Eden Pasta finally fixes its site

Eden Organic Pasta has fixed its website. When it was still wrong last Friday afternoon, I penned a hand-written note to the company president. Who knows whether that shocking last measure had any effect, but I'm pleased to see that the serving size matches the nutritional information.

Eden Organic Pasta, Gulliver's Travels, and Knavery

The Eden Organic Pasta website still has bad information about the serving size for much of its pasta, so I've written a note to Eden Foods president Michael Potter. Got a little shiver when I noticed that he shares a last name with Sue Potter, the marketing manager who has been my contact on this issue. I feel bad complaining to one family member about another, if that's the case, but I'd feel worse letting this slide.

Cathy H., a Registered Dietitian and Master of Public Health, wrote saying this is a big deal for diabetics as well as vegetarians and other protein counters:

Probably a more important issue with the mislabeled pasta is that the carbohydrate amounts would be off and if someone is counting carbs in order to match their insulin to the carbs eaten they would be off by 1/2 and with pasta that is a big deal.

When a company refuses to fix such as easily fixed problem (updating a few website graphics) after it has caught the public's eye, then what else is slipping through the cracks?

I've been reading Gulliver's Travels and was struck by this description of the laws in Lilliput:

They look upon Fraud as a greater Crime than Theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with Death: For they alledge, that Care and Vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a Man's Goods from Thieves, but Honesty hath no Fence against superior Cunning: And since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual Intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon Credit; where Fraud is permitted or connived at, or hath no Law to punish it, the honest Dealer is always undone, and the Knave gets the Advantage.

I don't think the Knave Eden Organic is conniving, just permitting. Which honest Dealer is undone? In my case, it was Whole Foods. I quit buying their less expensive and nutritionally superior pasta in favor of Eden Organic's mislabeled product.

Timeline: Eden Organic response to bad pasta labels

I've been trying to let this go, but this statement from Marketing Manager Sue Potter kept me up last night:

We began corrective measures immediately upon learning of our mistake in July.

I believe this is true: they planned to correct the boxes on the next print run. Two months later, they were working on the artwork for boxes that would be printed in a few more weeks.

But many corrective measures weren't in place months after they say they knew about the problem and some still aren't, including easy fixes like putting the right information on their website. Here's a time line (all dates 2010):

• Unknown date: Eden Organic Pasta ships a variety of pasta with boxes showing the wrong serving size, making it seem like the pasta contained twice as much protein and other nutrients as it actually does.


• July 13 — the date Eden Organic says they found out about the problem.


• unknown date — a customer complains and accepts coupons as compensation.


• early September — I search the web for a good version of high-protein, organic pasta. I'm delighted to find that some of Eden Organic's pasta has nearly the same protein level as Barilla Plus. I go to my local Whole Foods and buy every variety I can find for testing. EO's Kamut Vegetable Spirals are good enough that I decide to recommend them in my book and rework the shopping lists and cost calculations accordingly.


• September 19 — During a test for cooking time with the vegetable spirals, I notice that there are far more serving than there should be in the box. I fill out the customer support online form describing the problem. My comment begins like this: "Problem with label on your Kamut Vegetable Spirals. Please help -- urgent request from author with book manuscript due very soon who wants to recommend your products." This is a Sunday, but I hope to hear something Monday morning.


• September 20, 2:00 p.m. — I call Eden Organics, since I haven't received a response to my email. The Customer Support representative says that marketing knows about the problem and I'll have to talk with the Marketing Manager, who will call me back.


• September 20, a while later — Sue Potter calls and tells me "everyone makes mistakes" and she's glad customers are willing to work with them. Work how?, I ask. After a fairly heated exchange, she asks what I would consider acceptable. I say, a refund and communications to the customers so no one else has this problem. I recommend she talk with others at EO and let me know what I should tell my readers.


• September 21 — Sue emails me offering a 55-cent coupon for the product of my choice. (I'd paid $3.69 for the pasta with the bad label.) She says the website would be updated within the day. I respond, refusing the coupon, asking again for a refund, and pointing out that the website has incorrect information for several other products. I blog about the problem. At least one reader also contacts Eden Organic to complain.


• September 22 — The website is corrected for Kamut Vegetable Spirals but not for other products in the same line with the same error. I draft a newsletter article about the problem.


• September 22, 3:08 p.m. —Sue emails me with an apology and an offer to send me a refund for $4.00. She says that EO will put stickers on the boxes they have in inventory to show the correct serving sizes. I'm happy to hear about the stickers, so I update the newsletter and this blog.


