One of my friends once said,“Vegetarianism is causing global warming as the vegetarians are eating all the plants.” Yes, this statement was obviously a joke and is not true in any sense of the word, but I brought it up because it goes to show that what may be normal for one person can be unappealing or even disturbing to another.
The current noodle fiasco in the country is the latest food-related debate and has shaken the billion-rupee instant noodles industry. The coveted snack of many Indians has been banned by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). We all knew that the noodles were bad for us but now we find out that it was also poisoning us with high quantities of lead and MSGs. So popular are these noodles that when the news of the ban came out, a few people I know bought multiple packets of the noodles, literally hoarding it without even caring to find out why they were being banned. Thanks to the controversy many other brands of instant noodles have also come under review, though this might be the food news of the year. Recently, there have been many other controversial foods all over the world and you do need a strong stomach to even read about them.
One of the oldest and most talked about controversial food is foie gras (pronounced fvaa graa), an expensive delicacy in various parts of the world.
India was the first country to ban its import last year. Though it was a cause of dismay for culinary artists in the country, the ban was welcomed by animal right activists as production of foie gras is generally regarded as inh u m a n e treatment to a n i m a l s .
What is this highly-debated food? It is a paste that is made out of cooked goose or duck liver. Doesn’t sound that bad does it? Well, the liver is not just regular liver, the ducks or geese that are used for this purpose have had their liver enlarged to about 600 times the usual size by force-feeding. A metal pipe is slid down their throat and they are fed for 15-21 days till the liver is of an ‘adequate’ size to be used for the production of foie gras, hence the massive controversy. Very recently, social media was abuzz with pictures of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival happening in South China. These visuals and just the thought was horrific for people in countries where dog meat is a kind of taboo as dogs are considered to be pets and companions and many cannot consider slaughtering them for food. More than 10,000 canines are tortured and killed for this festival every year.
People of South East and East Asia have been eating dog meat for thousands of years. The debate came up because during this festival, dogs are boiled, skinned or even roasted alive, thus making the whole process extremely difficult for dog lovers to digest. The horse meat scandal of UK was one of the other highly talked of controversies. In all major supermarkets, products that were labelled beef were found to contain various percentages of horse meat. Horse meat, again like dog meat, is not banned but is considered morally wrong. But horse is considered slaughter- able for food in various parts of the world, especially central Asia and Eastern Europe. What is food for one is companion for others and the wild deliberation on the topic of banning horse meat continues. There are many such foodrelated discussions around the world, morality and feelings of humans come into play in most. As a non-vegetarian, one can enjoy poultry, seafood and widely acceptable mammals like cows, pigs and goat, but to make it sound like food we renamed it beef, pork and mutton. There are hundreds of countries with thousands of cultures and culinary delights, but yes, lead in instant noodles cannot be accepted anywhere in the world.