thanks john.. Great looking jerky. I appreciated the Kraut post!! Man that looks like some amazing stuff!!
Yea.. spices are a BIG deal in the world. India is a HUGE importer of spices and you can google India spices and see the conditions that these people employ for their products. When there are people that I personally know that have boots on the ground and have SOP's and a process in place for imported products they are successful. There is a reason McCormick is a little higher in price than the store brand. The store brand or off brand is looking for a void to fill and the co packer may not have those stringent guidelines that McCormick would have in place. Do you think that a private label manufacturer of black pepper has boots on the ground in India exploring and investigating their supply chain from cradle to grave? NOT! I can tell you McCormick does! One other little tidbit on spices, ALMOST ALL major food companies like the worlds largest snack company exclusively use those seasonings for corn chips, potato chips, and corn extruded products. Someday that curtain is going to be retracted and 20/20 will be on site and some hidden expose is going to make america puke their dinner up.
The next piece.. the fleecing of america on Whole Foods and humanely raised chickens!! If anyone buys a humanely raised chicken at whole foods should have their head examined. Paying 6.99 a pound for chicken raised in the same building as any other bird, but that building has a bale of Hay or an exercise ball in it as "indoor enrichment activities for the birds". Plus during the slaughter process when the birds are placed in the shackles and they hit the electric bath, in ordered to be considered humane it's like 98 out of 100 must not come through with a broken leg in the shackles and must hit the bath before there throats are slit. So, bird 99 has a broken leg, missed the bath, and missed the complete throat slit. Ok.. it's acceptable and we can still charge 6.99 a pound of this one. LOL Whole Foods uses GAP the global animal partnership to "certify" their proteins. Now understand that I am all for humanely treated animals!! But, the "board" of GAP has a seat for the current CEO of whole foods and two of the largest protein suppliers. Don't you think it's a conflict of interest??? Ya think? It's a fricking country club of the good ol' boy's and gal's! I have a really close friend that has to deal with this all the time as they are required to have certain levels of humanely raised products. They are at the point with GAP of calling it BS and are almost exclusively using "Certified Humane"(r) not the term humanely raised. Look up GAP level 3 chicken, "indoor enrichment" folks, you are paying 6.99 for a bale of hay!! Welcome to the fleecing of america!
