Nothing’s real…

I picked up a can of what I thought was evaporated milk at a supermarket here the other day. It was the same size/height but the label was of a different colour and I just assumed that it was some improved version of the usual. Then, at another supermarket, I saw that same brand again alongside some with blue labels so I scrutinised the one that I had bought to check and only then did I see this – in very small print…

I had bought a can of sweetened creamer! Now what would I need that for? And no, it is not condensed milk. It is an established fact, one that I had blogged about sometime ago, that these days, what some people still think is condensed milk contains mostly palm oil…

…if at all there is any milk in it, whatever pepejal susu may be.

Then I saw on the label of a block of butter this Malay reference – lepa susu. As far as I know, butter in the language is mentega. Well, my daughter bought some earlier for her quiche and cake and whatever that she was thinking of making so when I got home, I went to check the label of what was left in the fridge…

Nope! They did not say anywhere that it was mentega so is it or isn’t it butter? Looking at the ingredients…

…it certainly looks like it is basically palm oil as well.

As it seems, nothing’s real anymore and what we think we’re consuming may not be what we think it actually is but looking at the controversy surrounding the milk we have on the shelves these days, perhaps we would be much better off going for the substitutes instead. According to some newspaper reports, what is supposed to be “pure and straight from the source”…

…may not exactly be as what they claim. I do not usually buy milk as drinking it makes me feel sleepy so I may have a glass sometimes for my night cap so that I would be able to sleep better. However, I would not buy our own so-called fresh milk as it is usually quite pricey and in fact, it is reconstituted milk and not really what some people may think it is – fresh milk.

In the current state of affairs though, perhaps it may be better to drink that but wait a minute! Some people are saying that all the companies here get their supply from the same source and they just pack and market them here under their own brand names so whatever it is called, it is basically the same thing…and it is kind of worrying that according to one report, “the contamination occurred in May last year and yet it wasn’t until March of this year that it was “discovered” and August before the contamination was made public,” and some people are of the opinion that this sweeping-under-the-carpet thing is pretty common in developing and Third World countries so we are, in fact, kind of helpless, not knowing what is safe and what isn’t.

Personally, I usually would go for this brand…

…as I find it to be creamier and somehow, I feel it tastes better and at times, it may be cheaper than the ones from that other country and even those local brands that we have here.

Judging from all the reports that I have read, it seems that the main concern is what parents feed their infants – no mention whatsoever has been made as to whether it would cause any harm to adults or not. Whatever it is, perhaps it is best to just stay away…till the storm blows over and the sky is clear again.