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Comment by ssnistfajen | Hacker News Reader

It's the consequence of the food industry becoming hyperindustrialized in which uncommon ingredients and "off-cuts" no longer fit with the goal of pursuing economy of scale. Ultraprocessed food is efficient to produce and distribute and formulated to specifically target innate human cravings (high sugar/sodium/carb/fat) in ways that were not possible before.

This is a trend that started in the U.S. and gradually spread out across industrialized nations in the post-WWII world as globalization accelerated. However even for Americans, offal used to be a common ingredient before and during WWII: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/gidc5a/when_...

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> It's the consequence of the food industry becoming hyperindustrialized in which uncommon ingredients and "off-cuts" no longer fit with the goal of pursuing economy of scale. Ultraprocessed food is efficient to produce and distribute and formulated to specifically target innate human cravings (high sugar/sodium/carb/fat) in ways that were not possible before.

Hyperindustrialization has done the exact opposite! The middle class can only afford prime rib and tenderloin because more than half the weight of the cow gets processed into gelatin, burgers, pet food, and stew meat (A friend and I split a whole cow from a local butcher but my stats are based on grass fed). The price of off cuts is entirely demand driven: i.e. flank cuts that are popular in Latin American cuisine are dirt cheap in New England but really expensive in California. Stuff like offal absolutely dominates pet food inputs.

I gather the GP's point was we that previously we'd eat kidneys or livers or tripe etc. in "unprocessed" form, whereas now they're all only used for pet food or gelatin etc. Whether that's true because steak is now so cheap and most people prefer eating it instead I'm not sure, but seems plausible. But that steak is cheap because of hyperprocessing of off cuts seems more contentious - I'm fairly sure we're able to more cheaply raise, slaughter and butcher cows in general, and the beef industry would still find a way to be profitable even if offal etc. was still widely consumed in unprocessed form. It is odd that I remember regularly tucking into things like beef liver as part of a meal as a kid (30 odd years ago) but virtually never hear of it these days. I still do see steak & kidney pie in bakeries etc. but it's not super common. Oh I did have tripe in phở not too long ago (and still see it on menus regularly), though I can't admit to being a fan.

Why do you think people in North America no longer see offal (or seaweed) as edible food for humans despite the opposite? It's because of hyperindustrialization has distorted how these people view food ingredients.

What are you talking about? Tripe is a bog standard ingredient in Mexican cuisine seen on every menu from the southern tip of Mexico to Toronto. It’s the basis for sausages and hot dogs, an American staple. You can buy offal at almost any supermarket. Why would they carry it if people in North America didn’t see it as food?

The reason most Americans don’t eat it is better options. Like rib eye steak and a salad.

You can also buy multiple forms of seaweed at Costco and Walmart. That’s about as North American as it gets.

You know which socio-cultural group I am talking about and it's not Mexicans. Sausage casings are also overwhelmingly synthetic especially for mass manufactured hotdogs.

Premium cuts became "better options" because of hyperindustrialization, which made those cuts more affordable than before. This is a point you raised yourself in an earlier comment.

The only reason you can buy seaweed at Costco and Walmart is because of multicultural immigrants and globalization, which are starting to undo the hyperindustrialization of the food industry even if by just a little bit.

Sorry, but you can't buy all offal in most American supermarkets.

Living in NYC, where you can get both tripe and liver easily - you have to go to "ethnic" stores to get heart, kidneys or lungs. (I have yet to see any lungs or intestines in any US store... and I mean ANY. I'd have to go to a butcher and order small intestines to make sausages.)

As for seaweed - it's primarily dried Japanese style seaweed that we can get in Costco's around NYC.

A lot of people don't know how to use these ingredients. For offal, I would need a lot of videos showing me how to make really delicious things with some of the parts before I would even bother trying. Also, whenever I see organs at ethnic markets, they're whole organs, and I don't really have much butchering experience since everything I normally buy is already precut into appropriate sizes (eg single chicken breast/thigh/leg, steak of appropriate thickness).

I don't think British food is any less industrialised, but seaweed (local, not just in Asian food) is still available here, and stuff like kidneys and liver is downright popular! Even corner shops often sell steak and kidney pies, or a microwave meal of liver and onions.

...hence the obesity crisis.

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