Food Fraud Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

Let me deceive you, let me count the ways
Because food is what we consume all life's days
Recount the contents of the larder
Those in which are clearly imprinted for a starter.

Ice cream which I dearly love
In abundance, more than any oth-
Those handy containers with pretty pictures
That suggest gustatory adventures.

Small print at the bottom gives the quantity
Assuring there's no tomfoolery
Clearly states that there is within
One and three quarts you will fin-

Among the statements promoting the product
Is one that mentions how convenient it is to store
Doesn't take up as much shelf space as before.
Of course you pay the same as once you did
When the contents were two full quarts* instead.

(*That's half gallon for those who really care.)

Then if you like your cool drinks from the frig
You may be enticed to buy a jug of 100 percent juice.
On the plastic it states to get juices flowing,
Blackberry, Pomegranate, Raspberry and maybe Cranberry too.

In small print, it mentions may contain six different juices
The majority of which are apple and grape(?) .
Of course if you don't choose 100% juice,
You can be assured that a bit of water has been added, in truth.

Accepting all of the above,
There is now a further statement added o the deception above
Seems the container is new and improved
Easier to hold in the hand perhaps has been proved.

But wait if you read further down
You discover that the amount of juice contained
Is now 60 ounces rather than the half gallon as before.
A half gallon being 64 ounces.

So you are paying a bit more than 5% for the pleasure
Of holding the improved container in your hand.

There's more and more deception to be seen
Wonder how the employee who thought up these means
Of enriching the manufacturer in product sold
Are rewarded in coins of old.

(Or have they no scruples and see that the public
Really deserves to be screwed in any way subject
To of course the regulations imposed
By the Government to those.)

Note that for those who are history bound,
Bread loaves weighing a pound
Had added to them limestone
To make the loaf weigh the same.
Such it was inThe French Revolution
The outcry was fraud was in season.

The Government didn't serve the people.

(Could go on and on about other food items, but you get the idea. It's not fraud if you clearly state what you are selling and let the buyer beware.)