• September 23, 8:28 a.m. — The EO website is still has the wrong serving sizes for other pasta in the same line.

The persistence of bad information. Many people never read labels, but even those who do probably don't read them often. Once you find a product that works, why would you go back and re-read the fine print? Here's how a problem spreads when bad labels remain on the shelves and on the Internet:

• Other families might do what I did, research pasta looking for the most nutritious choice, find an acceptable one, make it the family choice, and move on to other issues.


• Other writers and menu planners might do what I did, use the Internet to find healthy food to recommend for their readers, clients, and patients. Once the decision and perhaps purchase order is made, why go back to look for label changes? Given how many colleges are offering green and vegetarian meal options, I wonder how many are serving Eden Organic Pasta without realizing there is a problem.


• Other vegetarians might do what we didn't do, go back to eating meat when they felt hungry and weak after days of being short on protein. These people would now be at the meat counter, not in the pasta aisle scrutinizing high-protein pasta labels. Other families might quit having their Meatless Mondays for the same reason.

This is why I felt it was worthwhile pursuing this issue. It's not about getting a $4 refund after two emails and two phone calls. It's about making sure people have the correct information to eat healthy, organic food that is low on the food chain. Doing so is good for your health, the economy, and the environment.

What seems like just a "typo" to Eden Organics seems like a barrier to slowing global warming to me.

Eden Organic ships pasta with known bad label for months

After last week's problem, now resolved, with Newman's Own Organics olive oil, I couldn't believe it when I found a much more important error on the label for Eden Organic Kamut Vegetable Spirals. Turns out that the label says the nutritional information is for a 1/2 cups serving, but it's really for a 1 cup serving.

My husband and I have been eating the serving size we use for all pasta, 3/4 cup, but were only getting 6 grams of protein instead of 12. Our daily allowance is 55 - 60 grams, so this is a 10% shortage ... enough to make a noticeable difference. That's why we've had the urge to snack on nuts after a meal made with this "high protein" pasta.

And I really couldn't believe it when Eden told me they've known about it for months, have not corrected their website, and refused to refund my money. They will be printing new boxes in a few weeks (no rush) and eventually the packaging will be accurate. Meanwhile, too bad about all those customers who are misinformed.

This means that I purchased at a premium price a pasta that claimed to be high in protein but in fact had half the protein per serving volume as labeled. I switched a few weeks ago from Whole Foods Organic Whole-Wheat Rotini to these spirals because I thought they had more protein, even though they cost more ($3.69 for 12 ounces compared to $1.79 for a pound).

Sue Potter, the EO marketing manager, says the company has known about this mislabeling since July 13th. They did not correct their website, which also had the incorrect information, until I asked them to yesterday. Sue wrote today:

Pasta box artwork is going through review and will be going to the printer in the next few weeks. Error will be corrected on the next printing. Please reply back to me an Eden food you would like to try (view all on the web site) and I will sent it to you at the Raleigh NC address along with retail 55¢ off coupons to use at retail stores.

I had requested a refund, but am being offered a coupon to buy more products with labels that I now doubt.

While it's true that the label also said a serving size is 55 grams, even manager Sue Potter said that few people would weigh rather than measure their pasta. When the purchasing decision is being made in the grocery store, the easiest comparison is cups to cups with other brands.

Why does this matter? As we discussed last week, food labels are required so customers can make informed purchases. Lots of people don't look at labels at all, but for some they are vitally important. In this case, I used the label to make sure my family was getting enough protein. Other families will use them to avoid allergic reactions or for other dietary or moral concerns. (No yogurt with gelatin for me, thanks.) In this economy, many families struggle with feeding their families on very limited budgets, so accurate nutritional information is essential.

And the way a company responds on a known issue gives you an idea of how they will respond on internal ones we can't guess at. I actually trust Newman's Own more now than I did before working with them about their label problem but will not be buying from Eden Organic again.

I'm very happy to have found this out before sending Wildly Affordable Organic to my publisher in a few weeks. My pasta recommendations will go back to being Barilla Plus or Whole Foods Organic Whole-Wheat Rotini. And I'm going to continue cooking as much of my food from scratch as possible to minimize the chances of being misled by a label.

Here's the contact page for Eden Organics if you'd like to let them know that you want them to provide truth in packaging. I'll be posting updates on this blog, such as any response I get from Whole Foods, where I bought the pasta.

