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Business & Money

'Fake' food common in Stockholm eateries

Published: 2 Oct 12 12:47 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/43570/20121002/

One in three Stockholm restaurants serve different products than what is promised on the menu, according to a new study from the city’s environmental administration (Miljöförvaltningen), showing that eateries most often cheat when it comes to feta cheese, Parma ham and Parmesan cheese.

“If you have tasted the original and then get served something fake you will generally be able to tell the difference. But it can be hard to detect fake products for those customers that are not used to it,” said Gert Klötzke, professor in gastronomy at Stockholm University to newspaper Metro.

According to the paper, the agency’s project on misleading menus has revealed cheating in at least 30 percent of the 100 restaurants checked, with at least one product that didn’t correspond to the one on the menu.

“It’s a question of both intentional and unintentional cheating,” said inspector Aron Lindén of the Stockholm environmental administration to Metro.

According to the report, the restaurants did well when it came to organic produce as well as serving bona fide Swedish produced fillet of beef.

However, the report also showed that the air-dried Parma prosciutto promised on the menu in many cases turned out to be a cheaper German or Spanish air-dried ham.

The Parmesan cheese was in many cases revealed to be the cheaper kind of Italian hard cheese Grana Padano and the traditional feta cheese was more often than not from Danish cows rather than Greek sheep.

The restaurants could face hefty fines should they continue to offer customers products different from those on the menu. The environment administration plans to revisit the eateries and follow up on the misleading menus.

According to the paper, the agency also intends to check some 100 more restaurants in the Stockholm area before the project is concluded.

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13:35 October 2, 2012 by bcterry
"Could face fines"?

Why the hell weren't fines issued on the spot?

Great message, ....... go ahead and cheat your customers, because you get one free roll.
13:57 October 2, 2012 by byke
@bcterry

Don't be silly old chap.

Fining restaurants for fraud could have an effect on the economy.

And we can't have the Swedish image tarnished ... Nation before its people.
18:23 October 2, 2012 by EmployedProfessional
This is a potato eating country and,my they know their potatoes and meat and fish! When it comes to most anything else,they don't have a clue since they have so little adventurous spirit to trry new things.

This has happenned to me while dining with friends and in business situations and nobody noticed,shocking!

They need to dine out more in other countries more and get a practical education on "what is really what"!

Some very privilaged people surprised me with their complete lack of knowlege of proper food and it's preparation.Hey,have you seen the synthetic orange juice they happily drink here.The stuff can sit without refrgeration for weeks and still taste the same,like anti-freeze,yummy!
12:49 October 3, 2012 by Borilla
"Swedish cuisine" an oxymoron.
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