“No Such Thing As Organic Honey”: 50 People Share Food Industry Secrets

This year, the global food market revenue stands at around 9.36 trillion US dollars. For comparison, Germany's entire economy is valued at "just" $4.4 trillion. What's more, it's estimated that the figure should continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by 38.46 percent and reach $12.97 trillion.

But big money brings tough competition, and businesses may try all sorts of tactics to get an edge.

Interested in the practices of this sector, Reddit user Lilyxrx made a post on the platform, asking everyone, "What's a secret the food industry doesn't want you to know?" Turns out, many more wanted to know, too. As of now, the post has 4.6K upvotes and 3.5K comments. Here are some of the most interesting ones.

#1

Image credits: toad__warrior

#2

Image credits: SatanLifeProTips

We managed to get in touch with the author of the post, and they were kind enough to have a little chat with us about it.

"I own a TikTok account where I repost questions from 'Ask Reddit' and the replies they receive, so I thought I might as well create my own thread," Lilyxrx told Bored Panda about its origins.

#3

Image credits: lancert

#4

After going through the discussion their post has ignited, the Redditor has noticed that one theme definitely stood out from the rest. "From what I can see, it seems that the food industry is more unsanitary than we think," they said.

And they're probably right. Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances can cause more than 200 different diseases, ranging from diarrhea to cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people – fall ill after eating contaminated food each year, resulting in 420,000 deaths and 33 million healthy life years (DALYs).

#5

#6

Image credits: LongRest

However, as we can see from this list, not all parts of the industry are working as they should (and there are plenty of things we regular folks don't know about) even though we all depend on it.

Lilyxrx believes that we often end up in the dark because of greedy businessmen and corporations, as industry leaders would rather chase money and cover up their questionable conduct instead of doing everything by the book.

Sadly, there are plenty of examples that support their words. And we don't need to look that far back to find something. On the night of October 4, Homeland Security and FBI agents teamed up for a raid on Gerber's Poultry in Ohio, United States, and found over two dozen children (mostly said to be from Guatemala) who were illegally employed in meat processing and sanitation.

Hopefully, with time and effort, the industry becomes more transparent.