[cross-posted on Daily Kos]

[update 1]Problem more widespread than thought Two days later, the Eden Organic site still lists 1/2 cup, 55 g serving sizes for Kamut & Buckwheat Rigatoni, Kamut & Quinoa Twisted Pairs, Kamut Ditalini, Kamut Elbows, and possibly more but I'm done checking. I notified them about this problem yesterday, but they should have fixed all the information on the website in July, when they say they first found out about the misleading labels.

I refused their offer of a 55-cent refund (!), saying:


[update 2] Problem partially addressed When I wrote to Eden Organic yesterday telling them a bout the additional problems on their website and refusing their offer of a 55 cent coupon (!) instead of a refund, I said:

I'm disappointed by this response. I'd asked for at least a refund for the mislabeled product I purchased. I would also expect you to notify the stores and customers of the problem. While it would be very expensive to recall the boxes, you could ask merchants to display a sticker with the correction. There are no doubt other ways of handling a problem like this, but misleading customers for months doesn't seem to be a good choice.

This "typo" caused me to serve several inadequate meals to my family. Fortunately, I have the luxury of having other food in the house, so when we were still hungry after dinner, we could have a snack, but not everyone can. This typo could cause vegetarians and vegans who are unwittingly 10% deficient in their daily protein allowance to return to meat....

FYI, here's how Newman's Own Organics handled a much smaller problem last week.

[update 3] — EO will relabel boxes, send refund
Was it the image of pork-chop eating vegetarians that changed their minds? A call from Whole Foods or the Vegetarian Times? We'll never know, but we've got progress. Sue Potter just wrote, saying:

We are sending a cash refund, your preference over product and coupons. A check for $4.00 will be mailed .... We sincerely apologize for our error, and troubling you with it.
New artwork is being dispatched to the printer, and current inventory is being re-labeled/stickered with the corrected common measure.
We began corrective measures immediately upon learning of our mistake in July.

The website is still wrong and there are mislabeled boxes in the store, but some action has been taken. The bad information will be out of the system more quickly now. Unlike Newman's Own, Eden hasn't pulled mislabeled products off the shelves or said what they will do for other customers who didn't get what they expected. But if you feel entitled to a refund too, contact Eden Organic Pasta.

Market report: old apples, recycling egg cartons

Brought home some terrific apples and eggs today from the Western Wake Farmers Market and talked briefly with the farmers who grew the trees and raised the chickens.



Stephen Godwin of Godwin Farm & Orchard inherited his farm from his grandfather. He grows about 15 varieties, although it's hard to tell exactly. His grandfather had tried to keep track, but didn't keep perfect records of every tree replaced over decades. Stephen does know that many of the trees are older varieties, including Rocksborough Russet, which was grown in the 1600s in Rocksborough Massachusetts. (Rocksborough is now known as Roxbury, as are the apples.)

In the picture above, you can see the three varieties I bought: big Dixie Reds, gray-capped Black Twigs, and Old-Fashioned Winesaps. He had about a dozen varieties to choose from with a variety of sweetness levels and sizes. I'm trying apple sauce recipes this week, so I was glad to find those Dixie Reds.

Ricky Barbour of East Wake Apiaries and Eggs gets big eggs from his chickens. They must like foraging in the acre of pasture that they have constant free access to.

Ricky said that this year, he'd bought hens that were nearly ready to start laying eggs, but this year he'll be buying day-old chicks and raising them himself. The more mature birds had had their beaks clipped, which made it hard for them to forage. He hadn't thought about it when he bought them, but he won't be doing that again:

I had two flocks, with the ones with clipped beaks in a separate yard. They ate twice as much food as the other hens because they couldn't forage as well. They're doing better now that their beaks have started to grow back.

The Western Wake Farmers' Market website says his hens are fed "a locally produced laying mash and lots of veggies."

Bring your clean egg cartons to the market for recycling, Ricky said. New cartons can cost nearly 50 cents each if you have to pay shipping. Just make sure the cartons are clean. Some people crack eggs and then put the shells temporarily in the cartons. He just has to throw those out. Recycling egg cartons helps farmers keep their prices down.


Other market finds. Gorgeous green beans, pepper, garlic, and cherry tomatoes from Redbud Farm. End-of-season tomatoes from Ben's Produce. I also spotted watermelons, eggplant, basil, arugula, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, and grapes.

Newman's responds. Problem resolved.

