Chicken injected with pork and beef proteins

The bovine and porcine powders allow the chicken to hold more water, bulking up the meat and allowing manufacturers to sell it at a higher price.

The FSA detected the swindle using new scientific techniques that saw the non-chicken material pass standard DNA tests.

In the report, the FSA said: “Use of these proteins does not make chicken products unsafe, but it is important that people are given accurate information about their food.”

WARNING

Britain’s two million Jews, Hindus and Muslims may have unwittingly eaten either pork or beef, meats that they are forbidden from eating.

Bharti Tailor, Secretary General of the Hindu Forum of Britain, described the findings as “shocking” and “potentially very distressing for the Hindu community”.

The fraud is still believed to be taking place in three EU states, including Germany, Netherlands and Spain due to inaction by the authorities.

Manufacturers are legally allowed to pump water into chicken but must declare if the level goes above 5 percent. Water above that amount will usually leak out unless held in by hydrolysed proteins.

The FSA has warned that consumers who do not eat pork or beef may want to avoid chicken that contains hydrolysed proteins.

Bijou Cafe

The best way to sum up the Bijou Cafe’s standing in Portland’s breakfast scene is this: Out of 36 restaurants listed in Frommer’s Portland guide, only three serve breakfast: the Heathman, Peanut Butter & Ellies (which made it as a kiddie/novelty place), and the Bijou.

And the best way to explain how that happened is to have a bite of the Willapa Bay Fresh Oyster Hash. Four or five cornmeal-dredged grilled oysters sit on thin strips of onion and potatoes, with parsley and what seems like a dash of curry. Sorting through all this for variations on the perfect bite might be the highlight of your day. It’s serious food. It’s also $12.25, with no toast or other sides.

The Bijou might not have been the first place in town to stress locally raised and organic ingredients. And it hasn’t been around as long as some of the old-line places. But it sure does look, feel, and act like the granddaddy of the New Portland restaurants, and both the crowds and the prices seem to back up that assertion.

The old brick walls and exposed wood beams say history; the modern art on the walls say style; the coat racks on each booth actually host coats and say utility; the blue-and-white checkered tablecloths, old-timey sugar pourers, and muffins in a basket say down-home. You’ll see businesspeople going over charts, friends planning a wedding, tourists poring over maps, conventioneers reuniting, and regulars chatting with the staff.

The Bijou is darn near the prototypical Portland breakfast place. It’s not necessarily the best, and it’s certainly not the cheapest, but it’s perhaps the one place you’d take your parents or other visitors who want a nice, safe dose of Portland’s organic, progressive, friendly, homey culture without the tattoos, hairy armpits, and all-out vegan fare. Your waitress might be wearing rainbow stockings, though.

Another telling tidbit: They serve Neuske’s bacon, Grafton Village sharp Cheddar cheese, Nancy’s yogurt, Mountain Madness granola, Greener Pastures chicken, and Dagoba hot chocolate, and they don’t offer a word of explanation regarding what these ingredients are. It’s like what was once a radical idea – using artisan and (presumably) local ingredients raised in a healthy way – now doesn’t even need an explanation.

It’s also true that a lot of folks in town think this is all very uppity and just an excuse to charge $9.25 for Neuske’s bacon and eggs or $10.25 for a cheese-and-mushroom omelet (ah, but they’re crimini mushrooms!). And grilled orange-anise bread baked for us by Pearl Bakery and called gibassier? Please.

It’s not a slacker, stumble-in hung over and surf the Web for two hours kind of place. It’s like, I don’t know, a grown-up restaurant – but a relaxed, Portland breakfast restaurant. Vegetarian-fed beef in the ($10.95) hash. Banana-hazelnut muffins. Brioche, French, or whole wheat toast; cornmeal, buckwheat, or buttermilk pancakes, all with real maple syrup.

Maybe the place just grew up. And maybe the “New Portland” is doing the same. The whole Frommer’s thing feels like a stamp of approval from a parent. Frommer’s calls the Bijou “comfortably old-fashioned, yet thoroughly modern.” Tough to add to that.

Closing of Campbell Arnott’s factory leaves 40 jobless

Snackfood company Real McCoy announced yesterday that around 40 people would be made redundant at their factory in Shepparton.

Campbell Arnott’s, which sold their snacks division to Real McCoy last year, still manufactured the product after the takeover.

The production line is due to shut-down by the end of next month, leaving around 40 workers without a job.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union says that workers had expected to lose their jobs at the Campbell’s Soup factory.

Jason Hefford, spokesperson from AMWU says the workers have known for the past year they would lose their jobs, but did not know exactly when.

“There’ll be a call for voluntary redundancies up to a number of 43 and it comes as really no shock because Real McCoy or Snack Brands Australia purchased it over 12 months ago now,” he said.

“So to the people it’s really not a shock to them.”