Rob Babcock
Head Chef
It's a well known and oft-discussed fact that more and more the food companies are ripping off unwary consumers by putting less product in the same size package and charging the same price. But it used to be that "flagship" brands and products were still the same, albeit there's not as much in each package. Sadly, now I see the quality is also taking a beating.
After a couple days of being basically snowed in, things were cleared enough today to make a trip to the grocery store. Even though I've spent most of my life working as a chef, I'm not a complete food snob; I still like many of the comfort foods of my youth. One such favorite is tuna & noodles, which my Mom usually made with shells. It's basically pasta shells, canned cream of mushroom soup, onions (sometimes peas) and canned tuna. Normally when I buy processed tuna I get the foil packages, which are far superior to canned, but the closest market to me just has cans. Jonesing for some comfort food I bought a couple cans of Chicken of the Sea, which used to be a good product for what it is...well, it's not any longer. It's just pulverized tuna dust floating in a can of water! Seriously, in two cans combined there weren't 5 chunks large enough to identify as having come from a fish. This isn't a total fluke, either. A couple months ago I bought the same brand from a different store to make tuna sandwiches and I noticed the same thing. Obviously there's variation in an agricultural/animal product but having eaten a lot of canned tuna over the years I've never seen crap like this before, even in the cheapest store brands.
And can anyone refresh my memory, didn't a can of tuna used to be six or seven ounces? Now they're five ounces (about 4oz drained). The pouches have gotten a little bit smaller, too, but at least with them there's very little added water or waste, and you can instantly determine how much is in the package.
I don't know about you but I'd much rather pay a little more to get a decent product. I understand the need to make a profit but I'm tired of purchasing crap. While I'm ranting, have you noticed that even the more expensive frozen produce brands like Bird's Eye have gone to nearly all fully-printed packaging, probably to disguise the fact that the product is sub-par? Last time I bought frozen Bird's Eye broccoli florettes the bag was mostly stems. In my area Sam's Club is about the only place to buy decent quality frozen veggies anymore.
I wonder how much further the Big Food Companies can push consumers til we finally decide not to take it anymore?
After a couple days of being basically snowed in, things were cleared enough today to make a trip to the grocery store. Even though I've spent most of my life working as a chef, I'm not a complete food snob; I still like many of the comfort foods of my youth. One such favorite is tuna & noodles, which my Mom usually made with shells. It's basically pasta shells, canned cream of mushroom soup, onions (sometimes peas) and canned tuna. Normally when I buy processed tuna I get the foil packages, which are far superior to canned, but the closest market to me just has cans. Jonesing for some comfort food I bought a couple cans of Chicken of the Sea, which used to be a good product for what it is...well, it's not any longer. It's just pulverized tuna dust floating in a can of water! Seriously, in two cans combined there weren't 5 chunks large enough to identify as having come from a fish. This isn't a total fluke, either. A couple months ago I bought the same brand from a different store to make tuna sandwiches and I noticed the same thing. Obviously there's variation in an agricultural/animal product but having eaten a lot of canned tuna over the years I've never seen crap like this before, even in the cheapest store brands.
And can anyone refresh my memory, didn't a can of tuna used to be six or seven ounces? Now they're five ounces (about 4oz drained). The pouches have gotten a little bit smaller, too, but at least with them there's very little added water or waste, and you can instantly determine how much is in the package.
I don't know about you but I'd much rather pay a little more to get a decent product. I understand the need to make a profit but I'm tired of purchasing crap. While I'm ranting, have you noticed that even the more expensive frozen produce brands like Bird's Eye have gone to nearly all fully-printed packaging, probably to disguise the fact that the product is sub-par? Last time I bought frozen Bird's Eye broccoli florettes the bag was mostly stems. In my area Sam's Club is about the only place to buy decent quality frozen veggies anymore.
I wonder how much further the Big Food Companies can push consumers til we finally decide not to take it anymore?
Same price, pretty much. At least the newer size fits in my freezer more easily. I try to cook from-scratch most of the time. We have a year-round farm stand not too far from here. I used to make salads from scratch since he would charge only 99 cents for head, romaine and leaf lettuces. Price went up to match real-world prices a month or two ago. Now I'll pick up the 3# bag-o-salad from BJs when I'm there. My hubby actually likes the stems of the lettuces (you can send yours our way, licia!) so I throw them all in his bowl.