[update] Once Newman's Own Organics really understood the problem, they called and emailed me to understand the situation and make it right. The last call was from Product Assistant Dory Mansfield, who gave me this background. Turns out that Newman's had known about this problem months ago but thought it was solved. It seems that the bad labels went nearly exclusively to Harris Teeter. First Newman's recalled the mislabeled oil from the warehouses. Then they asked HT to pull the oil from the store shelves. Since HT only carries the small bottles, customers couldn't get charged for the big bottles. If one slipped through, the UPC code would not be recognized at the cash register and any problem could be caught. Some smaller stores may have also gotten the mislabeled bottles and of course someone counting on getting 50 tablespoons out of that bottle would be disappointed, but the problem was largely contained.

Unfortunately, it seems that at my HT store and maybe elsewhere, not all the bottles were returned and someone "fixed" the UPC database so it recognized the code for the bigger bottle.

Newman's has contacted HT and asked its own brokers to recheck for mislabeled bottles.

My respect for Newman's Own has actually grown with this incident. They went the extra mile to make sure that their customers were treated fairly. Dory said "We take these things very seriously" and their actions show this to be true.


[original post] I just got this response from Newman's. I added the bolding:

We have reached out to our manufacturing plant and are investigating your concern.

We would like to send you either a replacement bottle of the 25.3oz size, or some of our other products (cookies, pretzels, popcorn, candy).

Should we hear from any other customers we will, of course, be offering the same type of replacement.

Thank you for making us aware of your experience. We appreciate hearing from our customers.

What to do if you think you paid for big and got small.
Don't contact Newman's if you don't have a mislabeled bottle. But if you do and you think you were overcharged, then let them make it right. Please contact their customer service department. Send them the UPC code (bar code) and the code printed on the bottle over the back label. And tell them where you bought the oil.

HT pulls mislabeled oil but Newman's Own stays mum. Attorney General notified.

I'm surprised and disappointed by the lack of response from Newman's Own Organics to my complaint about the label and price for the big bottle of olive oil being on the small bottle. If it was a one-time error involving "only" a few thousand bottles that they chose to handle responsibly, then why not let me know? But I have not gotten a response to my follow-up emails or phone call.

A wall of silence when a manufacturer is found mispresenting a product is not acceptable. While this problem is trivial compared to the egg debacle, it could mean that thousands of customers paid $15 for a $10 bottle of olive oil and that mislabeled bottles are still on the shelves.

And worse, it weakens the food labeling laws. The point is not to just have a random label on the product. It's to have a label that accurately informs the customer about the contents.

Grocery chain Harris Teeter is doing the right thing, though. I bought my bottle at Harris Teeter in Cameron Village. The manager (Steve) pulled the mislabeled bottles off the shelves when I notified him of the problem and has contacted HT corporate quality assurance. In a follow-up call, Steve assured me that the mislabeled bottles are no longer on the shelves at Harris Teeter.

So I've filed a complaint with the North Carolina Attorney General's office. The complaint form asked me what I'd consider to be a fair resolution. Here's my response:

Newman's Own should contact the stores that might have mislabeled bottles and make sure that customers are not being overcharged or misinformed. They should offer a 50%-off coupon to people who may have been overcharged. I would like to hear their response. A wall of silence in a food-related problem is unacceptable.

Do bad labels on Newman's olive oil mean you're paying too much?

Did you pay 50% more than you should have for Newman's Own Organics Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil? You might have if you bought a 16.9 ounce bottle with the wrong label on the back: one that says it contains 50 servings.

While checking my calculations for my grocery-price spreadsheet yesterday, I noticed something very odd. Newman's Own Organics claimed to have 50 tablespoon-sized serving of olive oil in its 16.9 fl oz bottle while Whole Foods only claimed 33. Google said that Whole Foods had the math right.

I contacted Newman's Own Organics. Peggy Westenhofer, the Director of Customer Relations, wrote:

The following information in blue is from our Product Development Manager-

Our 16.9oz bottle actually states that there are about 34 servings per container.

Our 25.3oz bottle states that there are about 50 servings per container.

A serving for either size is 1 tablespoon or 15ml.

So it seems that the label with the serving size and the UPC code for a big bottle had been put on the small bottle by mistake. Since the UPC code is for the bigger bottle, it's likely that in some stores people are paying for the big bottle but getting the small one. My husband, who is a manufacturing engineer, says that it's possible that thousands of bottles were mislabeled.

Today, I checked the labels at three stores in Raleigh. Harris Teeter had Newman's Own Organics olive oil with bad labels on the shelves. The manager pulled the oil after I pointed out the problem. Harris Teeter was charging a competitive price despite the label problem, but I remember my husband being astonished by the price when he bought the bottle that kicked off this investigation. Wish I had that receipt! The labels at Whole Foods and Fresh Market were correct.

