We are what we eat

1. This article is about the language used to label food products.
_ As a food label is often nothing more than an advert to tempt you to buy the product, you should pay particular attention to the choice of words used.
_ Always watch out for the word 'flavour', as this may mean that the product contains synthetic (1) ingredients (n- thành phần, phần hợp thành). Chocolate-flavour topping, for example, will not contain chocolate, even though chocolate-flavour topping will contain a small percentage - so read carfully.
_ Many manufactures also use a range of meaningless (adj- vô nghĩa) descriptions. Feel-good words, such as 'wholesome' (2), 'farmhouse', 'original' and 'traditional' do not mean anything. Other words such as 'farm fresh' and 'country fresh' also intentionally blur the true nature of a product's source. 'Fresh egg pasta', for example, means that the pasta was indeed made with real and not powdered eggs, but maybe months ago.
_ Words that you can trust are 'organic', 'wholemeal' (3), 'natural mineral water', 'Fari Trade' (4), 'free-range' (5) and the 'V' vegetarian symbol.
_ Consumer presure over GM (6) foods has led to better labelling but loopholes (7) still exist. GM product derivatives (8), such as starches, sugars, fats and oils where no genetically modified protein or DNA material still remains, still go unlabelled in many products such as ceral bars, fish fingers, jellies adn vegetable burgers.
_ Take particular care over low-fat and low-sugar products. Guidelines state tha 'low-fat' foods must not have more than 5 per cent fat, while 'reduced fat' means that the total fat content is 25 per cent less than the standard versions of the same product.
_ The terms 'loght' or 'life' are meaningless since they could refer to texture, fat content, sugar content or even colour.

(1) made from artificial substances (chất nhân tạo)
(2) good for you, physically or morally (adv- đạo đức) (wholesome adj- bổ ích)
(3) containing all the natural substances in the grain with nothing removed.
(4) refers to products such as coffee, tea or chocolate marketed in such a way that the small farmers in developing countries who produce them get the profits rather than large multinational companies,
(5) relating to farm animals that are not kept in cages.
(6) genetically modified, i.e. the genes (DNA) of a natural product have been altered in some way.
(7) ways of getting round regulations
(8) things produced from

2. Food metaphors
_ Inviting Joe and his ex-wives to the same party was a recipe for disater. (situation sure to lead to)
_ The film has all the ingredients of a box office hit. (all the necessary characteristics)
_ Let's invite lots of friends to our wedding to dilute (v- làm nhạt, làm loãng) the relatives a bit. (make less dominant)
_ I'm not going to call him. I'm going to let him stew for another few days at least. (worry or suffer especially about something you think is his fault)
_ The police grilled the suspect for hours, but eventually let him go. (asked a lot of questions)
_ I'm sure this is going to be another of his half-backed schemes that never comes to anything. (unrealistic or not thought through properly)
_ Let's hire a karaoke machine - that'll spice up the office party. (make more lively)
_ Rick has started hanging around with some unsavoury characters. (unpleasant, morally offensive)
_ They started their business with high hopes but things soon turned sour. (went wrong) (v- hóa ra xấu đi)
_ Let's go for a coffee and you can tell me all the juicy gossip. (exciting and interesting)

Exercise:
1. Are food labels meant to provide information or to advertise the products?
_ The consumer often thinks that the labels provide information, but manufactures often use meaningless terms just to make the product appear more attractive.
2. Why do manufactures try to hide the fact that foods contain synthetic (n- chất tổng hợp, nhân tạo) ingredients?
_ Because people feel happier with the idea that foods are natural rather than synthetic.
3. In the phrase fresh egg pasta, does fresh refer to egg or pasta?
_ It refers to egg. However, It is rather ambiguous (adj- mơ hồ, nhập nhằng) and manufactures exploit (v- khai thác, lợi dụng) this.
4. What do organic, wholemeal and vegetarian mean when describing food?
_ Organic means that artificial fertilisers and chemicals have not been used in the food's production.
_ Wholemeal refers to flour that contains all the natural fibres of the grain with nothing removed through processing.
_ Vegetarian means without meat, i.e, suitable for eating by vegetarians.
5. What does GM stand for? Explain what it means.
_ Genetically modified. In other words, it refers to food which has had its genes modified in some way in order to make the crop more profitable.
6. What is DNA?
_ DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid: the chemical at the center of living things which controls the structure and purpose of each cell and carries genetic information.
7. Cereal bars, fish fingers and vegetable burgers are all types of fast food. Describe them.
_ Cereal bars are kind of snack made from cereal (n- ngu coc) with fruit or nuts (n- qủa hạch) and sugar and moulded into a kind of biscuit. (v- đúc, nặn)
_ Fish finger are slices of filleted fish coated in batter ready for frying. They are called fingers because they (slightly) resemble fingers in their shape.
_ Vegetable burgers are burgers that are not made of meat but of vegetables (typically lentils or beans)
8. This text is from a British magazine, so what does the word jelly mean? What would it mean in a US text?
9. How much fat would there be in low-fat cheese? And how much would there be in reduced fat cheese?
_ There must be less than 5% fat in low-fat chees. in reduced fat cheese there would be 25% less fat than in standard cheese.

Which do you think would be tastier and why?
1. strawberry flavoured yoghurt or strawberry flavour yoghurt.
_ strawberry flavoured yoghurt: because at least some of the flavours will have come from real strawberries.
2. orange drink or orange juice
_ orange juice: because it contains the juice from oranges instead of artificial flavourings.
3. raspberry jam or raspberry flavoured jam
_ raspberry jam: because it has been made using real raspberries.
4. farmhouse chicken or free-range chicken
_ free-range chicken: because the chicken was able to move freely on the farm rather than being kept in a small cage (battery farming)

ingredients (thập cẩm) - foodstuffs needed to make a dish
dilute (v- pha loãng) - make another liquid weaker by mixing it with water
stew (v- hầm, ninh) - cook slowly for a long time in liquid
grill (v- nướng) - cook under or over a hot flame
half-baked - not fully cooked (of bread, biscuits or cakes)
spice-up (v- cho đồ gia vi) - make tastier by using spices like chilli powder, cinnamon, ginger, etc.