Consumer questions you never knew you wanted to ask

What with it being a bank holiday and everything, we thought we would take a break from the usual price watching and price giving out and answer a few of the burning questions of our time. Questions like why are some eggs white, how can anyone work out a use-by date and what in the name of all that is good and true has barleycorn got to do with shoe sizes? Some of our questions were submitted by Twitter users – and we thank them for that – and some were keeping Pricewatch awake in the dead of night.

What does "artisan" mean? And does food carrying a label that says "traditional, natural and farmhouse" have to be any of those things?

For years in Ireland – and everywhere else, really – food labelling was a free-for-all farce and there was nothing to stop the makers of a tar-laden and poisonous cigarette from slapping a “locally sourced farm-fresh and natural – just what the doctor ordered” label on their product to encourage sales. And if you think we are making that up, an American cigarette brand did once attach “just what the doctor ordered” to its advertising.

Labelling laws in this country are still a bit loose. Is the jam you bought really handmade in someone’s kitchen? Have those crisps really been cooked in front of an open fire in some class of 19th-century kettle? But at least the authorities have put some structure around some terms in recent years. Some, but not loads.

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Under guidelines from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, “artisan” can only be used on foods made “in limited quantities by skilled craftspeople”. The processing method must not be fully mechanised and a traditional method in a micro-enterprise must be followed. “Farmhouse” should only be used on food made by a micro-enterprise in a single location on a farm, with locally grown ingredients. Irritatingly, manufacturers have a get-out clause if they make foods such as chunky vegetable soup, bread with a split and rounded crust and coarse paté. “Traditional” can only be used for foods made using an authentic recipe that is at least 30 years old, or an equally aged method of production. “Natural” should only be used on a minimally processed food if it differs from other similar products.

Why are fruit, veg and flowers the first things I see in my supermarket?

That’s not accidental. Brightly coloured displays and the smell of fresh flowers improve our mood. The smell of all that freshness also helps our mood too. And when we are in good form we are likely to spend more money. But that is not all. When we put fresh food in our trolley, we feel better about ourselves and are more likely to put over-priced junk food in later.

And why is the milk always at the back of the shop?

Because it is a destination product – something we go to a shop specifically to get. It is also one of the few things many people need to buy at regular intervals through the week. Supermarkets know this and are happy about it. But they are not happy enough to just sell us the milk we need; they want us to buy other things too. That is why they put it as far away from the door as possible so we have to walk past all the other stuff. And sure while we’re there we may as well pick up some other bits right?

Why are there different shoe sizes in different parts of the world?

This is a simple question with a ridiculously complicated answer. In essence a shoe can be measured in three ways. The obvious one is by looking at the length of a foot from the most prominent toe to the back of the heel and then making shoes for those measurements. Alternatively, a maker can measure the length of the shoe cavity and sell shoes on that basis. Or they can measure the length of the “last”, a template commonly found in the shoe business. The last method (in all meanings of the word) is the one most shoemakers favour because it is easier to make loads of shoes quickly when using a set template. It also lays the responsibility for finding the right size at the feet (ha!) of the shoe buyer.

That brings us to size matters. European sizes are based on the Paris Point which is two-thirds of a centimetre. Each jump in size – from 44 to 45, say – is a jump of one Paris point. English and US sizes are based on – believe it or not – the barleycorn. And what is that? Well, obviously, it is an ancient English unit measuring one third of an inch. The largest standard shoe size is 12 inches – so that is a size 12. An 11 is 12 inches minus one barleycorn while a 10 is 12 inches minus two barleycorns and so on. Then there is the metric measure, also called the Mondopoint system, which is commonly found in parts of Asia.

Okay, so, what about clothes sizes?

That is no less complicated, although it is much worse for women than men. Men’s sizes tend to be simple: 32-inch waist, 40-inch chest – or their metric equivalent. But when it comes to women’s clothes, the numbers are meaningless and are all over the shop.

Clothes sizes only became a feature of fashion in the 1920s after mass-production meant off-the-peg clothes became the norm. To standardise sizes, the US government started studying women’s body shapes in the late 1930s. But it was pretty slow about it and it was more than 20 years before a commercial standard, combining measures for bust, height and hip, emerged. But because body shapes changed between the 1930s when the project started and the late 1950s when it finished, it was almost immediately out of date.

Body shapes have continued to change so sizing has only become even more disconnected from reality. To make things worse, sizes in different parts of the world differ, so a US six is an Irish 10, a French 36 and a Japanese nine. Then there is vanity sizing which sees retailers and clothes-makers cut their sizes more generously to make shoppers feel better about themselves and more inclined to buy.

Why are American eggs white and Irish eggs brown?

This one was easy to crack. For starters not all American eggs are white, although most are. It is down to breeding and genetics. Some chickens lay white eggs, some lay brown ones. If you want to know what colour egg your chicken will lay, just look at its ear lobes – the darker the lobe, the browner the egg. The reason most eggs in the US are white is that mass production tends to rely on the white leghorn which, as the name might suggest, lays white eggs.

There is no significant difference in terms of taste and texture but in parts of the world where both are available, there is a perception that brown eggs are more wholesome and – dare we use a word beloved of label makers – natural.

And should I keep my eggs in the fridge?

As with many things, it depends on where you are. In the US and Japan, the answer is a definite yes. In Ireland the answer is almost certainly no. And the reason? It is because of serious health scares in the US and Japan many decades ago. The food poisonings were linked to salmonella found in the dirt and stuff left behind on the shells. As a result, in those countries all eggs are washed before sale. While the washing may remove salmonella if it is there, it also removes a naturally occurring protective layer from the egg. In the EU, regulations forbid washing, on the basis that it damages that protective cuticle which blocks the shell’s pores and stops harmful bacteria entering the egg. Washed eggs have to be kept cold while the great unwashed don’t.