Check your label if you have this oil. If you've got a label mismatch, please leave your city and the store where you bought it in the comments.

I'll post updates here on the Cook for Good blog. I've sent this information to Peggy Westenhofer at Newmans, saying:

I respect your company's philosophy and enjoy many of your products. I can't imagine that this is anything but a mistake. But it is a mistake that may well have cost your customers a lot of money. Will you offer coupons to people who have a bottle with a certain batch number? Contact the stores to make sure that no one else will be overcharged?

Market report and sauce to hide flaws

Perfect day today at the Durham Farmers' Market. Cool, slightly overcast, and not crazy crowded. It's a perfect time to make stews and chili with ripe, colorful peppers. Freeze some to enjoy when peppers cost three times as much in the winter and are tired from a long journey. Hot-weather crops such as okra, basil, and cucumbers mingle with cool season favorites such as argula and kale. Peaches mix with apples and pears.Pine Knot Farm has the best green beans of the season: not a spot on them even though they are certified organic. With whole-wheat flour and a dozen eggs, I'm nearly set for a week of delicious eating.

Do you mean physical sauce or metaphorical sauce? That's what I asked Matt Clayton at the Wild Scallions Farm booth this morning. He was describing the benefit dinner the farm had thrown to support Durham Central Park: sixteen people in a tiny house. He said it all worked out well, but they'd learned a lot. "We didn't have the right kind of sauce to cover up the rough edges and any flaws." Having thrown many parties too large for my house, I was intrigued. What kind of sauce would do this? How could I get some, preferably a lot of it? Would it work for flaws and rough edges in general?

Turns out Matt meant enchilada sauce, which would have masked the effects of stacking the enchiladas as part of cooking for more people than usual. This year was fun; next year will go more smoothly. I hope I can make it to their next event. And I'm looking forward to turning some of his gorgeous peppers into flaw-covering sauce this afternoon.

Market report: the lull between seasons

The heat of August makes the produce, chickens, and even the farmers a little tired and unproductive. I overheard two of my favorite farmers at the Western Wake Farmers Market commiserating about hand watering and seedlings that didn't go the distance. Even though the crowds were thinner at the market today with so many people at the beach, some farmers were out of eggs by 9:00. Organic tomatoes were scarce.

On the other hand, winter squashes looked good: bigger and more mature than last week. Arugula is showing up and green beans, which are often hard to find, were plentiful and looked good. Just because it's not as crazy bountiful as May or July doesn't mean there's not plenty of fresh choices available.

I splurged on some fresh shiitake mushrooms. This weekend, I'm going to try making potstickers with shiitakes, butternut squash, cabbage, garlic, and onions. Got the idea of using winter squash instead of shrimp from Isa Moskowitz in her Vegan with a Vengeance, where she uses squash in spring rolls.

Sharpen and repair to save money on kitchen equipment

Sharpen. A few weeks ago, I took my kitchen knives in to be sharpened by the pros at A Southern Season. What a difference! I'm retesting and timing the recipes for my upcoming book, Wildly Affordable Organic, so I know that I'm saving minutes with chop-heavy recipes like Red Bean Chili. My hands are less tired after a big cooking session too. Sharpening three knives cost a little over $12. They are literally as sharp as new. But even with steep online discounts, a new set of knives would have cost about $200. My go-to knives are J.A. Henckels Twin Four Stars: the 3" paring knife and the 6" and 8" chef's knives. Savings: $188.

Repair. I resurrected my bread machine by getting a new paddle for it on eBay. I found the paddle plus a backup gasket for $16. The Zojirushi I've been admiring in the King Arthur Flour catalog costs $239 plus shipping. I just use the bread machine for bread and pizza dough that requires kneading, so my old Dak Auto-Bakery will keep doing the job just fine. (Don't have a bread machine? Use my Whisk Bread recipes to make great bread and pizza dough without kneading or a machine.) Savings: $223.

Put eBay to work. Now I'm on a repair tear. I spent my collected Sears Rewards on a new Cuisinart food processor the other day, but took it back after watching the instructional video. My 20-year-old Braun Multipractic 280 machine has more options and seems easier to use! My small grating blade came apart after years of making pimento cheese and the housing for the steel blade is beginning to crack, but other than that, it works like a champ. Parts are hard to find, but eBay is now sending me a note. I'm sure I'll be able to replace those for less than the $161 for the new machine. Savings: over $100.

What are your techniques for getting the best value out of your kitchen equipment?