SAVING US FROM OURSELVES

Good old Campbell's Tomato Soup: one of the standards that has
definitely been messed with, and I don't mean just the label

 

Just this past week I bought a box of crackers. They were one of my favorites, so I had to watch myself each time I opened the box or I would eat a ton of ‘em.  I guess you can tell from that past tense “were” that I no longer love them. I tasted one cracker, gave them another two tries, and shut the box on the rest. Why? I don’t have an old box to compare ingredients or nutrition statistics, but they changed the recipe, of course. I don’t think it necessary to name the particular cracker because I’ve had this disappointment with Nabisco and Keebler products, as well as with Campbell’s soups and other food products.

 

I suppose it is all the recent research that shows that too much of things like salt or real sugar are no good for us in great quantities, or that whole grains are good for us, so they have to try to monkey around with change the quantities in their own products. Good for them for trying to seem to be responsible manufacturers (we do know that their real goal is a bigger figure on that bottom line), but bad for us consumers on the tasting end of things.

I can understand the big food conglomerates coming out with new products and dropping the least popular ones, but I really don’t understand why they think they have to mess with proven winners. I don’t understand why they don’t just follow the example of the distillers, brewers, and vintners, and just tag on a caveat to their advertising. Perhaps, similar to the Surgeon General’s warning on a pack of cigarettes, it should be mandatory to print a warning on the food packaging.  I don’t smoke any more – haven’t done so since 1981 – so maybe I took that warning seriously. It could be something to the effect that “Excess salt and sugar have been proven to be detrimental to our health.  Please eat responsibly.” Yeah! We won’t see this warning on many of the luscious packaged products made in Europe – they’re not necessary over there. Most of those people already know how to eat responsibly.