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/

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.

OK.


Plain Swiss roll sponge filled with strawberry jam and clotted cream flavour buttercream, sprinkled with sugar.
Made with Buttercream Rolled with strawberry jam for a fruity treat
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS: Strawberry Jam (23%) [Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Sugar, Strawberry Purée, Acidity Regulators (Citric Acid, Trisodium Citrate), Gelling Agent (Pectin), Colour (Anthocyanins), Flavouring, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate)], Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Clotted Cream Flavour Buttercream (21%) [Sugar, Butter (Milk), Glucose Syrup, Water, Dried Glucose Syrup, Humectant (Glycerol), Maize Starch, Pasteurised Egg White, Emulsifiers (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Flavouring, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Salt], Sugar, Pasteurised Egg, Water, Humectant (Glycerol), Dextrose, Dried Skimmed Milk, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Palm Oil, Emulsifiers (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Soya Lecithins), Rapeseed Oil, Acidity Regulators (Citric Acid), Salt, Colour (Curcumin).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ingredients from the Betty Crocker chocolate fudge brownies on sale at target for $2.49:

Sugar, Enriched Flour Bleached (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Palm Oil, Corn Syrup. Contains 2% Or Less Of: Corn Starch, Salt, Canola Oil, Carob Powder, Artificial Flavor.

If I were making from scratch I wouldn’t be using palm oil or corn syrup. These are demonstrably inferior ingredients.

Ok. I don’t think the question was whether the 2.49 box of brownie mix had inferior ingredients it was whether anything in there was a known health hazard (in the dose you get from a single brownie)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how many people would lecture someone in africa or SE Asia about not eating their raw salad

The Brits have a history of lecturing Africa and SE Asia.. so chances are high

tee hee
oh snap

Our friends and family who are scattered around Europe are the opposite. They always ask us to bring the over processed crap when we visit. It always cracks me up that my very thin, very healthy friend eats like a child when she visits the states.

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how many people would lecture someone in africa or SE Asia about not eating their raw salad

The Brits have a history of lecturing Africa and SE Asia.. so chances are high

Anonymous wrote:Ingredients from the Betty Crocker chocolate fudge brownies on sale at target for $2.49:

Sugar, Enriched Flour Bleached (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Palm Oil, Corn Syrup. Contains 2% Or Less Of: Corn Starch, Salt, Canola Oil, Carob Powder, Artificial Flavor.

If I were making from scratch I wouldn’t be using palm oil or corn syrup. These are demonstrably inferior ingredients.

I wonder how many people would lecture someone in africa or SE Asia about not eating their raw salad

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/

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.

Op - I also grew up in middle class london in the 80s and we had these a lot! Didn’t you make brownies ever? I agree less prevalent than here but not ‘rare’ per se

Im the PP who originally posted the link… born and raised in the US. Lived in the UK. I have probably (knowingly) consumed boxed mix a dozen times? It existed in every grocery store I’ve been to in either country.

Convenience foods are huge in the UK. In terms of culinary laziness, the average across the UK is about on par with that of the TV show Roseanne. I’m sure £5 lamb chop dinner at Wetherspoons is clean as a whistle!!

I assume that like here, Londoners that used a quick mix might not announce it to their guests..

Ingredients from the Betty Crocker chocolate fudge brownies on sale at target for $2.49:

Sugar, Enriched Flour Bleached (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Palm Oil, Corn Syrup. Contains 2% Or Less Of: Corn Starch, Salt, Canola Oil, Carob Powder, Artificial Flavor.

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/

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.

Op - I also grew up in middle class london in the 80s and we had these a lot! Didn’t you make brownies ever? I agree less prevalent than here but not ‘rare’ per se

Im the PP who originally posted the link… born and raised in the US. Lived in the UK. I have probably (knowingly) consumed boxed mix a dozen times? It existed in every grocery store I’ve been to in either country.

Convenience foods are huge in the UK. In terms of culinary laziness, the average across the UK is about on par with that of the TV show Roseanne. I’m sure £5 lamb chop dinner at Wetherspoons is clean as a whistle!!

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/

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.

Op - I also grew up in middle class london in the 80s and we had these a lot! Didn’t you make brownies ever? I agree less prevalent than here but not ‘rare’ per se

Honestly never. I’m not doubting you or that they existed, but really never saw or ate these. I and my family and friends did a lot of baking so we definitely ate lots of cake and brownies (lots of cake, not that many brownies, actually), but never from a mix.

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

Potassium bromate is the main problem child

The fact that soda, cigarettes, and alcohol all exist in Europe yet substances that are consumed by the fraction of a milligram are not, tells you everything you need to know about EU (and now UK) regulators ability to think critically.

Soda is linked to far more health consequences than chemical of concern #472.

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.

Op - I also grew up in middle class london in the 80s and we had these a lot! Didn’t you make brownies ever? I agree less prevalent than here but not ‘rare’ per se

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.

Weird that no one eats them but they’ve been on sale for decades. Perhaps it’s the robust market for decorations forAmerican theme parties?