Conglomerates, Slicing the Salami and Other Reasons to Fear for Humanity

Being retired from the Canadian food industry, I am uninformed and unaffected by most of what passes as corporate progress, but once in a while this nonsense strikes home. With my afternoon tea, in fact.

Back in the 1970s there was a Canadian brand called Peek Frean which was part of the iconic British based Associated Biscuit Manufacturers company. PF made a wide variety of sweet biscuits – available as one item or in variety packs like Special Tea or Assorted Creams. Just the thing to accompany Salada or Red Rose orange pekoe steeped in a teapot.

However, that all started going downhill when the puppet masters started playing conglomeratio with the cookie industry. First Nabisco acquired ABM. Then Kraft swallowed Nabisco. Then Cadbury got slotted into the whole mess. Finally Kraft spun off the whole snack and cookie biz to a new entity called Mondelez – with me so far?

Similar stuff went on in the UK to the point where – after its most celebrated factory closed in Bermondsey London in 1989 – Peek Frean ceased to exist as a brand after 125 years. Maybe they’ve stopped having biscuits with tea over ‘ome – who knows?

Oh you can still buy Peek Frean stuff here – after a fashion. The individual packs are mostly gone – aside from shortbread and digestive. The varieties are still sold as well – but the famous Bourbon cream from 1910 has been replaced by an insipid Nabisco recipe that looks different and tastes nothing like the real thing. The custard cream is a shadow of its former self. “Nice” – those crispy coconut wafers – and the iced currant thingys seem to have vanished completely. All in the name of “SKU consolidation” and corporate greed. The bean counters must be delighted.

And of course I can’t get a decent substitute anywhere around here – no British themed stores left in the Almonte/Carleton Place area so Crawford’s and Jacob’s biscuits aren’t available. I can still steep my Red Rose in a 50 year old Gibson teapot but my biscuit plate is looking increasingly empty. Those younger folks who dunk a tea bag in their cup might be happy with Oreos, but I am not.

And don’t get me started on the other way today’s food companies slice the salami thinner – take a 450 g package, change it to 400 g and charge the same price for it. There’s more than one way to make a profit, you see. A pox on all their cost-reduced recipes and factory consolidations!

 

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