So another food company is flogged off. Weetabix has been flogged to the chinks. I wonder if anyone has told them those curious little blocks of insulation are made of wheat not rice? Will anything be left in the UK to eat or drink not owned by foreigners?
I have a great objection to consuming anything not made close to home and have for a long time eschewed ready made foods on the basis that I do not really know what is in them, by whom they were made and how many carcinogenics have been added to provide that glow in the dark factor.
It appears that the only safe way to shop is to cling to the outer wall of supermarkets and buy fresh foods only with the occasional death defying dash down one of the aisles for condiments and then learn to cook properly.
There has to be something terribly wrong with all the UK’s water supplies and now the food being owned by denizens of countries that are no great friends of ours. It is interesting that with all the additives allowed that the cancer rates have risen quite so dramatically especially amongst the young. One hell of a form of birth control!
Much more of this and the only stuff left fit to eat will be that grown in your own back yard.
Rhetorically one must wonder why the Govt allows such to happen but then one doesn’t really, just watch the bulging back pockets. I wonder if they eat this crap too?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Any excuse not to eat Weetabix is OK by me.
The thing is that China needs to find ways to invest its capital – like the petrolheads. The good thing is it doesn’t seem to affect jobs adversely.
But it does, look at Cadburys, the jobs went to Poland and the product tastes like shit these days. I tried some in Feb in the UK and it was not the same, cheap and greasy.
FEEG I agree never could eat the stuff, rather eat the box it came in.
CoB I agree again, bought a bar of Bournville a couple of weeks ago so sweet it was bloody orrible, never finished it. Will stick to good dark Swis chocky from now on.
Same thing happened with HP, bought up and they changed the recipe.
I’m not sure that fresh food is that wonderful either Christina! By the time it reaches the shops here most of the nutrition and taste has gone… but you’ve heard my complaint before!
From DM
It hasn’t been ‘English’ for years!
Just goes to show that when businesses are sold to private equity firms anything goes.
CO: Milka moved some production from Germany to Poland. The products made in Germany are still largely edible.The products made in Poland are good only to give to some children before sending them home to torment their parents. I also very rarely buy pre-made products and, whenever possible, purchase fruits and vegetables from farmers. In California it is relatively easy to do.
Thought for the day.
I predict a terrorist outrage of such vile proportions that martial law will be applied and a very right wing government will be swept into power. One of the first things they will do is to declare that food production, water, power, fuel etc. are national resources and as such will come under the control of the state. If the government have any sense (bit of an oxymoron, sorry) they will settle on good terms with the owners and continue to trade with the rest of the world as normal. I am not going into a diatribe about what else they may do about other issues, just making the point that it is not a good idea to let what I consider to BE national resources go to foreing owners. And please dont give me an earfull about labour nationinolising everything that moved after the WWII, we live in a different and mor unstable world now.
There, that’s cheered us all up, have a good weekend.
OMG
omg, agree with you, certain resources should never have been allowed to fall into foreign hands.
I note the yanks stepped in all too quickly when the arabs tried to buy dock facilies in the USA as part of a shipping line, that was stopped dead in its tracks. But then the UK govt would rather do anything for foreigners than their own population. I have never understood why the govt, any govt, seem to hate the UK and its indigenous residents quite as much as they do!
Christina – It works both ways. The origiinal Czech Budweiser beer, for example, is an excellent brew. The American version, as I may have mentioned previously, is a headache in a tin chilled to within an inch of its life in order to distinguish it from urine, which is warm.
OZ
OZ the originals are nearly always best, look at the steak sauce now its made in Belgium instead of Brum! Spousal unit does nothing but complain every time he takes it out the fridge. With associated xenophobic comments about Belgians ability to hold rifles etc etc.
You and Spousal Unit buy commerrcial steak sauce ???? Good God, woman – you’ll be buying Weetabix and Cadbury’s chocolate next.
OZ
What a fuss, I detest Wheatabix, and Cadbury’s chocolate and always have done. I really don’t care who owns these companies.
I do think there is a case for the UK to be rather more self sufficient food wise though. I don’t buy supermarket meat or fruit and veg, unless it is produced in the UK, because it is tasteless and expensive. There are plenty of farmers markets and good local butchers.
I think you may well be slightly more concerned if you appreciated who owns the Weetabix brand, what else they own and what they intend to sell to Shanghai. Not everything you use can come from quite such comfortable middle class British origins.
No, I know who owns it, and I am still not concerned.
I agree, but that’s globalisation for you. I doubt you are immune from this even in the US.
Minters: quite a bit of food that is sold in the USA has dubious origins. Take, for example, the tomato grown in Mexico. The first thing that one will notice is its distinct lack of taste. Picked while green, it never had the chance to properly develop a flavour and could thus pass with little effort as soggy cardboard. Mexican farms also have a strange proclivity for using human faeces to fertilise crops. Many US brands have also been bought by outside companies.
It’s that global market to blame: products, money and labour in one big pool.