Bullshit

Panschen (cf. French panacher : to mix something) is the colloquial term for the mixing of a substance with one or more inferior substances. The legal technical term is generally adulteration , especially when it comes to food, one speaks of food adulteration .

Usually behind this is the fraudulent intention to get a higher profit from the sale of the product. Panschen was already described as a falsification in the Middle Ages and sometimes punished in a draconian way.

Wine

In viticulture , the forbidden addition of unauthorized additions such as sugar, water (dilute) or other substances that increase the amount, are intended to simulate a higher quality or are harmful to health, is colloquially referred to as messing or, in technical terms, as falsifying .

Contrary to the vernacular, Panschen does not mean the mere mixing of wines of different origins or vintages, which is called " blending " in technical terms .

The glycol wine scandal in 1985 attracted a great deal of attention when diethylene glycol was added to Austrian wines in order to serve as a sweetener and flavor enhancer, illegally and gradually harmful to health.

The term is also used in other areas, but it is mainly limited to dealing with wine . Among other things, Panschen is also used in other foods or chemicals. In 2008 it was discovered that Italian winemakers mixed several grape varieties in order to give the " Brunello di Montalcino " a different flavor note. It was also discovered that around 70 million liters of cheap wine were added with carcinogenic substances such as artificial fertilizers and hydrochloric acid .

milk

In the past, milk was also “stretched” by marketers by adding water. As a countermeasure, food inspectors examined the density of the milk with the help of a plunger spindle ( hydrometer ), whereupon the salespeople resorted to adding starch to the diluted milk in order to increase the density of the liquid again. The food inspectors countered this by carrying out an iodine test to prove starch .

In China in 2008, dairies and baby food manufacturers added melamine to powdered milk to cover up the illegal stretching of powdered milk using as yet unknown substances. This procedure made the nitrogen content appear normal.

Liquor

Adulterated Refino, a type of agave liquor that was secretly traded because of a ban on the sale of alcohol during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in 31 deaths after consumption at Mother's Day celebrations on May 10, 2020 in the Mexican states of Puebla and Morelos.

literature

Christopher Fielden: The Wine Fraud. Etiquette and content. Verlag Müller, Rüschlikon 1991, ISBN 3-275-01015-8 .
Udo Pollmer , Monika Niehaus : Food design: Panschen allowed. How our food loses its innocence . Hirzel, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-7776-1447-5 .
Wolfram Siebeck : Pansching with method. From the naive belief in natural wine . In: Die Zeit , No. 25/1998
Andreas Heller: ABC of cellar art - P for Panschen. 1992 in the NZZ

Individual evidence

↑ See e.g. B. the court case of "milk forgery" in 1903 in the Kölner Rechts -Zeitung

↑ adulterated liquor: More than 30 dead in Mexico orf.at, May 13, 2020 accessed May 13, 2020.

[1] See e.g. B. the court case of "milk forgery" in 1903 in the Kölner Rechts -Zeitung

[2] ulterated liquor: More than 30 dead in Mexico orf.at, May 13, 2020 accessed May 13, 2020.