Improve transparency with “Private Label” brands
All supermarkets now have their own “private labels.” Shoprite, Wegmans, ALDI, LIDL, Stop & Shop, Walmart, and every single major food retailer has them.
In fact, they have exploded over the past few years alone. (Along with many people’s digestive systems!)
The problem is – that “private labels” do not offer any transparency whatsoever.
[You have no idea who is really making it!]
“Distributed By” tells consumers nothing
Every single “private label” product has a little line on it. “Distributed by.”
Or often abbreviated because they can make it more obscure: “DIST BY.” (when there is plenty of space for seven extra letters of text.)
Why? Because 90% of the population cannot discern that “DIST” is short for “DISTRIBUTED.” Hard to believe, but true.
Regardless – by just saying who “distributes” something is like saying your illegal shipment of (whatever) was “distributed by” the mailman or UPS driver. “Meh, who cares where the (insert bad thing here) came from – all we care about is WHO DISTRIBUTED IT!” Fucking stupid.
It’s like getting mad at publishers for telling you that some entity (hint: starts with “G”) is fleecing you.
Why just mention the middle man?
You find out who makes this stuff after E.Coli outbreaks!
Back in October, there was an E.Coli outbreak for some chicken salad products. The lettuce was contaminated.
As always, they’re obligated to mention the company that made these private labels – and they sent out a PDF of the various products affected.
In this case – it was “Missa Bay LLC” (no web presence). Or ReadyPac – Or Bonduelle – or whatever!
As you can see from these labels – NOWHERE is the actual manufacturer. Just the “private label” brand name – and that stupid “distributed by” line – with an obscure PO box as the address.
(TBP doesn’t allow PDF embeds – click this link to open salad PDF separately.)
And this is their “statement” about the illnesses:
(TBP doesn’t allow PDF embeds – click this link to open Vendor Statement separately.)
FULL TRANSPARENCY FOR PRIVATE LABELS!
I’m not sure why the “REAL” producer of such products needs to be obscured – only until there is an “outbreak” of some kind.
We think the following should be required (or preferably – done VOLUNTARILY):
-
- All private-label brands need to specify WHO made their product – along with the web address of said company.
- On that website of that company that produces the food – they MUST list each and every product and company they sell to.
How simple is that? Why shouldn’t the consumer be FULLY AWARE of the companies that produce these things?
Most people don’t know that the “salads” sold under the Walmart name – are the same as the ones from many other stores!
Heck, I bet some of the high-end “boutique” healthy stores also get their products from the same places (only for twice or three times the cost!)
But “simple” is the enemy.
There has to be a sinister reason for this obfuscation.
They do NOT want informed customers.
Why all the secrets?
(Story originally published at NJroute22.com)
Private Labels often offer good value. Good value trumps transparency in a safe food environment. If/when American food is perceived as unsafe, then food source will be of high importance.
First-world problems
Why are good value and transparency mutually exclusive to you? Look around at Wheat Belly Nation and tell me we don’t need transparency.
Excellent …. and speaking of stupid customers let’s move on to how many are able to do simple mathematics
( example 3/5.00 )
Instead of bitching and demanding even more rules for businesses you are free to avoid, here’s an idea:
DON’T BUY IT.
There are hundreds of choices for every food product at this point. Go find the ones you like and approve of yourself.
If you have these massive food safety concerns that you think can be alleviated by simply knowing who the manufacturer is, you are delusional. Just as many (if not more) problems exist with food safety in large corporate factories, and at companies you know the names of, as in private label manufacturers.
You also seem to have a complete lack of awareness of how food safety actually works at the inspection level. Have you ever run a food company or sold food products you manufactured? I would bet, “no”, based on what you wrote. It seems you believe food is magically made “safer” by simply including the original manufacturers name on the label and that belief is completely false.
You define what you want as “simple”, but probably have absolutely no idea regarding logistics of doing it and keeping up with changes that take place daily in many operations.
I don’t want your rules that remove responsibility from ME and only make things worse long-term.
Again, just don’t buy it if it’s not labeled the way you want (and keep believing that labels equal food safety!).
Fair enough. Let’s remove all instructions, absolute/relative contraindications, indeed even nomenclature of drugs prescribed by your medical provider. Don’t go to him and/or don’t take the meds.
Misused and mis-prescribed drugs kill lots more people than lettuce. Comparing apples to oranges here.
