://www.bettycrocker.co.uk/product/devils-food-cake-mix/

I knew someone was going to come here to say something like this. Is it possible to buy these in the UK? Yes of course. Are there lots of other highly processed foods in the UK? Yes of course. I was simply stating my own experience - growing up in middle class London from the 80s onwards, I never had a box mix cake or brownie and I did not know anyone who made these. Yes, we ate other convenience foods. But not box cake mixes - not because we are so superior, it just was not a thing (yes, I am sure they were available if someone really wanted to find one!) that anyone did. So when I moved here in the early 2000s it was something that I found to be different and a bit strange, because cakes/brownies are so easy to make using standard ingredients. And to my taste, they are significantly worse. That’s all - the only point was to say that perhaps your UK friends just hadn’t encountered these before.

DP. This is actually a big difference between American and European desserts, particularly cakes but also others. From scratch cakes have a better flavor and box cakes have a better texture, and Americans typically prioritize texture and Europeans typically prioritize flavor. Individuals may vary in their preference.

[Anonymous]

Just pulled out a brownie mix. Soy lecithin is the emulsifier. Is that problematic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"America does not regulate such products like Europe"

hows that?

DP

EU has stronger rules for regulating both food additives and GMO in food chain.

EU regulating GMOs is just one the more insane regulations in that bizarre confederation. GMOs are safe and moreover, nothing about GMOs are, with solid scientific footing, theoretically unsafe. The basis for this ban in Europe originally wasn’t even safety.

They regulate food completely differently and only part of those regulations have to do with safety.