Speaking of fridges, do I keep my tomatoes in the fridge?

Only if you want them to lose all their flavour before you get to eat them. The fruit-veggie is very sensitive to low temperatures and if they get too cold – which they will in your fridge – their enzyme-producing genes are damaged and their flavour disappears. So they should be stored at room temperature. Now, for the sake of full disclosure, Pricewatch has highlighted this fact before and then we heeded our advice, only to find our kitchen overrun with fruit flies who don’t trouble themselves with that age-old question as to whether or not tomatoes are fruit or vegetables – they just swarmed around them, clearly recognising them as delicious. So if you are going to keep them out, eat them fast before they become fly magnets.

Whatever about tomatoes being a fruit, potatoes are vegetables, right?

Of course they are but they should come with an asterix. They are not counted as one of your five a day, and even though they are full of vitamins and minerals, they also come with a fair whack of starch so nutritionists tend to lump them in with pasta and rice as a carbohydrate.

How does sun cream work?

“This is an easy one,” the page said lying through its teeth. The cream creates a barrier between your skin and the world around it and that stops the skin absorbing too many of those burning ultraviolet (UV) rays. Sun creams are made of two active ingredients and an emulsion. The first active ingredient is a UV absorber. You’ll never guess what that does, That’s right, it absorbs UV radiation and converts it to a low heat. Then there are reflectors which scatter radiation. The emulsion is the creamy bit that helps you spread the active ingredients all over yourself.

Are expensive sun creams better than cheap ones?

Not really. Multiple studies from British consumer group Which? have proven that price is no indicator of efficacy. Own-brand products from the likes of Aldi, Lidl and Tesco fare very well compared with branded rivals. The expensive options might spread more easily or smell nicer but in terms of stopping the sun, there is little difference.

How are use-by and best before dates worked out?

These dates are sometimes incredibly precise but there is a serious science behind at least some of them. They are worked out through a heady combination of maths, science, testing, experience and common sense. Maths is used to work out when good food turns bad based on a predicted rate of bacteria growth. Manufacturers can also rely on their previous experience with products of a similar type. Sometimes they just whack a date on it that is so far into the future as to make no sense. Something in a can, in a sterile vacuum, will probably be grand for decades but will almost certainly be given a best-before date of two years or so from now.

There is also a lot of science involved. Manufacturers put products through rigorous testing in real-world conditions to work out the impact of light, temperature and the rest. Then they do it again and again and whenever it goes bad, that it is the date range they use.

And what is the difference between best by and use by?

They do exactly what they say on the tin. If it is best by a certain date, it is perhaps slightly less good a day after that, but most likely grand. If something has a use-by date, then it might have spoiled after that point and you eat it at your peril.

If a chicken has a use-by date of today and I cook it, can I still eat it tomorrow?

You can. Cooking a product that is just about to pass its use-by date typically extends its edible life by two or three days.

What black magic makes a new car smell so lovely?

Toxic chemicals, mainly, although they are not toxic when wafting through that new car you are smelling. The scent that hits you when you climb into a new car is vinyl and plastic and glue. As the car is new, none of them have been diluted by the smells of humans and, well, life.

The new-car smell is made up of more than 50 volatile organic compounds which break down at a rate of about 20 per cent per week so after month they will have all but disappeared, replaced by the smell of you and that half-eaten tub of yoghurt one of your children has helpfully hidden under the back seat. That is nowhere near as alluring.

If I break something in a shop, can I be made buy it?

No, not really. All those signs you see in fancy shops which warn that “if you break it, you buy it” are wide of the mark. If it is an accident, then a shop will struggle to make you cough up. And even if they do convince you to pay, they cannot demand you pay for the item before you leave the shop. Nor can they insist you pay the full retail price. At the very most you would have to pay the cost price.

Now if the shop could show you were negligent in handling the goods – if CCTV showed you juggling those rare Ming vases – then you would be in trouble. It is worth remembering that breakages are a cost associated with being in business, so shops should be prepared for it happening from time to time.

When will shrinkflation just stop?

It probably won’t. It has been with us for more than 100 years. It all started with vending machines in the US. The owners couldn’t work out how to make their machines account for extra coins when a product jumped in price, so instead of upping the price they just made the products smaller. It has now become a feature of our lives, and everything from chocolate and detergent to toilet paper and juices keeps gettting smaller while the prices keep climbing. We just need to be vigilant and if you ever spot a particularly egregious example of the practice you know where to find us.

Why do we say “petrol station” not “diesel station”?

That goes back to a time when all cars sold in Ireland, or at least the vast majority of them, used petrol by the gallon with only a handful of truckers and farmers buying diesel. Since the start of this century, things have flipped and diesel is the most common fuel. It is unlikely we will start calling them diesel stations, however, not least because, as a fuel, diesel is on the way out, as is petrol. What we will be calling them in a decade is anyone’s guess but our money is on energy stations. That has a nice ring to it, right?

What is legal tender in Ireland? Can you clarify?

This is what the Central Bank says: “Euro banknotes and coins are the only legal tender in the euro area.” That means you can’t hand over a bunch of stamps which also have monetary value to a bus driver and expect them to just wave you on. There are also limits as to how much of the legal tender a person is legally obliged to take. According to legislation, “no person, other than the Central Bank of Ireland and such persons as may be designated by the Minister by order, shall be obliged to accept more than 50 coins denominated in euro or in cent in any single transaction.”

Shops can refuse to accept cold hard cash and ask for card payments only as long as you are fully informed of that policy before any transaction takes place.