Look around this country and tell me legally prescribed drugs kill more people than the shit we call food. We shoot up our livestock with hormones and spray literal carcinogens on our food and we wonder why autoimmune issues, heart disease and childhood maladies are spiking. No, our food is far more dangerous. I’d bet my life on it that if the internal studies and emails were released to the public, we’d find far more than we bargained for.
You can live without prescription drugs 99.99% of the time. What about food? Yet we regulate pharmaceuticals far more. Humans must eat, and in modern America, people can’t exactly grow their own food. Heck, if we farmed the way we used to, we wouldn’t even need typical scripts like blood pressure meds.
You are what you eat, not what medicine you ingest. Food and water are crucial to life. What is it govt. always says: If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide?
Don’t think one is worse that the other. These drugs go hand in hand with shit food that makes us sick. They mask the symptoms and don’t cure the underlying problems. It is all part of the plan! The money making plan. Keep you just sick enough with shit food, and just well enough to keep taking their poisons. Fuck big pharma. Example – statins – to kill your cholesterol, which your brain needs. Then you can injest more of their poison to fix that and so on and so on. What a great business model!!! Too bad it is evil, when natural alternatives (including healthy food, but way more than that) can fix just about anything they have bad soltutions for, as long as they can patent it and fuck us over on the cost while poisoning us.
I get what you’re saying. I could write a veritable book on this topic because it is near and dear to me. And as you know, I am breaking my back and putting my money where my mouth is. I may be one person, but damn it, the people in need will eat healthily – or at least as healthily as what Mother Nature dictates – if they eat my food. Those who continue to defend Franken Food will never, ever be welcome on my property, at any price.
I am absolutely convinced that Big Ag and Big Pharma are all about profit and indeed are in collusion with the FDA to foist their poison on Americans.
And we are in total agreement on that AOC.
Oh and yes sir, way more than healthy food. My neighbor is a brilliant herbalist. And even that is only one additional part of your “way more than that”. It’s a whole body thing, for sure.
Grow your own!! It actually is the most simple cost saving thing
a person can do. Three or four 4×4 8inch deep little raised beds
with a hoop house over them can grow more salad stuff than most
families can eat. And after savings to pay for the beds setup its got
a fabulous return on investment.
This is written by a idiot, I can’t believe people focus on such mundane matters.
Does this guy think there is a secret plant that makes all the store brands?
It’s a fucking printed label, that get’s switch after Hienz or another major food packager has done their primary run (on 1st shift) and then rents out the line for walmarts on 3rd shift,
on the 2nd shift is when they put the e-coli into the product,
everyone knows this.
I’m not entirely sure what he thinks, but here’s what I think: Inflation is far worse in what you need than is advertised in CPI substitution games. The Bureau of Lies and Scams will never admit true inflation. The way the big boys get around it is by reducing the size of packaging and by reduction in the quality of the goods. It’s not rocket science.
Reduction in the size of the packaging does not potentially impact a person’s health. The onus to read the package, as I am arguing, is on the consumer. The quality of the goods, which, admittedly, covers a broad spectrum of topics, can indeed affect a person’s health. A couple of examples off the top of my head:
What if a person is deathly allergic to legumes and the otherwise unrelated food is manufactured on the same assembly lines?
What if the good is prepared in a ChiCom plant, or even just packaged in same?
America became addicted to Big Ag and Big Pharma during and after WW2. The food quality has dramatically taken a beating. You are what you eat, and it usually helps to know what you are eating.
I don’t think it’s mundane to “discover” who makes private labels – only after an “incident” like food-borne illness. Customers should readily be able to “vet out” a manufacturer without heavy digging, or time-consuming research. It should be clearly available at all times.
Don’t rely on the FDA (FRAUD AND DECEPTION Administration) to steer you right. Become better educated consumers.
Look up Olive Oil Hoax/Fraud. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2016/02/10/the-olive-oil-scam-if-80-is-fake-why-do-you-keep-buying-it/#4ff957d7639d
Olive Oil for Pietro’s sake!…Is nothing sacred.
Look, if I had my way, I’d tear down Big Ag and Big Pharma, brick by brick. I’d stop subsidies to farmers who shove food into internal combustion engines. There’re a lot of things I’d do if unicorns shit Skittles. Until the world’s largest assembly line otherwise known as Murica shuts down, or until the govt. gets the fuck out of the way of all things food and health, it is what it is.
