Yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle contained the piece, Grocery store brands come out on top, penned by staff writer Amanda Gold, and one would be hard pressed to find a better parody of ‘foodie tasting’ if one tried, complete with the “Taster’s Choice” tasting panels and “Taster’s Choice Hall of Fame.” Sadly for the readers, this was a serious piece of ‘food’ journalism. The article is all about serious tastings sponsored by the SF Chronicle, almost every week for a number of years. The writer provides the list of winners for 2009, and the products tasted include baked cheese puffs, soy crisps, frozen green beans, fully-cooked bacon, ready-made polenta, marshmallows, and cocktail sauce.
A panel is assembled and products from local supermarkets, and an occasional specialty food store, are purchased, tasted, and scored - tastings usually include “advertised brands” and “store brands” (aka, ‘private labels'). Products scoring 80 or more (out of 100) are elected to the “Taster’s Choice Hall of Fame.” It is with a certain satisfaction that the writer indicates how often “store brands” won tastings this year (more than one-third), although only 2 made it to the "Hall of Fame.” (Unfortunately, one of the article’s astute readers pointed out the fact that “store brands” are made by the same companies that produce “advertised brands,” bringing into question the value of the article.)
It is interesting to note the highest rated “store brand” this year was the Safeway brand of Cocktail Sauce with a score of 84. I went to Safeway to look at the ingredients list and compare it with some of the other brands tasted that week. Of the top five ingredients listed for the Safeway brand, two were sweeteners, (high fructose corn syrup was ingredient number two and corn syrup was ingredient number five). With 14 grams of sugar in each 64 gram serving, the Safeway brand had the highest percentage of sugar (about 22%) of any of the brands sold in the store, and one of the largest amounts of sodium. (That sugar percentage is based upon the total weight including water, but of the total of Fat, Protein and Carbohydrates in every serving, sugar comprises 80%.) Gee, I wonder why it was picked as the winner!
Loads of sugars and sodium were present in all of the mass produced brands available at Safeway, and ostensibly at other supermarkets. This should not surprise anyone since sugar and salt are the great levelers used by Big Food to take cheap, flavorless ingredients and make products that appeal to the deadened palates of as many people as possible. I have to wonder why all this ‘expert’ effort is made year after year in tasting mass produced foods, including 'junk food,' that are by design ‘dumbed down’ from a culinary perspective. Does it enlighten and entertain, or just waste the SF Chronicle's space and its readers’ time.
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