Another festive season is upon us, and as we are wont to do at the end of every year, we look back at all the articles that went up in 2018 and we snuffle out our five favourite foodie knowledge nuggets.

• Halaal Fish – Eat the Right Colours: Red, orange and green may be colours we associate with traffic lights, but when it comes to Halaal fish it takes on a whole different meaning. Begun in 2004 under the auspices of the WWF, the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) was established to create awareness and to help industry players and customers make wiser and more sustainable seafood choices. Green – best choice. Orange – think twice. Red – don’t buy.
• Weird Food Trivia – Fun Facts to Add to your Treasure Trove: When tomato sauce was first made in 1834, its creator, Dr John Cook Bennett, advertised it as a medicine that cured all kinds of ailments. Or how about the teabag, it was invented quite by accident at the start of the 20th Century – a tea merchant sent tea leaves to clients in small silken bags and the recipients erroneously assumed they were supposed to submerge the entire bag in their teapot.
• The History of Cutlery – Which Came First, The Knife or the Fork: Well that would be the knife. It’s been around in some form or another since the Paleolithic age – mostly it took the shape of sharpened flint, and it was used more as a weapon than as an eating utensil. It was as civilisation moved into the Neolithic age (5000 to 2000 BC) that the stone blade took on a wooden handle and by 1000 BC man had moved onto iron knives.
• Sausages – We Just Love Them: The word ‘sausage’ comes from the Latinsalsisium which means something that has been salted, and the first time it appeared as ‘sawsage’ was in the fifteenth century. The British nickname of ‘bangers’ came about during World War II when sausages were liable to explode because, due to rationing, they carried so little actual meat, and the supplemented water content turned to steam.
• Sell-By Dates – And Meat Wholesalers South Africa: New definitions for labelling and dating foods, made by the United Nations’ food standards body, the Codex Alimentarius Commission in July 2018 actually precludes ‘sell-by’ dates. In his address, Motsoaledi [South Africa’s Health Minister] said that South Africa too has abolished the sell-by date and that labels will now be a ‘best-before’ or ‘best quality before’ date – which is retail related; and ‘use-by’ or ‘expiration date’ – which is consumer-led.

And on that informative note, the N1 team would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your ongoing support and goodwill throughout the year, we wish you all the joys of the festive season, may it be a safe and blessed time for all – Season’s Greetings & Happy Holidays Everyone!