Okay, so we're back, and will shortly begin posting our first tasty items of the New Year. Before we do that, however, we first want to bring you up to date on the latest revolting developments in Hungary's ongoing "re-dating" food scandals, one of which took place both in 2006 and 2007, depending on which side of the time-space continuum you sit.

On Saturday, (December 30th), a sharp-eyed reader of tabloid Blikk from the Budapest suburb of Budatétény purchased a packet of ground pork (pictured top) that, at least according to the label, had been packaged three days in the future. Which means that unless it was either brought to market by "Back to the Future" hero Marty McFly, or someone tried to pull a very fast one.

Meanwhile, last week Hungarian consumer blog Tékozló Homár ("Prodigal Lobster") published a gruesome item about some "fresh" eggs bought by reader Csaba on December 23. Thought the eat-by date printed on the outside of the box said January 9, the eggs themselves were marked December 13. But even that earlier date seems a little dubious, because when Csaba cooked them up for breakfast on the 25th, they were as green as a Christmas tree.

Finally, two days after Christmas hvg.hu reported on the results of a three-month investigation by Hungary's Consumer Protectorate on the quality of bread sold in the country. The survey of over 600 products from 209 manufacturers found that that 15% of bread was incorrectly labeled, 25% contained more salt than allowed, another 15% was too alkaline, and an unspecified percentage had excessive additives. Though to look at the bright side, all that salt, acid and excess preservatives probably added a few extra days to their shelf-life. Pfui.