Paper Palate

I think it is fair to say that statistics have a credibility issue. If you are halfway cunning, you can pick and choose the numbers according to the argument that suits you - look at opinion polls used by politicians, no-one in their right mind trusts them.

I had thought there was no way cooking could be sullied by any such cunning. I was being naive. It seems that my fellow countrymen and women are lying about what they’re cooking - and I have the statistics to prove it. Even more depressing. is that it took the Government, arch spinners that they are, to reveal this truth.

According to the article in The Independent, one-third of 16-24 year olds regularly commit “food fraud”: they pass off supermarket ready meals as their own creations. The article goes on to say that 1 in 10 of the 1000 youngsters questioned, admitted to committing this heinous crime, when it came to ‘cooking’ their signature dishes.

Now hold on a second: I smell a rat.

How many people, let alone 16-24 year olds have signature dishes?

I’m assuming they haven’t just questioned attendees of the local catering college, but have made some effort to interview a cross-section of the population. Or again, am I being naive? Also, is it really that surprising that hardly any 16-24 year olds bother to cook? The government announcement and the newspaper article make out that this is something along the lines of “Teen Pregnancy Shocker”. But it isn’t. I’m not arguing that younger members of the community should not be encouraged to eat better, but pointless pieces of market research are not going achieve the desired outcome.

Rather, it has been shown that the Government in the UK is useless at improving the way our kids eat. It has taken Jamie Oliver’s Feed Me Better campaign to make a difference. The interesting thing about Oliver’s campaign, was that because of his high and positive profile, his expose of the crap our school children eat embarrassed the Government into action. It also forced at least one company, which sold salty, fatty school meals, out of business.

What I find particularly interesting, is that in another damned poll, Jamie Oliver was voted the most influential person in the UK. There’s not even a whiff of a Government minister.