Food labels.

jimbobby

jimbobby

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Can anyone make any sense of this ingredients list.
What percentage of haddock is actually in the cake ?IMG_20231210_131627.jpg
 
Your smoked haddock fish cakes are made up from 24% smoked haddock and 13% haddock / un-smoked haddock being cheaper for the manufacturer to buy than smoked haddock, yet still giving a fishy content of some 37%

The possible confusion lies after the listing (haddock (fish) (98%) but that is referring to the percentage of fish in the smoked haddock itself, as it’s had ‘stuff’ added to it in the manufacturing process

ie, the smoked haddock is made up of 98% haddock and 2% salt, colour and flavourings

Hope that clears up your fish cake conundrum for you Jim
 
Mark DM said:
Good luck with that one :) can't even get % to add up... unless 98% of the fish content is haddock and of that 24% is smoked
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Although all ingredients must be clearly stated, the % of each ingredient can be omitted if 5% or less of the total recipe

Some manufacturers will include all percentages, however small, although legally they don’t need to (if 5% or under)

So if you add up the main ingredients %, the ‘missing’ balance is made up from the large list of ingredients with no stated %

Most people will look for the main ingredient % when deciding what brand to buy of any given ‘ready meal’ type food item. This will then be reflected in the cost price

37% fish in a ready made fish cake ain’t bad actually - certainly a lot worse out there, try your local chippy as an example !
 
So 98% fish....and 12% potatoes and cheddar cheese 4%.... plus another reference to fish 13%
I may not be good at maths but ....!!
Spices/additives may be very small amounts..
Any other thoughts ?
 
jimbobby said:
So 98% fish....and 12% potatoes and cheddar cheese 4%.... plus another reference to fish 13%
I may not be good at maths but ....!!
Spices/additives may be very small amounts..
Any other thoughts ?
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Your fish cakes are most certainly NOT made from 98% fish - be it smoked or unsmoked haddock

I’ve answered this already
 
It says 98% fish....it's there on the label.
You say 37 %....how do you calculate that ?
That is the reason for the post...it is at the very least confusing.
 
jimbobby said:
It says 98% fish....it's there on the label.
You say 37 %....how do you calculate that ?
That is the reason for the post...it is at the very least confusing.
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It's meant to be confusing, because big business and regulators have always been in bed together.
The 24% at the top of the label is the actual total % of Haddock in the pack. The 98% is the weight of that 24%............................the other 76% is made up of all the other ingredients.
 
It looks a bit like it suggests that it's a 98% mix of Haddock(fish) and smoked haddock(presumably not called fish after process)

But the 4% cheese etc in the middle and 12% potato means you have 114% in every fish cake, that is a bargain...no wait...
 
I thought Dave answered it perfectly well and simple.

24% of the fish cake is smoked haddock, of that single ingredient it is 98% haddock fish, the other 2% made up of salt and colouring, which has curcumin and paprika extract, providing the smoked element.

13% is regular haddock, potatoes is 12%, 4% is cheese, and the other missing 47% will be comprised of the other listed ingredients, in amounts so small that the manufacturer doesn’t bother quantifying them.

Total amount of haddock: 37%
 
Jord86 said:
I thought Dave answered it perfectly well and simple.

24% of the fish cake is smoked haddock, of that single ingredient it is 98% haddock fish, the other 2% made up of salt and colouring, which has curcumin and paprika extract, providing the smoked element.

13% is regular haddock, potatoes is 12%, 4% is cheese, and the other missing 47% will be comprised of the other listed ingredients, in amounts so small that the manufacturer doesn’t bother quantifying them.

Total amount of haddock: 37%
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That's how I read it too. But there is a missing closing parentesis after Paprika Extract (needs two) or the opening parenthesis before colour removed.
 
jimbobby said:
It says 98% fish....it's there on the label.
You say 37 %....how do you calculate that ?
That is the reason for the post...it is at the very least confusing.
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I’m fairly sure that I’ve answered this clearly and fairly concisely (for me at least) ,,,,, but to paraphrase briefly;

Item is termed as ‘smoked haddock fishcakes’

Fish content however is a mix of both smoked haddock and un-smoked haddock

Un-smoked haddock is cheaper for manufacturer than using just smoked haddock in the recipe

States 24% smoked haddock

As smoked haddock has other ingredients added to it to turn it from haddock into smoked haddock, you also get these additional ingredients listed, aside from the haddock itself - ie, salt, colourings, flavourings (but not their individual % as below 5% each added ingredient)

So the total haddock % of smoked haddock is 98% - NOT the overall percentage in your fishcake

Any clearer now ?
 
Were the fishcakes nice? Tasty? Did they fill your tum? Do you think you might buy them again?
Do fishcakes really need an O level in algebra?
 
jimbobby said:
They were ok...I like to know what I am eating...and value for money.
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Make your own - you then know what is there.

I love venison and even after buying it minced, recently I made burgers with the grandson and they worked out cheaper than normal beefburgers with doubtful content and took just 5 minutes.
 
The percentages of whatever that’s in there is enough to get you through the food labelling quango to declare it a fish cakes and get it approved as a food item making it exempt from VAT.

Next !
 
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