You may have been under the impression that was a meat pie you were devouring last Grand Final weekend. But not according to Food Standards Australia New Zealand – today they have announced they’re changing the code to require pies to contain 25% meat flesh.

The current definition of a pie leaves off the word “flesh”, meaning pies can “legally contain any part of an animal carcass, including snouts, ears, tongue roots and tendons.”

So are there any other foods that claim to be something they’re not? Meat pies are notorious for being loose with their definition of meat, but it’s only one on a long list of treats that push the boundaries of good taste.

“In 2002 they did away with food standards that specified the ‘recipe’ for different foods and included specifications for the minimum amount of key ingredients and instead changed to percentage labelling,” says Clare Hughes from the Australian Consumers Association.

The ACA fought to retain the “commodity specific standards” because in their view it “provided better protections for consumers because it ensured they got the ingredients that they were paying for.” They were successful when it came to ‘icon foods’ like sausages, ice cream and jam but not when it came to most other comestibles.  

Since then, a few food manufacturers have been caught out playing pretend. Uncle Toby’s was hauled over the coals by the ACCC in early September for advertising their Roll-Ups as ‘made with 65% real fruit’.

Along with not making this claim any more, Uncle Tobys Foods agreed to stop listing on the ingredients panel “that a Roll-Up (as currently composed) is equivalent to a specified percentage of fresh fruit” and to stop running an advertisement “which showed images of an apple being flattened into a Roll-Up…”

Back in 2003 the ACA’s Choice magazine conducted a study into foods that were being loose with their food labelling (Hughes says they may have changed slightly since then). Here’s a mouth-watering list of our favourite sneaky foods:

– Masterfoods Creamy Guacamole Style Dip: actually contains 1% avocado – which explains why it’s called guacamole-‘style’ dip.

– Kraft Onion & Bacon Flavoured: 31% onion, but not a piece of bacon – note the word ‘flavoured’.

– Golden Circle Tuna Pasta with Tomato Baby Food: contains  a baby sized 2.5% tuna.

– Heinz Banana Custard: a whole 1% banana.

– Heinz Egg Custard: 1% egg yolks.

– Harvest Hearty Irish Stew: a hearty 13% meat, and not sure what type.

– Leggo’s Carbonara Pasta Sauce, a ‘traditional creamy Italian style sauce with bacon, fresh cream & eggs’: taste the 1.4% of real bacon pieces.

– Heinz Very Special Pea & Ham Soup: a very special 4% ham.

– SPC Baked Beans Cheesy Cheddar: a generous 0.5% cheese.

– Peck’s Salmon & Lobster Fish Spread: 63% salmon with just a hint (0.6% to be exact) of ‘lobster extract.’

Bon appetit!