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?