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Comment by eth0up | Hacker News Reader

While on the subject of gustatory shenanigans, a few which irk me are:

"Contains 100% juice" - This one is clever, and true, albeit that the product probably only contains 3% of actual 100% juice.

"Packed in x" - Packed in x, sure. But in smaller print, Product of y.

"Cholesterol Free" - Thanks. I was terribly worried that my non-animal product contained some despite it not being an animal.

"Made from: pure a" displayed prominently on front label, while ingredients read: b,c,d,e,f,...etc, etc.

"No added growth hormones" - Clearly there's little point anyway, in adding hormones to a chicken breast or hotdog.

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Recently, a friend of mine gave me a box of tea that claimed to be:

- fairtrade - organic - gluten free - suitable for vegans - kosher - halal

Now, I like the first one (and maybe the second one), 3 and 4 are just what I would expect from a product that, according to its ingredients, is just tea leaves. I feel that 5 and 6 are simply taking the piss.

Eh? Not all tea is kosher, especially flavored kinds, and those with more processing. So what's wrong with them telling you it's kosher?

And there are non-gluten-free teas, they have barley malt, or roasted barley in them.

For some reason (and not being very familiar with kosher law) I couldn't help thinking of shellfish-flavoured tea and wondering why anyone would ever want to drink that. Anyway, here's a little more information for anyone who's curious: http://www.learn-about-tea.com/kosher-tea.html

Tea almost always is (or can be) kosher. However unless a Rabbi actually monitors the production you can't be sure.

For example the same packaging line might have been used for something else that was not kosher. Or a flavoring might have a non kosher ingredient (or more likely, could be kosher, but manufactured on a line that also does non-kosher items).

Some flavoured teas contain butter fatty acids. These would be vegetarian, but not vegan, and they would be kosher dairy.

https://www.bigelowtea.com/Special-Pages/Customer-Service/FA...

For my Celiac friends, the gluten-free mark is a big deal. They like not having to squint at the back of a box, read all the fine print, and then take a guess as to whether there was cross-contamination.

IIRC twizlers has a giant "fat free" statement on the front. Always bothers me when I see that in the store even though it's true.

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