Anarchists can’t have it both ways. Either you believe in anarchy (or in this case genre-specific anarchy) or you don’t. I’m fine with all labels, contraindications, nomenclature, nutritional facts, etc. being removed from all pharmaceuticals and food.
Be prepared for the consequences, both intended and not, and fully embrace them.
I do whatever I can to avoid Big Ag and Big Pharma. That’s my contribution.
As do I, but not everyone — cancer survivors, some of which is almost assuredly caused by an industrialized food supply — are able to do that. A combination of justice and mercy in this life, my friend. They are not mutually exclusive. Hold people accountable for their stupidity. Hold Big Ag and Big Pharma (which wouldn’t exist without Big Govt.) accountable for their unadulterated greed. Simultaneously, understand that many exceptions to your rule exist. Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant.
Not everyone can plant a large orchard.
So find the correct person(s) at all the places you enjoy shopping, and let them know in writing that you want transparency. If you believe that it should be voluntary (I agree with you), they first have to know that it is important to you.
I suspect that some of the pushback you will get in any response (if you get a response) is that their supply chain employs several vendors, and that labeling issues, etc. make such transparency “impossible.” Of course this is something that can be overcome if they so desire, but it is some of the same problems that GMO labeling requirements face. Large stores have large demands, so the supply chain is also enormous and ever-changing/shifting to address those demands. Tying all of the changes to accurate labeling can be a challenge. Maybe the implementation of blockchain technology and tracking will not only improve the transparency we all deserve, but vastly improve reporting of issues when they occur. Here’s hoping.
Already been tried. Big Ag fights GMO labeling every chance that they get. I’d bet you could get it up as a Proposition and these multi-nationals would dump money into local elections to influence the results. The entire system is rigged. And forget the FDA. It’s a Monsanto (now Bayer) revolving door.
I’m not arguing that transparency the way he envisions will ever happen in this country. It won’t. What I’m trying to point out to posters is that A) If you don’t believe in transparency in sourcing, then remove all the half-assed transparency we currently have; and B) If you don’t believe in transparency in food, why on Earth would you support transparency in something like medicine that you ingest far less often and would need far less if you actually had a healthy food supply?
Those who defend our current food supply are either profiting off it or don’t mind screwing up their GI tract, the internal combustion engine of the human body. That’s fine. But I’d like folks not as blessed as I have been to have an opportunity to know where their food comes from, whether it’s been sprayed with pesticides, etc. Again, I know it will never happen in this country. I believe the lardasses should have the opportunity to be lardasses if they so choose. The problem is, there are a lot of people mistakenly thinking they’re eating healthily when they’re not. And that’s deceptive on the part of Big Ag.
Ignorance is bliss. You are exactly right, health begins and ends in the gut. But if folks like me can readily have the information to take probiotics, make their own fermented sauerkraut and kombucha, eat and grow and can organic veggies, eat grass fed local meat, make clean bone broth with turmeric, mushrooms, and seaweed etc. (thanks for the bones HSF), why should I care about the rest?
Because you are a good Christian, which means you are both just and merciful. I’ve read enough of your posts to gather that.
I’m not sure where I am on the political spectrum, to be honest. I feel like everyone tries to put me in a box…when I defend my position on food, they (not you, Tom Brady 🙂 , but many of “them”) mislabel me as a bleeding heart. Not in the least. I feel blessed to have the acumen, time, education and life experiences to be able to do a pretty good job of discernment.
Lots of people have been brainwashed by shitty school systems, constant propaganda, and really stupid, virtue signaling Mills who don’t know the first thing about how to grow food. I believe that those who have the ability to educate themselves, like us, have to push the bullshit into the public eye. My way of doing it is to just grow the food and eventually teach folks how to copy me.
The transparency the OP is calling for is not going to happen in the current system. However, the current system is on life support and Big Ag will go with it. I’d like to see more people demanding to know what’s in their food though; that’s a big first step to preparedness for where we’re headed.
Ya, you got me. Care about my fellow man as Jesus would do. I try, but it’s just really hard sometimes. I need to remind myself that God cares for those other folks that don’t care about food and take evil pharma drugs just as much as me. Thanks for the level-setting dude. Happy Thanksgiving. -ILuvCO2
You too. God bless…yeah, being Christian is a bitch sometimes. Doesn’t mean we have to roll over for socialist miscreants, though. If anything, Christ was a libertarian in my book.
It’s not hard to put the actual source of the food on the labels, regardless of supply chain. Maybe not each kernel of corn or lettuce leaf – but at least the company that produced it.